Release Day Review by Kristie: Seduction on the Slopes, by Tamsen Parker

Seduction on the Slopes, by Tamsen Parker
Series: Snow & Ice Games, Book 2
Publisher: SMP Swerve
Release Date: January 16, 2018

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Welcome to the Snow and Ice Games where competition is not the only thing that is heating up! The second book in bestselling Tamsen Parker’s romance series continues with two competitive teammates.

Miles Palmer has dominated the downhill slalom in every Snow and Ice Games he’s competed in. Double gold, double gold, double gold, and he’s confident he can round out his career and his trophy case with two more medals in his last appearance at the games. The only thing that could stop him? Crash Delaney.

Crash is a young upstart who came out of nowhere and shocked the downhill world with his swagger and untraditional style. As a kid, Crash didn’t have the resources to learn how to race properly, but he begged, borrowed, and stole equipment, and went to any competition he could thumb a ride to. Now the only thing between him and his dreams coming true is his childhood hero, the man whose posters have graced his walls since before he’d ridden in his first chairlift.

Miles and Crash are technically teammates, but you wouldn’t know it from the way they fight. The veteran and the nobody have both got big things riding on this race, and neither can afford any distractions. Especially not each other.

M/M Pairing
Gay Character
POC Character
Sports Romance
Contemporary
Downhill Skiing
Small Age Gap
Socioeconomic Differences

It’s the Snow and Ice Games!!

I should be excited, and I was! And then I wasn’t. This may be a case of “it’s me, not the book”. I’ll leave that for others to decide, but I had some problems with the story.

While Seduction on the Slopes could be pretty sweet, fun, and entertaining, I found myself looking for more. More, and an ending that didn’t piss me off.

So just some thoughts… I liked Crash a lot. He’s a really fun character with very understandable worries. I really did get him. And Miles, while someone I do not relate to, he grew on me quite a bit. What I had a hard time with was the two of them together. In the end I think I understood their attraction, but it really was hard to get while reading the build up. This is mostly because I didn’t feel it from Miles… only from Crash. And even then, at first it felt like pure hero worship and not love or true affection. So this took me a while, and I think I needed to feel the connection from Miles more than I did. Having his POV should have helped me, but it did not, and that was disappointing.

I also had a huge problem with a main point in the story, something that is a major spoiler so I won’t say what it was. But suffice it to say, a big thing happens and I found it to be really unacceptable. The need for Crash to make this decision didn’t sit right with me at all. Possibly, if it wasn’t for this one thing, I could have liked this more. Because I was getting them, finally, when things took this turn and I was really bummed by it. So, I’d finally gotten to the point where I was really feeling it. Totally on board. But alas, I was left not feeling it anymore.

Crash and Miles get their happy ending, and it was good. I enjoyed a lot of their interactions, and their individual stories and struggles. The setting was great, the visuals from the writing were amazing in my mind. I think a lot of readers will really enjoy this story of love and sport. I really do believe my earlier statement that it’s not the book, it has to be me. I’ve only read a couple other books by Parker, and I’ve very much enjoyed them. So give it a shot… it might be just the book for you.

Tamsen Parker is a stay-at-home mom by day, USA Today bestselling erotic romance writer by naptime. She lives with her family outside of Boston, where she tweets too much, sleeps too little and is always in the middle of a book. Aside from good food, sweet rieslings and gin cocktails, she has a fondness for monograms and subway maps. She should really start drinking coffee.