Before I get into this romance, I want to state that I don’t really follow much of the Olympics. I get my Olympic news from my roommate and from Twitter, which means I can’t really comment on the accuracy of how the events are portrayed in this book.
However, I did feel like reading a romance between two veteran Olympians would help me contribute to the Olympic spirit currently permeating every one of my personal relationships.
Plus, if you want to see the video that prompted me to buy the book, check out this Olympic “sports swap” video where an Italian Olympic figure skater trades sports with a member of the Latvian men’s hockey team.
This is the fourteenth book in Jaci Burton’s Play by Play series, a sports romance series that I’ve mostly enjoyed. And this was one no different: it was an amazing romance with everyone acting like responsible adults and—gasp—communicating! But there was one glaring issue with the book that left me rather aghast.
Will Madigan is a professional hockey player playing for the US team. Burton notes at the beginning of the book that while she was writing this, she was still waiting to hear whether the NHL would allow their players to compete in the Olympics. When it was finally decided that they could not, the book was already in production. So heads up that this is addressed right at the beginning. Amber Sloane is a figure skater who is at her third Olympics. She’s twenty-four and feels this is her last shot at the gold, having previously medaled with bronze and silver.
There is a forced proximity element as everything pretty much takes place within the Olympic village. Amber has grown up with her mom as her manager and their relationship is clearly toxic. Her mother sees anything that is not skating as a distraction, which means no friends, no fun, and no relationships. Amber, because of her mother, also has an unhealthy relationship with food. I wish both were explored more and honestly, the “resolution” between her and her mother felt desperate and needed something deeper. Like therapy.
Amber vows to have a different Olympic experience. As this is her last one, she really wants to have fun and make friends and lose her virginity, of course. I really do love her candor. She’s blunt and to the point. When telling Will she wants to have sex with him and that she’s a virgin, he freaks out, insisting that she think about the decision a little more. Amber thinks it’s silly and that she’s masturbated before. The only way she’s a virgin is in the sense that she hasn’t been with a man. I loved this! I loved how upfront she was, which led to Will being as equally upfront. Their communication and practice of safe sex was really refreshing and very sexy. Also, if you’re looking for a hot scene, they two get it on in a closed ice rink while on ice skates. Trust me, it’s better than it sounds as they both know what they’re doing on skates. If it were me on skates having sex, I would seriously be concerned for my partner.
There’s also some amazing friendships. Amber slowly begins to reach out to her fellow skaters, especially the younger competitors. Everyone is supportive of one another because they’re working toward the same goal, but also realize how hard it is to get there. There was no cattiness. Instead, what we get is a heaping helping of mutual awe and respect. Yes, please!
The central conflict isn’t between Amber and Will. In fact, their relationship was so tender and adorable. I don’t know if I would describe Will as a beta hero, but he has beta qualities. He supports Amber’s skating so much and they both know what it takes to be Olympic athletes, so he has a sizable amount of respect for her as an athlete, too.
If I’m going based on the romance alone, I’d easily give this a B+. The hero and heroine were outstanding and I couldn’t find much I didn’t like. It felt very much like a friends to lovers scenario, though they’d just met at the games.
But the huge issue I had with the book was the glaring whiteness of it all.
During the course of the story, there is one athlete from China and a US athlete of color who is a secondary character. Throughout the plot, we meet snowboarders and skiers and hockey players representing other countries and they’re all White. The only person of color who speaks is one of Amber’s teammates/competitors at the Olympics. There’s also a Chinese figure skater mentioned.
This is painfully distant from reality. The top figure skaters this year, right now, from several countries including the US, are athletes of color. I know this because I finished this book while on a reading retreat with my figure skating-loving friends, so despite not being into the Olympics, I saw a lot of it. Team USA is not entirely White athletes.
Plus, the Olympics is a competition of athletes from all over the world! Yet most of the competitors we meet as characters were White. In the book, there are no Asian skaters, or Black athletes – and yet if I looked at the tv, in any sport, it was a very, very different story.
The Play by Play series is admittedly incredibly White. Many of the books have White football player heroes, while most of the NFL is comprised of Black players. I definitely had a limited perspective when reading this series in the past. Diversity wasn’t something that registered for me, but I haven’t picked up a Play by Play book in a while, not since I re-addressed and focused on my reading preferences. I LOVE football and it became really clear to me around Quarterback Draw that the romances were reserved for White athletes only. I haven’t picked up another book in the series since then.
I thought with an Olympic backdrop, that overwhelming Whiteness would change. Setting a book at the Olympics and having White athletes be not only the central characters, but nearly every other side character, too, is ridiculous.
The Olympics is such a unique place to have a romance. There are athletes, who are in peak physical condition, competing from nearly a hundred countries. Everyone has pent up energy and has to be around each other for weeks. The absence of characters of color at an international event was like a blaring red warning beacon, pulsing with every page I read. I kept hoping I was mistaken at the way the representation was going. By the end of the book, it was obvious that I wasn’t mistaken at all and there was no excuse for it.
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Sorry the book was a disappointment, but that figure skate/hockey player video was great! If you liked that, search for Battle of the Blades on YouTube – Canada used to have a reality show where they teamed up female figure skaters with NHL players to do pairs skating routines. Really good.
Ugh, hard pass on the book, then, in favor of using the time to watch Surya Bonaly clips ad infinitum, interspersed with my new OTP, Valentina and Herberts. <3 x 1,000,000.
@No, the Other Anne: Surya Bonaly FOREVER!
Giving Ms. Burton the benefit of the doubt: The composition of the PyeongChang Olympics looks different than that of Winter Olympics past and Ms. Burton had no way of knowing that when writing this book. Historically speaking, the Winter Olympics have been much more skewed to the athletes from North American, Europe, and Asia. As such, they were much more white. Unless I am mistaken, the last woman of color to represent the US was Debbie Thomas in 1988. Yes, we have had many Asian-American skaters since then, and it seems like there was some representation in the book there. Even in PyeongChang, I believe I only saw one person of color, and she was on the French pairs team. Hockey, historically, is played by white men and women, with very few persons of color even playing currently. Although there is a shift in the composition of the Winter Olympics, if Ms. Burton did research based on past competitions, her cast of characters would relatively accurate. Giving her a poor grade based on this factor seems quite unnecessary, especially when the romance is admittedly solid.
@Kathryn In the spirit of discussion, just because white-washing is real doesn’t mean I want to read about it. I like my fiction to look more like my own life, and more like the world I want to live in. There are plenty of people of color, and athletes of color, in North America, Europe, and Asia, and a person doesn’t even have to look very hard – but they do need to move their own biases out of the way.
@Kathryn: I must disagree with you. While the Winter Olympics is definitely whiter than the Summer Olympics, there are still athletes of color, regardless of if they medal. Athletes of color can also represent European and North American countries. And, if a character is positioned in a large group setting, like say in the village’s cafeteria, it’s startling that nearly every character he/she views or talks to is white.
Additionally, looking at the entire body of work of the Play by Play series, its whiteness does stand out when considering the actual player makeup of sports like football and baseball. It’s a pervasive problem in this series and I thought that tide would turn when using a global competition as its setting.
Amanda I am so glad to see this review because I just finished this book last night and I had thoughts. While I was reading it, I knew that there was something about the portrayal of the Olympics that bothered me, but I was almost at the end before I figured out that it just did not feel real to me. The overwhelming whiteness is certainly part of that. Although, I think the other American female skater in the book that Amber becomes friendly with (Tia maybe?) is supposed to be Asian. At least in my head she was Asian. But regardless, it is totally not realistic for them to be in the middle of an international competition with something like 150 nations participating, and encounter 99.9% white people. Other than a passing reference to a Russian skater, they didn’t even encounter anyone who wasn’t from an English-speaking country! It was a bit like the Olympics as an episode of “Friends” or something. So white, everybody wins, no real problems. I just felt like it needed a little more grit. These people work their asses off to get to the top level in their sports, surely it is not all sunshine and lollipops? But other than the conflict with the main character’s mother, which was fully resolved after one 30-second outburst, it was all smooth sailing. I am no stranger to the suspension of disbelief required for a lot of romance reading but this was a bit much. Like you, I thought the romance was pretty good and I didn’t hate either the hero or heroine. They seemed like nice people who used their words and I was happy it all worked out for them. I just felt like it was all a little too easy, and I needed a bit more….something. I have not read any of the rest of the series but if it is as whitewashed as you say, I’ll probably skip it.
@KB: I assumed Tia was Asian American was well. And Amber and her mom seriously needed to schedule some therapy appointments.
I haven’t read this book but have read much of the series and I had the same problem with it. Unexpected Rush features a black heroine but it just didn’t ring true for me. Not the interracial relationship but the heroine wasn’t as well written as some of the other heroines in the series. She felt like a last minute change. I still like series and just know what to expect from now on.
In figure skating this year, France sent two Black women (one in pairs, one in ladies). There was also a Brazilian woman compete, and many Asian-Americans and Asians.
Nigeria sent their first women’s bobsled team (I think first ever winter olympians), and they are hoping to inspire more African nations to compete in winter sports! I think Jamaica also sent a team again. Tonga’s famous flag bearer learned to I think cross country ski (?) and competed again!
These are just what I can think of.
While it is true that many winter sports are majority North American and European (just because of climate) that doesn’t mean there aren’t diverse athletes! And not just racially- openly LGBT athletes have been competing in recent years. And if you are writing fiction why not have even more diverse people? I would think that is the joy of choosing an international competition as your setting.
I don’t know much about tattoos… would getting that much ink done interfere with being a professional athlete? It seems like you would spend a lot of time performing wound care and being careful.
The resolution of the plotline with the mother/manager sounds so unrealistic as to be insulting to those with real-life experience of that stuff.
Also, in addition to the racial diversity in the field this year, there were also female skaters in their 30s, so why are we still clinging to the ‘ancient at 24’ thing?
@Christine, I’ve seen plenty, if not quite that much, ink on Australian footballers, but I don’t know much about ice hockey.
@Christine: Unless it’s a prison-quality tat, your job involves rolling around naked in sewage, or you have some autoimmune issue that should have contraindicated the procedure beforehand, standard tattoo aftercare (“bathe and use an ultra-gentle moisturizer”) shouldn’t affect activities of daily living after needle day.
Thanks Amanda. I think it’s really important for reviewers to point out the ways that books white-wash the world. I’m so glad to see you doing this important work.
@Kathryn… Asian women ARE women of colour! Also, if you’re not seeing any diversity in the Olympics, it means you are not noticing the people WHO ARE THERE. We’re always asked to give writers who mess up with racial representation a break, and that tells readers of colour that their invisibility is no big deal. Do better for them.
The thing I keep thinking about is the comment above about how it’s okay for books with hockey players to have white characters because of course most hockey players are white.
I think it’s mixing up cause and effect. I can’t help but notice that the rise of the hockey romance happened exactly when women of color, both authors and readers, were pointing out how white-washed football romances were.
In fact, back in 2012 here at Smart Bitches (http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2012/01/gs-vs-sta-sports-romances/#comments) someone says, “Gee I wish I could find more hockey romances.” Now, you can’t go five minutes without seeing a hockey romance. Can you imagine ANYONE now wondering where they could find a good hockey romance?
Maybe there are so many hockey romances BECAUSE the sport is so white, and that makes white readers and authors more comfortable. Everyone loves sports. People in all countries play sports. So if publishing puts out hundreds of hockey romances every year, but hardly any about, say, basketball, I’m pretty comfortable saying that’s racist.
Echoing the sentiments here. Why is it that so many authors and publishers breezily assume their readers are willing to suspend disbelief about (for example) a woman falling in sexy perfect passionate love with her former high school bully, the gorgeous jock with a poetic soul, but when we ask for a tiny bit more minority representation–which, thankfully, is the way the real world is rapidly evolving–the knee-jerk response seems to be NO, TOO UNREALISTIC, NO ONE WOULD BUY A BLACK HOCKEY PLAYER.
If the hero was white and hetero, Ren Benton’s story about the tattooed hunk rolling around naked in sewage for a living would get published before a racially diverse ensemble at the Olympic Games. Let’s keep shoving those old repressive notions to the back of the line, please.
(Though for the record, @Ren, I would read that if you make it as funny as you make your comments.)
I was going to point out that Asians *are* people of color, but since @F got to it first, I’ll just be the echo.
The Winter Olympics have had people of color participating for a long, long time. It’s absolutely true that many Winter Olympians are from cold places, but it is also quite true that being cold ≠ being all white.
So the tl;dr here is that presenting a world in which there is *no* diversity is actually inaccurate, which doesn’t seem to stop writers from writing it. 🙁
We really need to demand better from our writers and our publishing companies.
It’s always bothered me that in the realm of sports romance, all of the heroes portrayed (based on the covers alone) are white. @Jen, thank you for making that mention about hockey romance, as that is the representative sport I see the most now, in terms of sports romance. I have noticed a slight decline among football and baseball romances, and I can’t help but wonder if it is for this reason, people calling out “hey, where are all the POC athletes”?
Which might explain why I *never* see basketball romances on the shelves, with the possible exception of a few found in Harlequin’s Kimani line (but that’s not enough!)