This young adult novel is the story of Alex's Olympic year: he wants to win Olympic gold for USA in men's figure skating and knows that he's good enough to do it. Along the way, the pressure sometimes gets in the way of enjoying his craft and his budding relationship with Matt, a Canadian pairs skater. ( )

This is the classical sport romance, made of sweat and love and a great goal ahead of you. It’s also a Young Adult novel, but being the youngster legal (even if barely) gave me a little less the feeling to be a pervert for enjoying the kiddies “play”. For sure, If I’m a 16 years old who looks up to 18 and 19 years old boys like they are the coolest big men in the world, well this is definitely the right novel. So the author managed to satisfy two targets, the “old” ladies like me, and the young guys who want a romance without the angst that usually accompany a Young Adult novel.

To a teenager eyes, Alex is really this cool guy: 18 years old and already American National Champion in figure skating he is training for the Olympic Games. Since his coach, a former Russian Olympic champion, moved to Toronto, Alex, soon after high school, left his family and moved to Toronto to live alone and train. Actually it’s not so strange, many guys his age leave for college at the same time, but College is still, in a way, “school”, instead Alex is pursuing a Gold Medal! Sound fantastic, isn’t it? And instead, basically, Alex is training and training, and he is alone, in a city he doesn’t know, in a place where he has not friends. And it doesn’t help that Alex, truth be told, is a bit of a “queen”, and not since he is gay, but since he is not exactly a nice boy: he is bitchy and with some behavioural issues. Basically Alex is not able to count to 10 before open his mouth, and more time than not, he wounds the feelings of the people around him. In all of this, Alex being gay is actually his last trouble, he comes from a very liberal family, who didn’t blink twice when he came out in high school, and now that he is living in Canada, it’s not either a problem for society. All right, to avoid losing sponsorship, Alex is still not coming out to all the world, but it’s not that he is in a serious relationship or similar, remember, we are talking of an 18 years old boy, his major worries is to find someone to snog, not to plan his future family.

As usual the guy you think to hate is the one that instead makes your heart flutter, and the name is Matt. Figure skater in couple with a nice and very young girl, Matt is all perfect and nice boy where Alex is trouble. Friendly and always with a smile, at first Alex thinks him being boring, but he is basically the only other guy he can talk to, and he is gay like him, and so from a chat to a kiss, the step is short. I’m not saying that Matt is convenient, what I’m saying is that their story is sweet and tender, like it should be a story between teenager: no major drama in the love department, the real problem at their age is to be able to manage the tension and the competition, the be able to understand that, after all, you are still really young and the world is not ending tomorrow, even if you are not the first in the podium.

So yes, there is a love story, and there are also some “mild” sex scenes, obviously without details, but really, from an adult perspective, you don’t miss them. As you don’t miss the angst: I want to highlight again, this is a sweet story, made of light feelings, a nice example for the young readers to follow, and a warm story for the older readers to enjoy.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/160370907X/?tag=elimyrevandra-20