Running on Empty

by Sonya Spreen Bates

Everyone expected Leon Kline, anchor for the 4x100 sprint relay, to secure Gilburn High's spot in the record books. But a freak accident on the final stretch changes everything. Suddenly his future is gone. No more running, no scholarship, no college. But then he meets sassy and straight-talking Casey De Vries, and life doesn't look quite so bleak. She even gets him running again. He can't sprint anymore, but he can handle longer distances. As he gets to know Casey better, he realizes that something is not quite right. How can he help her if she won't tell him what’s going on?

176 pages, Paperback

Published January 23, 2018

About the author

Sonya Spreen Bates is a Canadian writer living in South Australia. Although born in the USA, she grew up in Victoria BC Canada where she studied Linguistics and then Speech-Language Pathology. She has spent many years working with children with communication disorders, and began writing fiction soon after her daughters were born.

Sonya writes for children and adults, and has been published in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Her manuscript When Secrets Come to Light was shortlisted for the inaugural Banjo prize in 2018.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Orca Sports Hi-Lo for adolescent reluctant readers (reading level: 3.8), “Running on Empty” works quite well as a sports niche read, especially for readers interested in individual rather than team sports. Leon Kline is a speedy high school sprinter whose college scholarship prospects abruptly end when he is sidelined with a serious fall and fracture in the big year end track meet. Despondent and depressed, Leon starts to pick himself up after he encounters Casey DeVries at physiotherapy. Casey is an enigma, and Leon senses all is not as it should be. While Bates is no Chris Crutcher in terms of teenage sports fiction, this is a solid book with contemporary themes and it works well despite the limitations of the format (Hi-Lo). While Leon is well fleshed out, the story would definitely been more compelling with more attention assigned to Casey.

[Tashfin Awal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways and have chosen to give my honest opinion about it.
While this book is for a younger audience, I still found it somewhat enjoyable. Casey was definitely an interesting character, and it seems that the character development was pretty well done in this book, and the moral of patience and perseverance is relatable and important for many younger readers. I found that the story was too slow and too anti-climatic.

[Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just what you'd expect from Orca Sports--fast action, OK story, keeps interest.

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty good book for the younger generation.

[Ali Koca]

This book was really addicting to read. I could not get my head off of it.
Even though the book did not end as I wanted it to.
In the book was a lot of Mystery and It was funny and cringy sometimes.
This book was a blast to read and since its so small I was able to read it in 3 or 4 days.