Cheating
I mentioned in my review of Edge of Glory that I love sports romances, despite having zero interest in any sport in real life. Even so, I was a little skeptical when I saw that Rachel Spangler’s latest takes place in the world of curling because, well, it’s curling… (Yes, I know, I’m a bad Canadian. Please don’t take my citizenship away.) I was pleasantly surprised by Fire & Ice, though, and I’m glad I read it, even if I had a hard time sympathizing with one of the leads.
It wasn’t too long ago that Max Lauren was at the top of the sports reporting game, but after being at the center of a scandal (more on that below), she’s lucky to get assigned to curling coverage. Max doesn’t know the first thing about curling and doesn’t bother to remedy that before showing up with a chip on her shoulder and acting like a horse’s ass in front of the team she’s been sent to cover.
When Callie Mulligan, the team’s skip (captain), tries to explain the basics, Max is flat-out rude to her. And, despite Max being an arrogant dick during their entire first encounter, Callie is really sweet to her. Like, far sweeter than I’d be in her position, since Callie finally has someone there from a major sports network and that person is bored and egotistical, clearly just phoning it in. It doesn’t take long for the rest of the team to pick up on Max’s attitude, either, and things escalate quickly into an ill-advised game of two-on-two, regular rules, with Max getting Callie against two other players.
Against her better judgment, Callie goes along with the game, but only because Max won’t back down. Callie does her best to help Max through the humiliating experience, explaining the rules, how to move, and how to use the game’s equipment, but in what will be a surprise to no one, it goes spectacularly badly for Max (and how could it go any other way when she’s playing regular rules and doesn’t know any of them?).
How could these people be so good at something that Max failed at so miserably? She hadn’t expected to be amazing right out of the gate, but she couldn’t even stay upright and sweep at the same time. And it wasn’t like any of this took strength or speed. People of all ages and sizes and genders played alongside them on the other sheets. She’d yet to see a single one of them fall ass-over-teakettle. Really, “throw rock, sweep rock” were the only skills anyone appeared to need, and yet when Callie threw again, Max had to get a slip-sliding head start only to whiff, flail, and stumble again as the stone breezed by.
This time she scraped her chin across the ice and threw up her hand to cover herself as a loud, sharp crack reverberated down the ice followed by a loud grinding, growling noise she didn’t recognize. She closed her eyes tightly and cowered, half expecting the whole rusted-out warehouse to come crashing down on top of her.
The team is impressed, though, after seeing Max get up again and again, no matter how many times she hits the ice, and they send her on her way with a bit of newfound respect.
After all of Callie’s compassion and the kind words from the team at the end of the game, does Max take the experience on the chin and accept that she could have approached their first meeting differently? She sure does not, walking away feeling justified in hating curling. Back at her hotel room, she licks her wounds by writing a humor piece that punches down at the sport, using phrases like “competitive sweeping” and referring to it as “Canadian Ice Bocce Ball.” She ends it by saying the article is based on her first impressions, she’ll be keeping an eye out all season, defying anyone to change her mind.
So, that respect and goodwill the team had developed for Max? Totally gone once they read the article. Except for Callie, of course, who is a Very Good Person and feels sorry for the way the rest of the team shuts Max out at the arena when she comes back. Also, because Callie is savvy and knows how valuable good coverage will be for them, she accepts Max’s challenge instead of joining her team in shunning Max, knowing that turning around Max’s sour opinion of curling will be a benefit for both of their careers.
“Look, you may not like curling, and you may not like me, but this is my job, and even if that doesn’t matter to you, writing about it’s supposed to be your job, too. Don’t you at least care about that?”
Max’s shoulders slumped slightly, and she nodded. “I do.”
“Then, maybe we could start from there. Your job matters to you. My job matters to me, and for the time being those jobs intersect. So, I’m all in on your little challenge.”
“What do you mean?”
“That temper tantrum you put into writing, you ended it with a challenge to change your mind about curling. I fully understand that you probably didn’t mean it, or maybe you thought you’d made a safe bet, but I’ve been bet against before, and I don’t like to lose any more than you like to surrender.”
Max snorted softly.
“Go ahead and laugh.” Callie gave her a dismissive wave. “But if you’re half as good at your job as I am at mine, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
You can probably guess the broad strokes of what happens from there. Max shows up consistently and realizes just how hard Callie works for her dream. She develops a begrudging respect that turns into an enthusiastic one. Along the way, pants feelings happen, followed by deep, romantic feelings.
You can probably also guess by now that I wasn’t fond of Max for quite a bit of Fire & Ice, because she really is a world-class asshole. It’s understandable to be unhappy to go from covering the NFL to covering the second-best curling team in America, but that didn’t happen for no reason. Speaking of that reason, it doesn’t come up until way late in the book, and I’m going to drop it behind a spoiler tag and just note for you that it’s tied to that content warning above.
Max had been sleeping with the wife of an NFL player and believed this woman when she said her husband was using steroids and abusing her. The woman had even given Max syringes as proof. Max didn’t verify anything before running a story about him, not even checking what was in the syringes, and everything came crashing down on her when the player held a press conference and admitted he’d been hiding a case of type 1 diabetes. Max printed a retraction, but it was too late, especially since she’d been seen with his wife, and her credibility was shredded.
Max is her own worst enemy. Her terrible attitude and behavior created all of her problems with Callie’s team, putting herself at a much bigger disadvantage than necessary as she’s starting to cover a sport she’s unfamiliar with. Because she’s literally the entire source of her own problems, I had a hard time feeling bad for her. As one of Callie’s teammates says about the article, “She’s a shitty reporter if she thought any of that would be funny to the people she has to work with for the rest of the season.” My dislike of Max made the book pretty easy to put down in the first quarter and I wondered if it would get better. Thankfully, it does.
Little by little, thanks to paying attention at practices and games, some long-overdue research, and conversations with Callie, Max starts to understand the great sport of curling. And, as she does, we get to learn about it too, thankfully without any boring info dumps. Max starts to understand that it’s a game of strength and precision, and grows an appreciation for Callie, her hard work, her perseverance, and her athleticism. When Max puts down her ego and drops some of her walls, she becomes a much better, more likeable character, one who actually deserves a partner as amazing as Callie. I was surprised by the end to realize that I had zero problems imagining them together, but then realized that it makes sense because Max puts in the work to be a better person for herself and for Callie.
If I had to pick one thing about this book that’s my favorite element overall, it’s Callie (with learning about curling as a close second). I’m a huge fan of hers and I have been from the moment she enters the story. She’s an incredible leader for the team, working harder than anyone else on it and spending time at the gym and/or on the ice every day, because she knows they can be the best in the world. She also works part-time jobs because curling isn’t exactly a lucrative sport, so it’s the only way for her to stay afloat financially as she pursues her passion. If she has any flaw, it’s that she takes the team’s losses a little too personally, but she also doesn’t wallow in those feelings. She learns from them to make sure she, and they, keep playing better and better.
I also love that Callie doesn’t just take Max’s bad behavior, even when she’s initially surprised by it. She’s used to people underestimating curling and her dreams to take her team to the Olympics, but she didn’t expect that level of dismissal from the one person sent to boost awareness about them. She could have met Max’s petulance with something equally bad, but she never does. Callie’s patience and willingness to work with Max when the reporter hits rock bottom and almost gets fired for showing everyone that she doesn’t understand the sport is what allows an understanding to grow between them, putting them on the road to their HEA.
Despite not being sure about it in the beginning, I really grew to enjoy Fire & Ice. This is the kind of story I could see making a great movie, especially with actors who could capture the delicious chemistry and adorable banter that eventually develops between Max and Callie. It’s not quite enemies to lovers, but if that’s your kind of thing, you’ll probably like this book. Plus, there’s even a scene with them bonding over poutine that’s freaking adorable—what more could a Canadian want?
This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Tara; I appreciate hearing both the positive and negative about the book. I’m off to download a sample.