Podium Finish Blog Tour

Tour Schedule

Welcome to the blog tour for Podium Finish by Beth Pond!

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.

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.

Review:

Alex and Harper are roommates at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado, both aiming for the upcoming winter games. Harper is a hardcore hockey girl, while Alex recently switched from freestyle to dance in figure skating. Both of them are going to have to overcome some major obstacles if they want to live their Olympic dreams. Harper breaks her knee in a freak accident while Alex is dealing with a secretive partner and an overbearing father/manager. These two girls are determined to make their hard work payoff no matter what they have to do. 

I am a major Olympic fangirl, so I was super excited to read this book. It was definitely a fun read. Harper and Alex are very different characters, but you always feel that they would be friends. They help to draw out the best in each other, and you can see how each one drew from the other to help them with their problems. Harper has a fun romance with a short track speed skater, and Alex manages to navigate her sometimes silent ice dance partner. This book gives a real feel for the dedication and hard work that both sports require. I could almost feel my heart pounding as I was waiting for results with Alex or watching for the puck to enter the goal with Harper. To be able to bring these feelings through words takes real skill.

In interest of full disclosure, I am an adult figure skater, so I know a fair bit about that world. There were a few details of that storyline that kind of drew me out of the story, however unless you are very knowledgeable about figure skating it won't bother you. It was just stuff like wondering if Alex had been testing dance while she was testing freestyle because I'm not sure how you could do every dance test needed to compete senior international that quickly. See, not going to matter to most people. Overall though I really loved the book. It was a super quick read for me, and I didn't want to put it down. I really got into the spirit of it all, and now I'm just counting down the days until the opening ceremonies. If you love sports and friendship, check this book out!

Book provided for review.

Tour Giveaway
$25 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash
Ends 2/9/14
Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

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