Podium Finish by Beth Pond, Book Review

Blurb:

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.


My Review:

Podium Finish is unlike any other book I have read, period.  It is amazing that Ms. Pond could take two very different characters who are pursuing two completely different sports and tie them together as roommates at the Olympic Training Center.  The perspective changes back and forth from Harper and 
Alex and as a reader it was so intriguing to read a book with two stories, two friends, two dreams for Olympic Gold.  Pond flawlessly intertwined the two girls' stories and their friendship, goals, dreams and hopes.  Harper and Alex were completely opposite in every aspect of their lives except for their Olympic dreams and that is what made their friendship so believable to me.  Opposites attract in all relationships, including friendships.  I loved the way that the girls supported, encouraged and helped each other. I skated through Podium Finish as I became a part of Harper and Alex's Olympic dreams! I would definitely recommend this book to friends!


You can pick up your own copy of Podium Finish via Amazon or Astraea Press.


Happy  Reading!!!


Source:  Publisher for review