Narrated by Amelie Griffin & Alex Kydd
Love on the Tracks is book 1 in Tamsen Parker’s Snow & Ice Games series. I gather that “Snow & Ice Games” (aka SIGs) is a kind of (non-copyright infringing) Winter Olympics. The heroine, Rowan Andrews, is a 20-year-old luger from Team USA. She loves the music of License to Game, a popular boy band and has a crush on the lead singer, Zane Rivera.
As it happens, Zane (26) has a thing for athletes and, when he reads that Rowan enjoys his music as well as his… other attributes, he decides to surprise her at the Snow & Ice Games in Denver. He needs some space away from the band anyway and taking a break to watch amazing athletes at the pinnacle of their respective sports is a very attractive option. He sets it up with his management and hers to surprise Rowan on the set of a TV show where the luge team is being interviewed.
They hit it off so well, Rowan’s manager (who is also her father) and Zane’s people think it will be good for both of their careers if they appear to be dating for the two weeks of the SIGs. Both are genuinely attracted to one another and after some initial worry on each of their parts about where the other’s head is at, they commence a fake-for-the-cameras-but-very-real-behind-closed-doors relationship.
Rowan is preparing for her luge events and her dad gets worried that her feelings for Zane are interfering with her preparation. He’s not concerned that she is hooking up with Zane; it’s more that she is getting emotionally attached. Which seemed pretty messed up to be honest. I’m not convinced it was properly interrogated in the story as to why he felt this way and some of his actions deserved larger consequences IMO.
Zane is struggling professionally as the band is aging out of their target market and he is hungry to explore other musical options, including a solo career. He doesn’t really want to leave the band – they’re his best friends and they’ve been together since they were 16 – but he does long for more. Unfortunately, his record label is adamantly opposed to him releasing any solo music (for fear it will draw the spotlight away from the band and lead to their chart demise) and have gone so far as to have it written into the band’s contract that he’s not allowed to.
As Rowan and Zane get closer, he confides in her about some of his concerns and professional goals and finds inspiration in her company, her dedication and drive to her sport and in her affections.
Rowan is very young but she comes across as pretty mature. Also, to my delight, she is very sex positive and not all that shy about asking for what she wants. No sex shaming for Rowan. Excellent.
The audiobook clocks in at just under 7 hours so it is not super long but the story fits well within it. It takes place almost completely within the first week of the SIGs and necessarily Rowan and Zane fall in love very quickly. Technically it has an HFN ending but I know from books featuring other License to Game members that Zane and Rowan remain very successfully together long term. (I loved The Inside Track last year and am eagerly awaiting its audio release in March this year.)
Both narrators are new-to-me. Amelie Griffin particularly impressed me, with her tone, pacing and emotion. I suppose her male character voices could be a little deeper but they were different enough from the female cast that I was happy enough to go with it. She felt age-appropriate for Rowan and I liked the energy in her performance.
Alex Kydd was a little too dude-bro (it would work really well for Nick, the hero in The Inside Track I think) but Zane is a little more sensitive and sometimes the voice used didn’t match the picture I had of him in my head. At first I didn’t love the way Mr. Kydd portrayed Rowan – I found it a little unconvincingly female – but either it got better as the story went along or I got used to it because by the end my hesitation about it had vanished.
Love on the Tracks is a fun, sexy story with a strong athletic heroine and a hero who admires her muscles. (How cool is that??) I loved the competence and dedication to her sport that Rowan showed and I loved also that Zane was in awe of it and totally supporting. I’m definitely #TeamRowvera.
Kaetrin
Buy Love on the Tracks by Tamsen Parker on Amazon
