Digger, an 85 kilo wrestler, and Sadie, a 26-year-old speed swimmer, stand on the verge of realizing every athlete’s dream—winning a gold medal at the Olympics. Both athletes are nearing the end of their careers, and are forced to confront the question: what happens to athletes when their bodies are too worn to compete? The blossoming relationship between Digger and Sadie is tested in the intense months leading up to the Olympics, as demanding training schedules, divided loyalties, and unpredicted obstacles take their draining toll. The Olympics, as both of them are painfully aware, will be the realization or the end of a life’s dream. – Publishers Website
I did like this book, as I did enjoy them all. I had one problem with the ending with Sadie. Something happened in the end that kind of made me think…why wasn’t she more upset then she was with everything that happened with her and her dreams of becoming on Olympic Athlete? It didn’t really address this. I don’t want to give too much away, but that was the only problem I had with the book. I would have liked to see what happened to Sadie as well as Digger. You will understand why when and if you read the book. Everything else inside the book gave you a glimpse of what it is like to become or on the way to becoming an olympian – the training, the psychological aspects of everything. I couldn’t think of a better defender than Georges Laroque as a former NHL player, he knows what it takes to be an elite athlete.
Angie’s Website Readers Guide Canada Reads
Serendipitous Readings 
I can think of better NHL’ers than Laroque, but then again I’m a hockey nut!
I understand what you’re saying about Sadie’s situation at the end of the novel; I think one reason why it might have seemed as though her emotional reaction wasn’t quite as we might have guessed, say if we’d been given the same scenario at the beginning of the novel, is because, throughout all those pages in between, she has started to question things in a way that she wasn’t before. It seemed that, even though she was, in many ways, still keeping her day-to-day life routines intact, in pursuit of her goal, as the story unfolded, other things (particularly her grandmother’s death) had raised questions for her that she hadn’t even considered, and she was perhaps better able to cope with the event than she might have been otherwise. Just a thought.
That is entirely possible. I still think there was something missing, I finished it and thought that it wasn’t complete and it was nagging me, even does still to this day. I didn’t hate it, I just think if that missing piece was there it would have made a much better novel.
I was about to say that perhaps it would have helped to flesh it out a little, if the publisher had been willing to increase the page count. But then it occurred to me that that might have been part of the point too, to have it end with a sense of abruptness just as (and I’m carrying on that thought in my head, but I don’t want to give much more away out loud). But these are just thoughts offered too long after my first reading of the novel: I would need to re-read to see if any of these possibilities made sense with a second reading, when I was less concerned with what was happening and more concerned with the intricacies of the crafting. And, yet, I’m too distracted by too many other good books these days!
I hear you on the book front, I have many awaiting my eyes on my shelf…yes, they are giving me a dirty look as I type this LOL