NB: This guest review is from Reader Tara Scott. If you want to read her previous guest reviews (and we highly recommend that you do), you can see them all here.

Tara reads a lot of lesbian romances. You can catch her regularly reviewing at The Lesbian Review and Curve Magazine and hear her talk about lesbian fiction (including romance) on her podcast Les Do Books. You can also hit her up for recommendations on Twitter (@taramdscott).

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I love sports romances, which is kind of hilarious because I’m not into watching or following any sports at all. And when it comes to lesbian sports romances, there just aren’t many, so my little ears perk up every time I hear about a new one. I’ve been a big fan of Rachel Spangler’s for a long time, so I was especially excited earlier this year when I saw that she was releasing a romance about Olympic athletes. I’m thrilled to say it didn’t disappoint!

Elise Brandeis was at the top of the skiing world when one risky move knocked her out for a year. After major surgery and intensive physical therapy, she’s finally ready to strap her skis back on and prove to everyone that she should be heading to PyeongChang with the Olympic skiing team in February. Even though she prefers solitude and only spending time with her trainer, Paolo, that goal means bunking at the Lake Olympic Training Center so she can see and be seen by the officials who will be choosing the team.

Corey LaCroix could do without the media asking when she’s going to retire from snowboarding. At 30, she’s racked up a bunch of X-Games medals as well as a couple of Olympic medals. She has no doubt that she’ll be going to the next Olympics in South Korea, but the pressure is on as she keeps looking over her shoulder at the new 17-year-old on the scene who everyone is pegging as the future of boardercross. “What’s boardercross,” you say? One character describes it as “a cross between BMX and a mountainside bar fight.” If you want a better idea, check out this gold medal win from Sochi and pretend Corey was there:

Despite the pressure to show the world that she has more good races left in her, Corey finds herself drawn to the icy Elise, wanting to see what would happen if she just melted a little. The last thing Elise wants is a brash snowboarder in her face, but even she can see that maybe she and Paolo can learn a thing or two from Corey’s unorthodox training regimen. Sparks fly as Corey gets on Elise’s nerves and Corey refuses to be batted away by Elise. Soon enough though, irritation shifts to respect, and friendship grows into more. Can a relationship really work with both women pushing their bodies to the limits as they reach for the gold medal? (Yessss! Because it’s a romance and I love it!)

I adored so much about this book, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it in the weeks since I finished reading it. Rachel Spangler writes a damn fine ice queen in Elise and watching her thaw is the most delicious thing ever. All Elise wants is to win—full stop. And nothing is going to stand in her way. Her injury shone a major spotlight on her life, showing Elise exactly who had her back. By the time she shows up at Lake Henry, she only has Paolo with her—not her family, her sponsors, or the people who had been fawning over her when she was winning races and setting records. Her laser focus on winning means Elise doesn’t have time for niceties or fun, and yet her carefully built walls aren’t enough to keep the fun-loving Corey away.

It’s easy to see why Elise doesn’t take Corey seriously at first. Corey is funny and enjoys life, joking about things like the time she did a pizza diet.

“Heavier equals faster.”

“As long as it’s heavy from muscle, not heavy from fried chicken,” Nate cut in.

Corey elbowed him in the ribs. “You don’t know that for sure. I think we need to see more of the research replicated before we rule out the chicken diet. The pizza diet showed great potential as well in clinical trials.”

“Your eating pizza for sixty days in a row doesn’t amount to a clinical trial.”

“And yet, I won four of five races in that time period.” Corey turned back to Elise. “I also had a personal best at Squaw Valley on pure pizza.”

“You’re joking, right?” Elise asked.

“I wish she were,” Nate said. “She takes coaching better than almost anyone. Nutritional advice, not so much.”

“I can’t even . . . sixty days in a row? What’s wrong with—” She cut the criticism off, but just barely. “That’s a unique process for an athlete.”

“I’m a unique athlete.” Corey laughed.

And yet, as Elise stops dismissing Corey outright and starts paying attention, she sees exactly how hard Corey works to stay at the top of her game at the ripe old age of 30. Sure, boardercross may not have the finesse or prestige of downhill skiing, but the extreme sport takes an incredible amount of training, focus, and determination. And being around Elise is good for Corey too, giving her even more of that focus than she’s ever had before, as they both strive to be their best.

Another thing I love about this book is how it celebrates athletic bodies. I don’t mean that Elise and Corey have the toned figures we often see in lesbian romance. These women are elite athletes with the appropriate, impressively muscular bodies that let them do things that I can’t even fathom. Most of the time I find myself reading about women who are either willowy, curvy in the right places, or have some other kind of perfect shape. So when I come across a different body type, whether it’s a woman whose curves aren’t in the right places, someone who’s in her forties or older, or like in this case, women with the kind of chiselled abs and prominent thighs that come from hours of work, day after day, I sit up, take notice, and give a little cheer.

I said in my intro that I’ve been a big fan of Rachel Spangler’s for years, and that’s absolutely true. But after reading Edge of Glory and her release from earlier this year, Close to Home, it’s safe to say she’s become one of my very favourite authors. With each book, she’s getting better and better on every measure, whether you look at her writing style, character development, plotting and pacing, or relationship building. She pulls all of these elements off so well in Edge of Glory that it’s just a tight, awesome package. Literally everything about it worked for me and it’s officially one of my favourite books of 2017. I will be reading this one again and again as I wait for the next amazing book Rachel Spangler has in store for us and in the years beyond.