Rating: 2.5 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Jubilee is already a gold medal winner. She and her husband, Stephen, won figure skating gold at the last Snow and Ice Games, but soon after Jubilee’s world crashed when Stephen died. Jubilee was left alone and closed herself off. She tried skating solo, but went back to pairs and found a new partner in Beckett Hughes.
Beckett has had several skating partners in his career, but hasn’t found one willing to stick with him to go the distance. He skates well with Jubilee and their chances of a medal are high. But Beckett’s relationship with Jubilee is on the ice only and based around practice and more practice and they know little about each other off the ice.
When a mix up has them sharing a room at the Games, Jubilee is livid. She likes her space and has no interest in walking in on Beckett with someone in his bed. So, they come to an agreement to sleep with each other during the Games, only Jubilee didn’t expect or want to feel anything for Beckett.
On the Brink of Passion is the fifth and final book in Tamen Parker’s Snow and Ice Games series. The series did not end on a high note for me. This book reads like all the rest in the series with the MCs being in a secret relationship. This book also follows along with the same style of the characters hardly talking to each other and with pages upon pages of internal narrative instead. After four other books in the series, I was really looked for some variety in the style.
The characters here were not to my liking at all. Jubilee was cold and aloof and Beckett was just sort of there. Their first time together was initiated as a dare. Beckett had to talk himself into getting aroused and Jubilee was determined not to enjoy herself and just “fulfill” her “obligation” and this is not the stuff romances are made of. The first few times they are together, Beckett is fantasizing about what it would be like if Jubilee was really into it and Jubilee refuses to enjoy herself and can’t wait for it to be over. All because she didn’t want Beckett to bring other women back to the room. It was awkward and uncomfortable, made little sense, and due to the set up, the characters definitely lacked chemistry.
The book then just follows Beckett and Jubilee as they have these encounters and practice for the Games. There were some scenes of them on the ice, but it was rather basic and what you could find anywhere, and I would have like more in depth sports coverage for a sports series based around athletes. There is a scandal brought it in, but the resolution is glossed over in just a few sentences. A main portion of Jubilee’s issues was the loss of her husband, yet we don’t learn what happened to him until almost the end of the book and then it was in a round about way.
This book also follows the same template as many others in the series as the story takes place during the course of the Games with their future shown in an epilogue. It was never shown how or when these two fell in love, it was all fairly forced, and the entire story didn’t work for me. I was really looked forward to this series set around athletes, but this book and this series did not deliver at all what was expected.
