Episode 26: Winter Sports
Summary: Happy 2023, friends, and welcome to Season 2 of Hearts & Daggers! We’re starting this year off with a bang - the bang of the starting gun in a Super G ski race, that is. If you’ve been with us for a while know, you know that this theme is right up Devin’s alley and aligns with many of her existing hobbies. Holly, while not a fan of sports generally, loves ice skating and is a sucker for mountain climbing exhibition stories (especially when things start to go wrong).
Topics Discussed:
The Dagger (4:10): Holly discussed Breathless by Amy McColloch, a novel following Cecily Wong as she strives to climb Menaslu, the 7th tallest peak on earth. A journalist herself, Cecily is fighting to prove herself by scoring an interview with famous mountaineer Charles McVeigh as he seeks to break records climbing the highest summits without supplemental oxygen. His condition? That she go with his team all the way to the top. Her highlights were:
McCulloch climbed Menaslu herself and it shows through in the writing, with vivid and accurate descriptions of mountaineering and the trials this group faces from nature as they work toward the top.
If that wasn’t enough, one of their team meets an accidental (or not) death and things begin to deteriorate with the group. Cecily finds herself stranded on the mountain not knowing who she can trust during a journey that requires complete trust in the group to survive. The tension builds naturally and in a riveting way.
The uniting driver for all characters in this thriller is desperation. Whether it’s Cecily, who ended a romantic relationship and risked her entire career for this expedition, or the sherpas who are duty-bound to get the team to the summit, everyone is desperately trying to accomplish their (sometimes contradictory goals).
The Heart (18:22): Devin discussed Edge of Glory by Rachel Spangler, a winter sport turducken that follows two Olympic athletes - one in boardercross (competition snowboard racing) and the other in downhill skiing. Corey LaCroix is a snowboarding icon, with too many medals to count. But at 30, she’s noticed her knees are aching and it’s taking longer and longer to recover - putting her behind a highly motivated, younger cohort. Elise Brandeis, fighting to recover from a major crash and severe injury the year before after having been the most promising up and coming ski star for the 2018 Olympics, only cares about the gold medal she feels she earned, along with her nickname the Ice Queen. Devin’s key takeaways were:
Spangler is a queer romance author and the skill shines through. Unlike many romances, this one evolves from enemies to friends to lovers over the course of months, giving the plot and relationship a much more organic and authentic feel.
Elise and Corey both embody the stereotypes of their respective sports - Elise being uptight and unsociable, while Corey is the life of the party (routinely parties she throws). Through their growing connection, the reader peels back the layers of those stereotypes to find the person below and how Elise and Corey are actually more alike than different.
Accompanied by a delightfully round cast of side characters and even a side romance, this book delivers on every front for a heartwarming and unusual love story while also maintaining high fidelity to what Devin assumes is the real process of training for and participating in the Olympics.
Hot On the Shelf (36:30):
What’s Making Our Hearts Race (39:43):
Devin and Holly: Wednesday on Netflix
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