The details…
- Title: Schuss
- Author: E. J. Noyes
- Publisher: Bella Books (November 17, 2022)
- Publication date: December 1, 2022
- Available formats: ebook, paperback, audiobook
- File size: 5132 KB
- Print length: 302 pages
- Audio listening length: 8 hours and 37 minutes (Abby Craden as narrator)
- Themes: first love, skiing, young love
- Tropes: best friends to lovers
The blurb from the publisher…
Stacey Evans wants only one thing: to be the best alpine ski racer she can be. Everything else—like her sweet and ultra-supportive best friend, and hot-but-vapid girlfriend—is just a bonus. Fresh from a medal at her first Olympics, Stacey knows she can only get better and is firmly focused on the future, and totally not thinking about how she’s kind of a little in love with that sweet, ultra-supportive best friend…
Gemma Archer has had a crush on Stacey from the moment she first saw her, but being her best friend is so amazing that she’s almost managed to push that crush aside. Almost. But even if Gemma finds the courage to tell Stacey how she really feels, there’s a mountain of obstacles to overcome—like the fact that Gemma’s stepmom is Stacey’s coach (awkward) and Gemma will be going away to college in a few months. And most importantly…what if admitting how she feels ruins the best friendship she’s ever had?
Schuss brings back two beloved supporting characters from E. J. Noyes’ bestselling, award-winning novel Gold.
My thoughts…
As I opened this book and nestled into the story of Gemma and Stacey, it struck me that E.J. Noyes is a fearless writer. Why do I say that? Well, she sees a story and she goes after it with gusto. Most importantly, she serves her stories well by using literary devices and techniques that make her storytelling impressionable. No one can pigeonhole her. Her themes are wide ranged, dipping into story worlds filled with lovely ladies from the paranormal to army surgeons, airline pilots and equestrians. Her novels demonstrate that her creative mind has no limits or restraints. She lets the story lead her to make solid choices for the benefit of her characters and their arcs, even when it enters challenging territory and takes her away from her beloved first person POV comfort zone.
Besides understanding her craft well, one of Noyes’s biggest strengths is her ability to conduct relevant and reliable research for story development. She does her homework when building her story worlds. The payoff is big; it makes for a believable and relatable storyline. This book is no different. Schuss is captivating because Noyes puts the reader there. They understand the nuances of being a professional skier. The story world and world building is spot-on. Readers shouldn’t be surprised; she did the same in Gold, the springboard novel for Schuss. Her attention to detail gives the the setting, as well as the characters, texture and dimension.
Another strength is her ability to get to the foundation of a character’s emotion. We see it here with Gemma and Stacey. Readers understand each woman’s POV because Noyes shows readers why they feel the way they do. In fact, she’s a master of the “show, don’t tell” rule of writing. She uses scenes and dialogue effectively, giving readers a window to the minds and hearts of these characters. It’s the catalyst for why readers care about Gemma and Stacey. Noyes makes their story matter and readers are all-in.
Final remarks…
I appreciate so much about Gemma and Stacey’s story. This is technically a young adult romance but because of Noyes’s skill level as a writer, she brings an element of maturity to it that makes it appealing for all. It’s solidly written and a great sister book to Gold. I’d encourage fans of contemporary sapphic fiction to plop it into their TBR pile ASAP. It won’t disappoint.
Strengths…
- Well-developed storyline
- Likable characters
- Touching and tender romance
- Interesting story world with great world building
A peek inside…
I peeked through the blinds, my bad mood falling away instantly when I saw the green Subaru Forester. Gemma. My best friend, and one of the few people I felt truly comfortable being myself around. Gem was Aspen’s stepdaughter, so we’d met right after Aspen became my head coach at the end of 2017, and had fallen into the easiest, most comfortable friendship.
I didn’t have many friends, because the friends I’d had as a teenager had fallen away after high school. Sure, I had people on the race circuit that I could have unforced, friendly conversations with during races, people I cheered for and enjoyed spending time with when I was away, but I wouldn’t call any of them if I had a problem. I could probably classify Naomi as a good friend, but our friendship wasn’t what I’d call deep.
But Gemma? She’d help me bury a body, and vice versa.
Gem slammed her car door—which would have given her away as my visitor even if I hadn’t peeked to see who it was—and walked carefully up the path to my front door. I pulled the door open before she could press the doorbell, and without a word opened my arms to her.
Gemma fell into the hug, pressing her face against the front of my shoulder as she squeezed me. “Hey,” she mumbled against my hoodie. I felt her deep inhalation a second before her body softened with relaxation.
Wrapping my arms around her waist, I picked her up, holding her tightly against me as I spun her around. “Hey yourself,” I said before setting her down again. Hugging Gemma always made me feel safe. Having her there made everything okay.
Gem pulled back, and I just caught the expression in her huge, light-blue eyes before she managed to hide it. She looked at me that exact same way every single time I saw her, but it hadn’t taken her long to figure out a way to mask it after that millisecond of giving herself away. She looked at me like I was the best thing she’d seen all day. She looked at me like she wanted to say something, but was too frightened to let it out. She looked at me like she wanted to kiss me.
And if I wasn’t so freaking scared of ruining the best friendship I’d ever had, and one of my most important non-family relationships, then I’d probably have just grabbed her already and kissed her. Also, not to mention the fact she was my coach’s daughter, which could make things weird for all of us. I hadn’t always felt this desperation to kiss her…and more than just kiss her. Early in our friendship, when we were both in high school, I’d been aware that she seemed to have a crush on me, and had just ignored it—without being mean about it, of course. But somewhere in the last two years, it’d dawned on me that I not only loved her as a friend, but that I kinda loved her as more than that. Tricky tricky.
“You’re on spring break now, right?” I asked. When she nodded, I added, “So you can come weekday skiing with me a few times?”
That brightened her like nothing else, even though we skied together as much as my training and racing schedule allowed. “Absolutely.” Gem pulled off her wool hat, and her curly blond hair made a break for it. “Will Bree come too?” She tried to sound casual, but the forced neutrality of her expression told me she felt anything but.
“Doubtful.” My girlfriend tolerated skiing but was more invested in her acting stuff and circle of friends at CU Boulder, two hours-ish drive away.
“So it’ll just be you and me. The dream team.”
“Yup.” I carefully tucked a piece of hair that was trying to get into her mouth back behind her ear. “I didn’t think I’d see you today.”
“Aspen said you might need someone to talk to. I thought something bad had happened, but…” Gem’s eyebrows creased together, highlighting the little concentration line between them. “You just look…murderous, not sad.”
“I am sad, but annoyed is winning out. I got totally blindsided. Aspen says we’re done competing for the season, and I have to take four days off training. I mean, it was only Mammoth next week left on my race calendar. Just one more race. But nooo, I need to rest.” I huffed, and tried to stuff down my annoyance. I didn’t want to waste my time with Gem by being a grumpy ass.
“Shit,” Gem commiserated. “Sorry, Stace, that really sucks.” Ever loyal to Aspen, even as she remained loyal to me, she added, “I’m sure she’s just thinking of what’s best for you.” After pulling off her boots and leaving them lined up neatly on the rack, she shucked out of her coat and carefully hung it and her camera bag on one of the coat hooks. Gem rarely went anywhere without her digital SLR, and I couldn’t count how many times I’d stood around while she’d photographed or filmed something on a hike.
“I know. But it’s still shitty.”
“It really is,” she agreed. Then Gem grinned, squeezing my arms. “But, at least you’ll be around to keep me company for the first days of my spring break. Aaaaand, I know it’s selfish, but I really wanted to get some more footage of you training and if you raced at Mammoth then we might have run out of time, and good snow for me to film you on. So…win?” Gem fluttered her eyelashes at me. She did that a lot whenever she was trying to get me to agree to something—which I always did, without needing any persuasion.
I’d agreed to “star” in a short film to add to Gem’s portfolio and was a little nervous about the final product. Not because I thought she wouldn’t do a fantastic job, but because I was worried I might do something stupid and ruin her footage. She’d already applied to her colleges, so it wouldn’t mess that up. But it’d be there when she was ready to apply to her dream institution after college—the American Film Institute in LA. The thought of her living in California, or New York or Boston or Chicago or wherever she’d go for college and beyond made me feel kinda sick. We spent time apart when I was out of state or overseas racing, but she was always right here when I came home, and college would change that. Of course I was super proud of my best friend, and wanted her to chase her dreams to the end of the earth. But selfishly, I also wanted her nearby.
Smiling, I agreed, “Yeah, you’re right. It’s a win.” Determined to mope no more, I changed the subject to one of my favorites. Food. “You hungry?” When she nodded, I pulled open the fridge. Without asking or being asked, Gem grabbed a cutting board, extracted bread from my pantry, and slathered slices with mayo. I handled ham and turkey while she dealt with salad and cheese. Double meat for me, ham only for Gem.
“How much more stuff do you need?” I asked. “Raw footage stuff I mean.” She’d already filmed me training on snow—start drills, ski drills, GoPro footage from my PoV (or, more accurately, my helmet’s PoV), drone footage, more drills.
“Can you give me a session at the gym? Maybe another on-snow training session, or even just some non-training skiing? And I still need you to record some voiceover too.”
“Yup, no worries, can do. Tell Aspen I’m cool with whenever you want to film my on-snow training.”
“Thanks, Stace. The more I have, the more I can work with. I’m trying something different with this one, making it kinda unscripted, just seeing how I’m feeling the footage and stuff, and how it wants to come together.” She passed me the mayo knife to lick clean.
“You know,” I said around licks, “you could just give up your dream of making documentaries for Nat Geo and make ski movies instead. Come with me on the racing circuit and I’ll give you my best side every day. Promise.”
Gem’s laugh was short, but she packed a whole lot of mirthful disbelief into it. “Surrrre. I’ll just follow you around forever and film everything you’re doing, like a 24/7 Stacey Evans reality show.”
“Sounds awesome.” I stole a slice of tomato from her, blowing her a kiss when she mock-scowled. “Are we doing a formal interview, or…?”
“Nah. Unless you want to?”
I shrugged. “It’s your thing, Gemmy Gem. I’ll do whatever you want.”
She paused for a moment, her mouth twisted into its thinking expression. “Okay. Let’s just do question-answer to lead you into giving me some soundbites. You’ve done enough media stuff since Beijing.”
Enough media stuff since Beijing was an understatement. Winning a bronze medal was amazing, but it came with a whole lot of media commitments. I loved talking to people, but answering the same questions over and over was super draining.
Gemma continued, “And if I don’t get what I need from just us talking then we can record you doing some cool lines like ‘I have no fear’ or ‘I am Stacey Evans, Olympic bronze medalist and winner of World Cup races, and I am the greatest speed skier in the world!’ or ‘I love skiing!’ or…something.” She’d adopted a deeper voice to put forth her ideas about what I could say for her video project. “And then we’ll have Aspen saying ‘Stacey Evans is the best skier I’ve ever coached, except for my daughter, Gemma, who will never be a ski racer so she doesn’t really count.’”
I snort-laughed. “Yeah, you really need to work on those lines. And I’m definitely not the greatest speed skier in the world.”
“Ye-etttt,” she singsonged.
“Ever if Aspen and Brick have their way.” It was a really unfair thing to say about the people who had my back at every turn, and I regretted it instantly. “You know what I mean,” I mumbled.
She bumped me with her shoulder. “They’re just looking out for you. That’s what coaches and trainers and managers are supposed to do, right?”
“Right.” I sliced my sandwiches into rectangles, and Gem’s into triangles.
She grabbed her plate and sat opposite me at the breakfast bar. “And I know you’re mad, but I kinda agree with them. You’ve kicked ass this season and I don’t want you getting hurt because you’re exhausted.”
“You’re too sweet,” I said.
“No, I mean it. If you get hurt, then this film project will go to shit.” She smiled around her mouthful of sandwich to show me she was kidding. Mostly. “You went to the freakin’ Olympics, Stace, and you won a medal there. At your first Olympics. You’ve stood on the podium for all of your World Cup races this season. You’ve got nothing more to prove to anyone right now. Not ever.”
“Yeah, I know, it’s just…I want people to be proud of me. I just wanted a little more this season, and I know I could have gotten more from myself.”
Her smile started slowly, but quickly turned bright, brilliant. “Of course you could have. And we are proud of you. I’m proud of you and I love you just as you are.”
I forced myself to smile goofily when all I wanted to do was climb over the breakfast bar and hug her. “Do you love me enough to brave furniture shopping with me? I’ve got a journalist coming round Friday to do an interview.”
“It’s because I love you that I’ll go, because if I don’t, you’ll end up buying the ugliest stuff and it’ll be all over television for the whole country to see.”
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A bit about the author…
E. J. Noyes is an Australian transplanted to New Zealand which may be one of the best things that’s happened to her. She lives with her wife and the best cat in the world.
She started writing because she was bored and had “ideas” and thought writing might free up some brain space. It didn’t. Now she’s addicted and spends much of her free time bashing out words while more new words jostle for attention.
In her scant free time, E. J. scream-swears at computer games, tries to sleep past dawn, coos at her cat and works the fact she’s a best-selling and award-winning author into conversation.
E. J. loves to procrastinate, so feel free to get in contact so she can read that instead of doing work.
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