Podium Finish by Beth Pond

Podium Finish by Beth Pond
Kindle Edition, 273 pages
Published November 14th 2013 by Astraea Press

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 Thoughts:

I think the Olympic spirit is inspiring and motivating.  I can’t even imagine what it would be like to dedicate so much of your life to a sport and just miss making the Olympic team.  Or making it all the way to the Olympics and not getting a medal.  This is a squeaky clean read about two roommates living at an sport training center.  I found the motivations and pressure from the parents to be spot on.  I really liked this book, but am not sure I loved it.  I found the kids to be very mature for their age.  There could be more drama between the friends, it seems too old for high school students.

If this book were a movie it would be rated PG.