Review: Snow On The Mountain by P.D Singer

Reviewed by Buggy
Snow on the Mountain (Mountain #2) by P.D Singer
Dreamspinner Press
Novel: 210pgs
2.5 Pants Off

Blurb:
Champagne powder snow, gorgeously groomed slopes, and elegant hotels draw the expert and the wealthy to the exclusive Wapiti Creek Ski Resort, but for Jake Landon and Kurt Carlson, the lure is work. A novice skier, Jake's been assigned to run the bunny lift, but Kurt’s afraid he’ll be stuck shoveling snow all winter. Instructing at a private ski school should be his dream job, but it brings giggles and sideways glances among their new friends.

All summer, Jake and Kurt were alone in the wilderness. If Jake wanted to stay in the closet, it didn’t matter. Now they have to navigate a relationship in public, where the five-year-old twins who’ve adopted Jake as their ski buddy are as big a nuisance as the ski patroller who has a crush on him. Would-be friends, vicious coworkers, and the perils of the mountain could mean the end for Kurt and Jake, but their biggest danger comes from each other.

Second Edition
First edition published by Torquere Press (November 2009)

Review:
Opening Line: “The screams made me turn around to look uphill.”

We first met Jake and Kurt in the fantastic Fire On The Mountain where they worked as fire rangers for the summer season. Two men alone in the mountains cut off from civilization, completely reliant on each other and well, you can guess the rest. Of course both assume the other is straight at first and dance around the obvious signs they're each putting out until a life or death situation forces the truth to the surface. They want each other.

Snow On The Mountain picks up a few months later; Jake and Kurt are now working at the exclusive Wapiti ski resort and still very much in the honeymoon phase of their relationship. While everything is perfect behind the closed doors of their staff housing, navigating their relationship in public is proving to be a little more difficult.

Jake as a novice skier has been assigned to run the bunny lift, a job that suits him just fine. He’s making friends, improving his skills on the hill and was recently adopted by the boss’s five year old twins, who he seems to be babysitting down the green runs on a daily basis.

Kurt’s transition was more interesting to me as he struggles initially to find work, giving in to the fact that he might just be shovelling snow all winter when a plum job instructing at a
private ski school lands in his lap. In FOTM Kurt was the popular, self-confident, hero kinda guy. I mean he was good at everything he did and Jake worshipped him for it, so it was interesting here to see the roles reversed with Kurt struggling to find his footing while Jake adapted to their new life and friends so easily.

Thankfully in this book we get inside both of our heroes heads as Singer has provided us with an alternating POV albeit it goes from 1st to 3rd person but I still appreciated getting Kurt’s view.

So yeah the conflict; well Kurt’s job doesn’t turn out to be quite what it seems on paper and after he books his first client he finally figures out what all the sneers and sideways glances, have been about. It seems is new instructor job is just a front for an escort business. Of course all that pales when it comes to being held at gunpoint, crazed Bulgarians and surviving avalanches.

Ultimately though I have to say this book was a real struggle for me to get through. Which was disappointing because I’d loved the first book in the series so much and had been looking forward to Jake and Kurt’ s continuing story. I also spent 10 years living in Whistler so I was excited about the ski resort aspect, especially knowing how good PD Singer is at creating her locations. She doesn’t disappoint here, the ski conditions and terminology are perfect, and I felt like I was there at the resort or whooshing down the slopes with fresh powder in my face but sadly everything else just fell flat to me. The romance was meh and the bad guy was kinda over the top and hilarious without meaning to be.

2.5 Pants Off

Review: Book #1 Fire On The Mountain