E. J. Noyes plus Abby Craden has to be lesfic romance gold. Noyes writes great romance with
sizzling chemistry between usually likeable women and Abby Craden (God! Her voice)
has unparalleled talent to cause shivers.
Aspen Archer, an American pro alpine skier was on the top of
the world, winning medals everywhere when a horrible accident during the
Vancouver Olympics abruptly changed her entire life. Beyond the physical injuries,
Aspen has panic and anxiety issues and a dark secret: she’s a recovering drug
addict after she had become addicted to prescription drugs post her injury. She
is trying to find a way to do what she loves, i.e. ski, and keep away from
anxiety inducing spotlight at the same time by taking coaching gigs in ski
resorts around the world. While on one such gig in Australia, Cate Tierney
walks into Aspen’s life. The two Americans who actually live fairly close to
each other stateside ironically meet thousands of miles away. There is instant,
intense attraction between them. Since Cate in in Australia for a short
holiday, they don’t waste a lot of time skirting around each other and their
relationship develops fairly fast though that doesn’t take away from the depth
of their emotions. Just when Aspen is thinking of exploring a possible future
with Cate and returning home to see where their relationship can go, Cate drops
a bombshell and walks out of Aspen’s life. Hurt and anger are followed by
introspection and Aspen realises the truth in what Cate had said and Aspen
starts working towards putting herself back together.
The romance is fantastic and even though the time period in
the book is relatively short, the relationship builds at a believable pace.
Cate – most definitely a character crush for us. She is, well, everything. The book is written in first
person in Aspen’s voice. There is a longish part (post Cate breaking up with
Aspen) when we were beginning to actively dislike Aspen finding her donning victimhood.
We especially disliked her behaviour (anger and aggressiveness) after her
injury. Right up to that point Aspen’s ex sounded heartless and cruel but
during this bit we realised that the ex took Aspen’s abuse for months before walking away. She can
hardly be blamed. We also felt that Aspen’s sister was too good for her. And
then, Aspen sees Cate again – months after Australia. In one moment (when she
asks Cate to give them another chance and confesses her feelings) Aspen
completely redeems herself. But…Cate remains our girl.
Abby Craden! There is one dialogue which is not even sexual
or during a steamy scene which Abby whispers and we swear we got goosebumps. She
is the voice that has made us get into audio books in the first place. We’d
resisted listening to a book for a
long, long time preferring to read. Then, the first audiobook we heard was
performed by Abby Craden and it changed our lives.
This is a book that we are sure we’ll also end up reading at
some point – it is just so good.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
