Reviewed by Carissa

TITLE:  Burning up the Ice

SERIES:  International Men of Sports #5

AUTHOR:  T.A. Chase and Devon Rhodes

PUBLISHER:  Totally Bound Publishing

LENGTH:  145pages

BLURB: Two men, two very different sports and one rink—sharing ice has never been so hot.

Olivier ‘Big Bang’ St Pierre is back in his hometown while he recovers from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hockey’s a contact sport—still, he didn’t count on the locker room being dangerous. As a professional hockey player, he also didn’t count on it being hard to find ice time. But when a rink shuts down unexpectedly in a winter-sport-crazy town, even being a big name won’t help as people scramble for whatever they can get.

The first time Ethan Campbell hears from the local hockey legend he knew as a kid, Olivier manages to insult both his family’s rink and his new sport—curling. So he’s not exactly receptive when Olivier shows up in person to plead his case. He makes a sarcastic offer…and is shocked when Olivier takes him up on it. Ethan’s bad experience with hockey had left him cold. But soon he and Olivier are burning up the ice.

Ethan is tied to his town, job and family, while Olivier will be going back to Chicago to rejoin his team as soon as he’s able. It can’t possibly last…can it?

REVIEW:  

Olivier St. Pierre loves playing hockey.  Even if he knows that if you’re going to play the game you kinda got to expect to get hurt.  But usually he’s expecting it on the ice, not in the locker room.  When a fight between two guys on his team lands Olivier with a screwed up knee and a ticket to the operating table, he is not exactly feeling the love in return.  Neither is he feeling all that lucky when he comes back to his hometown to find that ice time seems to be scarcer than a mean word on a Canadian’s lips.  But if he wants to play again he needs to skate…even if that means he has to bargain with the owner of the local skating rink.

Ever since the municipal rink had a meltdown, Evan Campbell has heard every plea, been bombarded with every tight-lipped request, and waylaid by every hockey/skating/just-plain-desperate parent in the area.  But there are only so many hours in the day, and despite enjoying the fact that his family’s rink is in high demand, he would actually like to have time to do things like eat and sleep every once and a while.  So when he receives yet another call to book time at the rink, he has to let the man down.  Granted he might not have done it in the nicest way possible, but the guy had just finished belittling the sport that Evan loved and played.  So, yeah, he totally deserved to be hung up on.

Olivier isn’t going to give up though, and Ethan just might find that there is little he can do to keep a hockey player off the ice.  Or out of his pants.  Or off his Zamboni.

Hockey! Curling! Highly improper uses of Zambonis!  Burning up the Ice sure does know how to tickle my ice fetishes.

Ok, so I haven’t exactly been a religious follower of hockey for long.  I’d call it about three weeks.  Which with some things could be a very long time indeed (if you are experiencing an erection lasting longer than three weeks…you’re already probably wishing you are dead, but call a doctor, anyways) but it doesn’t exactly do my fan credentials much good.  I sorta fell (was pushed) down the deep dark hole of hockey slash about three weeks ago, and I do not think there is a cure for the crazy I have become.  Since then I have picked my team (go Sharks!) and gained some ideas on the perfect amount of violence needed to break down your opponent without actually breaking your opponent…too badly.  I also have some rather firm beliefs about a certain pair of hockey players…but it is probably best to keep that kind of stuff internalized less I come off as a crazy stalker (at least until I can come up with a good slash story to write for them).

This story just happened to come across at the right time.  Not only did I have a newly formed obsession with hockey, but with the Olympics having just wrapped up, I actually know a few things about curling.  Well, mostly that inside the circle things is good and outside is bad (I think…I kinda fell asleep when they were explaining it on the TV).  So while I freely admit I don’t know a lot about the specifics of each sport, the desire to read more about them was all ready to go.

Both Olivier and Ethan have a love of hockey and the ice, though Ethan’s love is a tad bit unrequited since he long ago had to come to terms with the fact that he was just not built for the sport he loved.  But he has found that curling, while not as breathtakingly exciting (or violent) is a great balm on his heart.  And when Olivier unwittingly insults it, Ethan is more than a little ticked off.  I really loved how Ethan comes to terms with what he can and he cannot have.  For a long time he has been saying he is fine with what he lost, but it is been eating away at him all this time.  He was good, hell he could have been great, but just didn’t have the body for it. But over the course of the book he finds that he doesn’t have to lose the sport altogether, even if it means he will never be part of top-level play.

And Olivier is having to deal with having to decide if what he loves is worth what it costs.  Both in hockey and with Ethan.  There is a built in end-date to their crazy romance, because they both know that Olivier has to go back to his team eventually, but neither of them can seem to fight the heat building up between them.  Even if it could hurt later on.  This was a very nicely built romance between the two, and I have to say that I will never, ever look at a Zamboni the same way again.  Dear lords of ice maintenance machines, that was hot.  And the heat isn’t just on the ice.  It is all over that rink.  On most of the stable objects, in fact.  Whew…yeah, these authors know how to ratchet up the heat even when it is takes place in freezing temperatures.

The secondary characters in this story, like usual in this series, were just great.  We had Ethan sister, Chelsea, who had her hockey career basically cut short when she got pregnant, and who now helps Ethan run the family rink.  We also have Barry, a sort close family friend who might just have aims on becoming a little more of the family and a little of the friend.  Then you have the parents of both of the guys, who bring a whole interesting spin on how you perceive Ethan and Olivier.  Olivier’s parents are both really well educated, and Olivier himself is pretty damn smart.  And Ethan’s parents…well, his father, is very involved in their children’s lives.  I really enjoyed seeing how all these people impacted on the main MCs, and really liked that not everything was wrapped up in a nice neat bow for all parties…leaving a bit of mystery for me to ponder on.

This was yet another great addition to the International Men of Sports series, and since I’ve got the next book waiting on my Kindle for me to review, I have to say I am glad I don’t have to wait to get my hands Serving Love at Carnival.  I really love this series, and it has been fun taking this trip around the world, and to so many different sports.

Now…I’m off to read some more hockey slash.  Try to not judge me too harshly. 😀

RATING:

BUY LINKS: Totally Bound  ::  Amazon  ::  ARe