It is nothing short of a delight accompanying Carrie on her explorations, and I was so pleased that aspect of her new life was allocated adequate page time. Harmon writes with great affection and joie de vivre when it comes to the streets and alleys, gardens and soaring architecture of the Russian capital. What I was not expecting was how deeply I would fall in love with Moscow and Carrie's experiences there. Carrie is immediately sympathetic, and though the narrative touches ever so briefly on the long ago night she and Anton met, it is nonetheless clear to the reader how it affected both of them and how it will play an uneven but key role in their development as an actual pair. From the very start, I could tell the story was going to wrap itself around me. I was just so taken with Pairing Off, you guys. However, with the barriers of language, culture, politics (and a distant night only Carrie remembers) looming between them, success on or off the ice is no guarantee for this unlikely team. Determined to achieve his dream and make a go of it without her, Anton warily follows his coach's advice and auditions the disgraced but unquestionably talented American. His longtime skating partner (and girlfriend) Olga has up and left him for greener pastures and a partner more likely to see her to the gold medal podium at the Olympics. Anton Belikov is in need of a partner STAT.

What she does not expect is that the male partner will turn out to be a familiar (and wholly unwelcome) face. Which is why she literally jumps at an unexpected and unusual invitation to travel to Russia and audition for a suddenly open position. But with the figure skating World Championships coming up in a couple of weeks, I thought it was the perfect time to highlight this little gem.Ĭarrie Parker is fairly certain life as she knew it is over when her career as a pairs figure skater comes to a grinding and spectacular halt courtesy of a scandal involving her partner and a judge.

But lately I never seem to get around to sitting down and hashing it out.

Happily, that is in no way an indication of how my reading has fared, because I have been reading up a storm. As you can probably tell, I haven't been so much with the review writing of late. And while I actually haven't read many books that focus on the sport, there was simply no way I was going to not read a book billed as ' The Cutting Edge with a Russian twist.' I adored that movie as a kid. She clued me in to its existence, pointed out that it featured Olympic figure skaters, and well. I have my pal Li to thank for steering me in the direction of Elizabeth Harmon's debut novel Pairing Off.

Pairing Off by Elizabeth Harmon