Podium Finish
With six months until the Olympic Games, seventeen-year-old Harper's life is pretty much perfect. She's fighting for the starting spot on Team USA Women's Hockey, and for the first time ever, she has a crush on a guy who likes her back. She feels like the luckiest girl in the world, until she runs a risky play at practice and breaks her knee, thereby sentencing herself to six weeks in a cast and possibly ending her Olympic dream before it even starts.
For seventeen-year-old Alex, being anything less than the best is unacceptable. That's why, after a miserable debut season at the senior level, the former junior national singles champion switches to ice dance. Her skating partner, Ace, is an "all skating all the time" type of guy, which would be fine, if he'd stop keeping secrets about the real reason he and his former partner broke up. Now is not the time for second thoughts, but how can Alex skate her best if she can’t trust her partner…or herself?
As the pressure to make the Olympic team builds, the girls must rely on each other, because if there’s one thing they both know, it's that the only thing harder than skating to the top is staying there.
This book got me so excited for the Winter Olympic Games which are just around the corner! One of my favorite parts of any Olympics are the athlete spotlights that they do so you can get to know the athletes. The characters in this book felt like Olympian spotlights to me. Well, a more extended version and a bit more personal, but still.
Harper and Alex are both competing for a spot in the Olympics. They have both been training and working for this goal practically their whole lives- Harper in hockey and Alex in ice dancing. They become friends when they room together for training and it's a friendship to last a lifetime.
This book was really like getting two stories in one. The narration bounces back and forth between Harper and Alex so you get to know each girl separately and together as they interact with each other. Each girl had a distinct voice and personality.
It was easy to picture the girls in their athlete settings because I've watch a lot of ice skating and hockey over the years. The book flowed well. There was nothing overly intense or surprising here but it was a fun book and I really enjoyed reading it. It's what I would call a fluffy diversion. :)
Author Beth Pond
Beth Pond graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Hendrix College in 2012. In 2013, she taught in South Africa for 9 months as part of a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship Grant. Pond is currently completing her coursework at the University of British Columbia’s Creative Writing MFA program. Her debut novel, Podium Finish, was released from Astraea Press in November 2013. When she’s not writing, Pond enjoys martial arts (she’s a black belt) and serving as a volunteer coach for her brother’s special needs baseball team.
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