Overview

Fencing prodigy Jess Kidman has always been ahead of her peers. At the age of thirteen she made the varsity team, won a state championship, came out, and fell head over heels in love with her team captain, Lauren Standish. After being gently rebuffed by the high school senior, young Jess vowed she would return for her some day when their age difference became irrelevant and her own accomplishments made her not merely an equal, but an Olympian. Eleven years later, Jess makes good on her promise, but when she arrives back in Buffalo a few months before the big games, she’s intrigued to find that the woman she’s always dreamed of could also be exactly the coach she needs to win gold.

Lauren, however, isn’t the bubbly team captain she’d been at eighteen. After a stellar collegiate career of her own, circumstances forced her to her dreams on the shelf and return to Buffalo. She’d made peace with a quiet life spent running a rustbelt fencing club and coaching kids when Team USA’s hottest young fencer waltzes back into her life. As much as Lauren finds Jess’s confidence and athleticism alluring, she also sees the hot-headed superstar as a threat to the carefully controlled world rebuilt in the wake of the traumatic loss she is desperate to avoid reliving. Never one to turn her back on a friend in need, Lauren agrees to coach Jess on the condition that they focus only on the swordplay and not the sharp point of attraction threatening to sever the bonds of her professionalism.

The two women set to work preparing for the biggest event of their lives, but as tension mounts in the lead-up to the Olympic games, the pressure and the passion building between them also grows, leaving both to wonder if Jess is trying to win the gold, or win the girl.

Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Listening Length: 10 hours and 35 minutes

Narrator: Ann Shanks Etter

Audible.com Release Date: November 16, 2021

About Rachel Spangler

Rachel Spangler never set out to be a New York Times reviewed sapphic romance author. They were just so poor during seven years of college that they had to come up with creative forms of cheap entertainment. Their debut novel, Learning Curve (Boldstrokes books 2008), was born out of one such attempt. Since writing is more fun than a real job, they continued to type away, leading to the publication of more than twenty novels. Now a four-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, an IPPY, Goldie, and Rainbow Award winner, and the 2018 Alice B. Reader recipient, Rachel plans to continue writing as long as anyone, anywhere, will keep reading.

Spangler currently serves as the senior romance editor for Bywater Books as well as offering substantive editing services for private clients. They love having the opportunity to mentor young authors.

Spangler lives in Western New York with their wife, Susan and son, Jackson. Their family spends the long winters curling and skiing. In the summer, they love to travel and watch their beloved St. Louis Cardinals. Regardless of the season, Rachel always makes time for a good romance, whether reading it, writing it, or living it.

About Ann Shanks Etter

Narrator of sapphic lit. Number person. Ocean lover.

30+ years on stage as an amateur actress in roles as diverse as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz to Barbara in August:Osage County. Extensive voiceover training. Book clips for author promotional podcasts.