"Crossing the Ice" (Ice #1)
By: Jennifer Comeaux
Published: August 2, 2014
308 Pages
Source Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. In no way does this affect either my review or my rating.
Now, I usually go for the young adult fantasy and paranormal books, but who doesn't like a good old-fashioned romance every now and then? And watching the ice skating portion of the Olympics is a guilty pleasure. Let's start with a synopsis.
Courtney is an ice skater who has been preparing for pair skating in the Olympics with her partner Mark for 9 years since she was 12 and he was 14. At the beginning of the book, this year is her last shot as she is about to start college and Mark is planning on getting engaged to his longtime girlfriend and working in his father's auto-repair shop. Their trainers, a married couple named Emily (Em) and Sergei, take on as their new students Stephanie and Josh, a brother-sister pair skating team that is are from LA, rich and Courtney's (she's called Court in the book) and Mark's main competitors. Stephanie is your average rich girl- snobby, selfish and just a real bitch. Josh is her polar opposite. (Please pardon the pun.) He's kind, sensitive and talented in pretty much everything he does. (Except he can barely draw a stick figure.) This also happens to be Stephanie's and Josh's last shot at the Olympics as Josh will be headed to law school the next year and then to his secured spot at his father''a law firm in LA and Stephanie will be doing what she does best, being a snobby mean girl. Courtney and Josh end up falling for each other and try to fight it as both try to out the other on their way to secure the one open spot on the pairs-skating Olympic team.
I loved Courtney. She was strong, determined and very talented. She worked nights as a bartender at a local restaurant in Cape Cod (where they all lived) and spent the rest of her time training. She lived with Em and Sergei after her parents moved to Boston when her dad got laid off and had to find another job. She loved to help out Em and Sergei by babysitting their toddler twins, Quinn and Alex, even though she was exhausted with her full schedule.
Josh, her love interest, is what I consider to be every girl's dream guy- kind, sensitive, talented, rich and hot. You could tell early on that he was very much into Courtney, even though it took Courtney a lot longer then it did me to see it. It probably didn't help that her skating partner Mark kept being paranoid and suspicious and thinking that Josh was only being nice to her so that he could distract her and sabotage their chances at the Olympic spot. If only he could have seen Josh the way I saw him. (Sigh)
Now, without giving too much away, I will tell you that while this book didn't turn out exactly the way that I wanted it to, it did have a happy ending. And I am very pleased with the way Ms. Comeaux ended it. She gave me closure yet still left it open for a sequel, which can't be an easy task to do! Overall, I loved this book. It kept me wanting to read more and reaffirmed my belief that everyone should read a romance novel at least once in awhile, even if it's not your normal genre. Great job, Ms. Comeaux!
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