Man of Ice by Fiona Marsden
Subgenre: contemporary romance
Release date: 26 Feb 2019
Publisher: Fidelis Ink
Format: ebook
Length: 119 pages
RRP: $4.16 (ebook)

Maybelle Li is a high achiever. She wants to do things to atone for the death of her sister. Belle felt that she was responsible even though she was only seven at the time. Belle has worked hard at her skating and in her studies. When she finally finishes her skating career, she wants to work in biomedical research. Subconsciously Belle is trying to fulfil her sister’s dream, but Belle needs to find herself.

Bohdan Dovzhenko is new to Australia even though he is one of the world’s top ice skaters. His previous partner, and lover, demanded too much from him and they separated as lovers and skaters. He came to Australia to work with his new partner, Maybelle Li, and they have reached Olympic level.

There is a tension between the two skaters. Both are dedicated to their sport but have become very adept at hiding their feelings. Then during competition, the feelings dam opens wide and this sporting pair become a couple.

This novella is a fairly quick read and allows the reader to get caught up in the excitement and drama of the Winter Olympics. Both Belle and Bohdan are very focused people and this has allowed their personal relationships to lapse, or in fact fracture to have an impact on their professional lives. Finding their other half means the skating becomes better as does their ability to relate to each other.

I’m sorry I can’t tell you the final results at the Olympics so you will have to read the story for yourself. Although I can tell you that it has the best outcome, a HEA.

reviewed by Heather

A review copy of this book was provided by the author.

Note: This review is based on an ARC from Netgalley.

Okay, cards on the table: I've always loved to watch figure skating. The combination of dance, musicality, and raw athleticism is fascinating, and the reality of skating--the daily grind, not just the glittery costume on competition day--is likewise intriguing. As a result, I've been gobbling up books related to the sport.

That's why I asked to read "Medal Up," two short novellas based in the world of skating in the winter Olympics. The two stories are by different authors, but they are clearly created to work together, as they share the same set of core characters. I originally began "Medal Up" and, for some reason, I drifted away into another book.

Now I've gone back, reread and finished the book, and I can see why I didn't finish "Medal Up" the first time. If you're looking for a fluffy romance with a very accelerated happily ever after, it's fine. For me, I wanted a bit more--more of the sport, more realism, more character, etc. And maybe I was asking the book to be something it wasn't meant to be, but either way, this book just didn't do it for me.

I enjoyed both these books it as my first read by Nicole but I have read a book from Fiona before. These books are completely different but both are really enjoyable they were really well written and were fantastic reads for a quiet weekend well worth a read.

I received an arc from Netgalley. This book was just not for me. While I like the Olympic theme and romance aspect it just didn’t keep me interested enough to finish either story.

In the grand scheme of things, this wasn't very good. I didn't feel the romances leap and twirl off the page. Instead, the characters felt very wooden and 1-dimensional. It wasn't terrible, but I was so bored reading it that I had to go get another book to read -- thankfully a good> figure skating romance by Tamsen Parker -- before getting back to reluctantly finish this one. As for the excerpt from Nicole Flockton's next story at the end of the NetGalley e-read, I didn't even bother to give it a try because I am so ready to get back to good reads.

Love figure skating, love romances. Great time to indulge in both during the Olympics and Valentine's week. Unfortunately, this collection was way out of medal contention.

This book contains two novellas set at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Korea.
The first story is about Arielle, a figure skater and Brady a snowboarder who used to be a figure skater. I really loved the pacing of this story. It was realistic and moved the story along appropriately. The characters were realistic and interesting, and it really felt like they belonged together. Finally the sequence of events felt reasonable for athletes at the Olympics.
The second story tells of Maybelle and Bohdan’s relationship. They have been pairs figure skating partners for months, but are really no closer to knowing each other than they were the first day.
This story had a faster pace, but I really liked how the story concentrated mainly on the emotion within the relationship. The characters and situations were again realistic and these were also heart warming as the characters got to know each other and found they had more things in common than they thought.
One of the best parts of this duology is how well the two stories work together. The first story introduces all the characters and the friendship problem/situation that needs resolution carries through both stories seamlessly, almost as though one author had written both. Flockton and Marsden have done a fabulous job providing readers with realistic entertaining Olympic stories.

This was a really sweet duology with two great stories - I liked the focus on their relationships, rather than any crazy drama around them - and loved the very topical setting of the Winter Olympics. Because of their length, there's naturally a fair amount of insta-love, but it works within the context.

Medal Up is a cute sports romance duology set at the Winter Olympics, featuring two couples fighting their attraction while going for the gold. I enjoyed both novellas, especially the HEAs that both couples found. This was a lot of fun to read while watching the Olympics on television.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this "duology"...Both books complimented each other while I enjoyed each story separately. The authors really did a great job because their books flowed along nicely. I have to say that the second book, "Man of Ice" was my favorite of the two. "Fighting Their Attraction" was good but it didn't have the emotional pull that Man of Ice did. I really felt the emotional pull between Bohdan and Maybelle and really felt his pain when he told her of his personal family tragedy. Great endings! I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved these two stories.
They were quick reads with basic romance story formula but the interesting part was it being at the Olympics that are currently taking place, even if I wasn't in to watching ice skating. I would feel like watching it after reading these. I now find myself wondering about the love lives if the athletes.

I picked this out because I really fancied some Winter Olympics romance action before the games. I love winter sports - particulary figure skating and I love finding out about who is dating who off the rink, so I thought it would be perfect for me. And the romances here are nice - three dimensional characters with actual backstories and issues that aren't just about their sports careers. However, possibly because of all the figure skating I watch, I kept getting drawn away from the romances by the technical details (large and small). So not as perfect for the Winter Olympics fan as I had hoped - but for the casual viewer, this might be spot on.

I went into Medal Up with some apprehension, as I am hugely familiar with the main themes of the book, which meant I was going to be hyperaware of any errors. I did get distracted by those aspects in the end, though I have enjoyed both these authors before.

Medal Up is actually two connected stories set at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Each one could be a standalone, but they’re quick reads with characters making appearances in both.

The reasons I was apprehensive:

#1 All the main characters are either figure skaters, or former figure skaters, and I have followed the sport closely for decades.

#2 One of the male leads has a full-on Ukrainian name. My family is from Ukraine, and with the ongoing war and the barrage of Russian anti-Ukrainian propaganda still permeating the world’s media, it is SO important to me that authors write the truth.

#3 Most of the main characters are Australian – as am I.

#4 The book is – duh! – set in Korea, where I used to live. I think that in the second story Fiona Marsden made a decent effort to fit a little bit of general information about Korea in, but otherwise there’s a tight focus on the main (non-Korean) characters. Nobody’s eating kimchi or watching K-Pop, for example!

My first big issue comes up on the very first page of the book:

Ukrainian and Russian are NOT interchangeable. They’re different ethnic groups, and have different cultures, different languages, and – most importantly – Ukraine and Russia are different countries. This is the heart of the – ongoing – Russian invasion that began four years ago.

When it comes to the sporting aspects of the plot, I have no idea what the authors did or didn’t know before writing this book, but some artistic leeway has to be given.

You will have to suspend your disbelief to accept that so many Australian figure skaters in the story are world champions and Olympic medal contenders (because, yeah… we’ve never been very good at that sport!). I did love the casual references to the AIS and Canberra and all of that, however.

On the other hand, these skaters were crap! Nobody makes it to the Olympics with a basic double Lutz as the feature jump in their program. You’ll only see a skater at this level do it as a mistake. Whenever the double Lutz was referred to I got the voice of Lexie from 1978’s Ice Castles in my head, laughing as she says ‘She can’t do a triple!’.

Here is Tara Lipinski doing the first of her two *triple* Lutz jumps in her free skate twenty years ago, at the Nagano Games:

Tara Lipinski Nagano Winter Olympic Games 1998 Triple Lutz Double-Toe

In order for this to be a book for adults, the skaters are a little older than many who win medals at this level (e.g. Lipinski was fifteen in 1998, and the silver medallist that year was seventeen, and Ukraine's Oksana Baiul was sixteen when she became Olympic Champion). I can understand this, though: otherwise it would be young adult fiction!

And, in order for the romances to happen, the characters don’t know each other before the Games. This isn’t possible. Every skater would know the name, age, and accomplishments of every other skater for the last thirty years. They could probably even recite each other’s choreography in their sleep. It would be impossible not to know everything about each other in advance.

As you can see, I got very distracted by facts and technicalities. It’s the reason I’m extremely apprehensive about reading ballet-themed books – I know too much about the subject.

Medal Up is an easy, fast read that will satisfy people inspired by the Olympic season. Just try to not be as picky as I was!

I love figure skating and I love romance novels. Add in the Olympics as the setting and it's a perfect fit. The characters were likeable, I found myself really rooting for them. It was a very quick read, but I loved it.

With the winter Olympics just around the corner this seemed like a great book to pick up and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed this one, I loved the setting and the characters from both stories, they are fast paced and filled with emotion and all that goes with aiming for a gold medal and the personal feelings that can add a lot more stress.

Fighting Their Attraction

This is the story of Australian snowboarder Brady Thompson and Canadian figure skater Arielle Baldwin’s and how they got to their HEA and a rocky journey it is, Brady has a lot of issues that need to be sorted out he is known as a bad boy and Arielle is a caring loving woman who seems to be treated like a very young girl at times, but after their first meeting the spark and sensual pull cannot be denied and Arielle decides that the bad boy Brady is who she wants. This story will have you turning the pages and smiling when Arielle gets her guy.

Man of Ice

Is Russian figure skater Bohdan Dovzhenko a man of ice or is that his way of keeping feelings under tight control? Bohdan has been through a lot in his life and is a champion figure skater and is now paired up with beautiful caring and friendly Australian Maybelle Li and they are out to win a medal but he must keep his distance emotionally from her. For Maybelle her ex- partner Brady is also there and she is trying so hard to help him, but what about herself as she feels her feelings growing for Bohdan can she get him to open up, is there a future for them as a couple not just as a team.

I do recommend this book to all lovers of winter sports, these stories have ticked the boxes for beautiful romances that will pull the reader in and open up the world of the Olympics, the characters are real and very likeable in their journeys to bliss, they are sensual, heart-warming and emotional and are sure to leave you smiling.

We find ourselves reading about athletes in South Korea at the winter games in this duo of books. In this story, we meet Maybelle, Bohdan, Arielle, Brian, and Brady. Who are they? What events do they compete in? How do they know one another? Who is Tina? What happens and what almost happens is quiet entertaining in the first book of this duology called Fighting Their Attraction by Nicole Flockton. Who is it that is attracted? I'm not going to tell. You're going to have to read to find out. In Man of Ice by Fiona Marsden, we get a chance to explore these folks more, especially Bohdan. We also meet Danielle in this book. We did not get a chance to meet her in the first book. As we get to know more about Maybelle and Bodhan, we find that they're both survivors and they both feel guilt about things that have happened. What has happened that helps them become who they were meant to be? The things I learned about them just blew me away. It is a must read story!

Trigger warnings: Homophobia (in the past), death of sibling, school shooting (in the past)

This is a duology of two interconnected stories set during the winter Olympics. Though this may seem odd to say, it was nice to see countries other than America represented (most of them are representing Australia, and Arielle is Canadian).

Fighting Their Attraction – Nicole Flockton – ★★★

“Turning to look at the friend he hadn’t seen in more than eight years shouldn’t have been difficult, but it was proving to be. The last thing Brady Thompson let rule his life now was fear. Once, it had. Now, he couldn’t do half the tricks he did if fear controlled his world. Pasting on a smile, he faced his past.”


Brady arrives at the Olympics as a strong contender for a gold medal in snowboarding – and promptly runs into several ex- skating friends, including his old pairs skating partner. Brady burned his bridges with them when he left the sport years ago, so it’s even more inexplicable to him when he finds himself attracted to one of the Canadian skaters, Arielle. And even stranger, Arielle, who doesn’t know anything about Brady except there was a bit of a kerfuffle around him several years ago, is interested despite herself. Her parents – who are also her coaches – have drilled into her that she doesn’t have any time for distractions.

“But people didn’t fall in love in a few days. Especially when they were at a highly emotional event like the Olympics, where one second you’re riding a high and the next you’re in a heap at the bottom of a snowdrift.”


I think what personally struck me the most about this story was Brady’s and Arielle’s parents’ controlling influence on their lives. I mean, Arielle’s mom freaks out when she finds out she went to dinner with Brady, and Brady’s dad is partially responsible for his abandonment of ice skating, not to mention his childish reaction when he thinks Arielle is a distraction to him going for the gold. I think this made the whole relationship feel even more doomed to me, as it doesn’t seem like either person had the maturity since they’re so used to being bossed around by their parents. It was just too insta-love for me to believe.

Man of Ice – Fiona Marsden – ★★★★

This story worked better for me. While calling Belle and Bohdan’s prior relationship a friendship would be a stretch, they at least had more familiarity with each other to build a romantic future on.

“It wasn’t as if she even liked him in that way. Not now. He’d stifled that initial attraction with his indifference right from the start.
Respect, yes. He worked like a demon and was a superb partner, generous with praise even when he was tough about practicing and putting her all into everything.
It had been his drive that put them into medal contention at the last world championships at Helsinki and earned them a spot on the Olympic team even though they’d only been working together for a few months at the time. They’d missed out on a medal, but it had been close enough for the Olympic selectors.”


Maybelle (Brady’s old partner) and Bohdan are competing for Australia in the ice skating pairs competition, though Bohdan is actually Ukranian. Though they’ve only been skating together for a few months, they’re both driven to medal at the Olympics, even though it’s a long shot. Like Brady and Arielle, their families are a strong influence, though there’s a bit more depth behind their reasonings. Bohdan has been taught by his life experiences that it’s best not to get too close to anyone, and Belle isn’t used to doing anything for just herself. Of course, things between them start to shift at the Olympics – the worst possible time! I liked that they both had quite a bit of back story going on, and that they both discovered, as their relationship progressed, that they had other common goals (besides the Olympics) that they wanted to work towards.

Overall, I enjoyed these stories, and I’m rounding up to 4 stars for the book as a whole. Recommended if you’re looking for some winter sports fun!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

What can be more fun and timely then a duology about the Winter Olympics when the Real Olympics are happening... We have the feelings and stress of it all. We get a quick back story for each couple and see how this intense environment can put everything under the microscope....

Both stories happen during the games with cross-references to all the characters. If skating is a favorite for you,then this will give you all the excitement and romance.

Fighting their attraction: Brady is at the Olympics to earn a 2 medals in snowboarding for Australia while Arielle is there for women's figure skating to medal for Canada. Good backstory into their lives as we see glimmers of it. They made a good couple thrown into an emotional situation that is the Games. A little too insta-love for me, but I guess when you know you know.

Man of Ice: Bohdan is a Ukraine now skating for Australia with his partner Maybelle who is Chinese-Austrlian. They are searching for a medal in pairs figure skating. Bohdan icy exterior is being melted away as the pressure of the Winter games and a chance at a medal finally is upon him. I liked the premise of this story, I struggled with some of the Australian slang that made no sense to American me.

This was a cute very enjoyable quick read. I love when authors apply romance to events like The Olympics it always captures my imagination making me wonder what goes on behind the scenes.