Up in the Air: Winter Games Book 1, Dr. Rebecca Sharp

Sometimes life brings you high, other times it drops you so low you can't even fathom how to get back up.  Chance Ryder was invited to the X Games, his twin sister Channing was not.  She felt love, pride, and excitement for her brother.  Until one moment dropped him from the air and from the competition.  And when she went to pick him up from a physical therapy appointment only to find that he's gone with no explanation and no way to contact him, she's lost.  Determined to live their dream by competing in his place she comes face to face with his rival and her future.

Wyatt is facing retirement.  He's barely 31 years old and is the man who only knows how to win.  How do you win when there's no competition?  Unsure of his future he's entering what could be his last X Games until he's blind-sided by a female boarder with eyes the same color as the sky on the mountain.

They've got secrets and passion to spare and they're incendiary from the beginning.  I liked them together as a couple and felt that they really had everything the other person needed for balance, challenge, and love.  They were a really great pairing.

Individually, though, I'm a fan of Wyatt.  Channing, not so much.  She's contrary and hesitant to the point that I find her incredibly immature.  When her sister Ally called her out saying that by hesitating she's just making excuses for what she wants to do anyway, I completely agreed.  Her insecurities and vulnerabilities took so long to get to that I wasn't sure if they were ever going to be addressed.

My other complaint is the wordiness.  So. Many. Words.  I get trying to describe the situation or circumstances or lingo that's necessary to understand the story.  But when it surpasses description and just becomes incredibly verbose, there's a problem.

There were a lot of good moments here with Wyatt's love, patience, understanding, and creativity.  Their sexual draw to one another was magnetic.  Channing was determined, focused, and incredibly talented.  Together they were both inspiring and forward-moving.

Overall Wyatt and Channing were good, multi-faceted, and complex.  The side characters were rather immature and painted a bit darker, aggressive, and confrontational than I think was necessary, but that's probably what the author was going for.  The last bits from the Snowmass Holes' perspectives were dark and leading, obviously setting up the rest of the series.  I'm sure they worked to draw a lot of people in for the subsequent books as they come out but for me, I'm more turned off by the brooding and darkness.  I don't think any of them are going to be filled with light, tenderness, or sweetness.  Nick Frost's story is the only one I'm really curious about.  With Up in the Air we get a happier story with a side of angst rather than an angsty story with a crumb of happiness at the end...but that's just my biased prediction and probably not all that accurate.

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