by
What happens when a figure-skating pairs partnership runs its course? For Jason Huang, it’s a chance to consider the possibility of an open, honest life. For Laurent Fortin, it’s a series of crushing losses. When friends suggest he leave the scandal and speculation behind in favor of graduate school, he seizes the opportunity.
Jason calls his former rival to offer sympathy, but when he hears that Laurent is coming to his own city, he offers a house-share. It’s only natural that they begin training together; they both still love to skate. A half-serious suggestion becomes a dedicated effort to take pairs skating far beyond its conventional limits.
They master unique challenges in a quest to compete at championship level. Along the way, their friendship grows through flirtation and dating to something much deeper. Once they’ve taken their skating partnership as far as they can, will their unexpected love stand on its own?
Publisher: JMS Books, LLC
Editors:
Genres:
Pairings: M-M
Heat Level: 4
Romantic Content: 4
Ending: Click here to reveal
Character Identities: Gay
Protagonist 1 Age: 18-25
Protagonist 2 Age: 18-25
Tropes: Coming Out / Closeted, Interracial Relationship, Office / Workplace Romance
Word Count: 91000
Languages Available: English
Laurent Fortin wasn’t talking, but anyone with a shred of intelligence could deduce that Martin Bernier had withdrawn his support and kicked the guy out. So much for all that shit about being the next best thing to family.
When Bernier acquired Laurent—Jason couldn’t help thinking of it that way now—he was too young himself to really understand what was going on. By the time he and Jenny were moving up the juniors ranks, the arrangement no longer incited jokes about that old movie, The Cutting Edge. It wasn’t uncommon for one pairs partner to be more or less adopted by the other partner’s family when one of them was underage. In this case, Bernier had taken formal guardianship because Laurent’s mother had cancer. He’d been about to say goodbye to skating altogether, because the family couldn’t afford it anymore, when Bernier made his offer.
READ MOREJason had no idea where Laurent’s father was in all this. Maybe he was never in the picture. Another reason to be grateful for the Huangs, Gold Medal Skating Stage Parents. Between their enthusiasm and the generosity of their enormous extended family, Jason and Jenny never had to make a choice between school or skating. Never had to juggle part-time jobs, never went hungry, never missed a dental cleaning or a vaccine or a physical therapy session.
Had Bernier covered all that for Laurent, or did he do the bare minimum? Jason couldn’t help digging a little deeper. He found things like the scholarship underwriting Laurent’s university degree, but didn’t find much about the man himself.
They’d been friendly over the years, in the casual-acquaintance kind of way you develop with someone you see fairly often but never in private. Even when they’d been up against each other in an event, there was no hostility or aggression. No trash-talking, no shade. Laurent seemed to be a genuinely nice guy who loved skating, cared about his partner, and had almost nothing else in his life.
And look at him now. Skating future in question, no partner, nothing else in his life. “Jesus.”
Jenny looked up. “What?”
“Laurent Fortin is kind of fucked.”
“Yeah, kinda.” After a second, staring at him, she said, “You guys get along, right?”
Jason said, “I think he gets along with everybody. Even the bitchiest bitches never had anything bad to say about him.”
“You should call him up. See how he’s doing.”
He examined that from several angles, wondering what his sister was up to. Laurent was really good-looking. Maybe Jenny had a crush? Jason wasn’t sure why the idea annoyed him.
****
The new job was an administrative assistant position with the city’s Parks and Recreation department, in the office handling all things skating, thanks to a staffer going out on maternity leave. The new place was a rental cabin owned by a friend of a friend of the family, conveniently located midway between two rinks. With all the paperwork signed and the parents resigned, Jason tugged on the skating grapevine to get Laurent’s phone number. He wouldn’t be answering unknown numbers himself in this situation, so he was prepared to leave a message. The actual live human voice saying, “Hello?” was such a surprise Jason almost forgot to speak.
Then he rushed to say, “Hi! Laurent, this is Jason Huang.”
“Jason? Um, hello.”
“I’ll bet you’re wondering why the hell I’m calling.”
A soft laugh. “Yeah, a little. Nice to hear from you though.”
“I hope so. I, uh, I’ve seen some troubling stuff online about your situation right now. How are you holding up?”
“I’ve had some moments,” Laurent said. “Hard choices. I decided to go back to school for my master’s.”
“Hey, that’s awesome. Up in Montreal?”
After a pause, Laurent said, “Actually I’ve applied to a program in your city.”
“No way! Living on campus?”
“Suzanne’s helping me look for a place right now.”
Jason completely lost his head. “You probably heard about me and Jenny calling it quits so she can focus on school. Well, I’ve got a job and I’m moving into a two-bedroom cabin within the next few days. There’s room for you if you want to share.” He heard himself say it, had no idea where it came from, didn’t backpedal.
Another pause, then a faint, “What?”
“I know this is out of nowhere and, considering we’ve never had a personal conversation, way over the top. But it seems like we’re both at a career turning point, and we can understand the other person’s position.” Nervous about the silence on the other end, Jason added, “This wouldn’t have to be long-term. Just to kind of help you get settled. I’ve always lived at home, never with a roommate. Might be really bad at it.”
“Mmm.”
Jason couldn’t tell if Laurent was even remotely interested. “So, uh, are you remotely interested?”
There was a huff of a laugh, then a shaky voice. “This would solve so many problems. Thank you so much for thinking of me.”
“So, you want to? Whenever you can get here is fine. And you don’t need to worry about paying rent. If you’re coming on a student visa, you can’t hold a job here.”
“I know, yes. Marie and Suzanne would help with the rent, though. I’ve been helping them for years.”
“You certainly have. Listen, talk it over with them and give me a call back. Or text, whatever works. I’ll text you my email address, too.”
“Jason. Thank you so much.”
“It’ll be wild getting to know each other off the ice. Take care of yourself.” Jason disconnected, because it sounded as though Laurent might have gotten emotional, and they didn’t know each other well enough to be comfortable with that, because guys. He sent the promised text, receiving a prompt acknowledgement. Then he went to find Jenny. “I accidentally invited Laurent to come and stay with me for a while.”
She blinked at him. “What did he say?”
“I think he’ll go for it.”
“And how do you feel about that?”
How did he feel? Nervous. Boggled. Excited. What he said was, “I hope he knows how to cook, because I sure as shit don’t.”
COLLAPSEI’m one of those people who can’t watch figure skating live. Too much anxiety, which has grown over the years, probably due to increasingly skilled media coverage in which no error or fall or injury is missed. Only after it’s all over can I watch the taped versions of whatever happened.
I’ve also read quite a few hockey-based romances, and let me tell you, I learned to respect the art and science and skill of hockey by reading these.
Hockey has nothing on the grueling physicality of figure skating. Alexandra Caluen’s “Totally Thrown” gives the reader a special insight into this well-known but also mysterious world. The skating drives the plot and the characters.
The story opens at an important moment in the lives of two twenty-something figure-skating pairs: Jason and Jenny Huang of Colorado Springs, and Laurent Fortin and Marie Bernier of Montreal. All four of these young people have been skating since before puberty, and none of them has any sense of what real life is outside of figure skating.
On top of this, both Jason Huang and Laurent Fortin are gay. Or, at least, Jason is. Laurent, at twenty-four, has no “empirical evidence.” But he has his suspicions.
The catalyst is that Laurent is forced out of the pampered hothouse of the Bernier estate in Montreal when his contract with Marie ends, and decides to attend a master’s program in Colorado, where he knows there is a figure skating community. Then he meets Jason Huang and his large, enthusiastic family.
Covering the course of two years, Caluen’s story quickly focuses on the relationship between Jason and Laurent, but expands to bring the larger world of figure skating into the foreground. These are two young men who have known almost nothing but skating their whole lives, and now must build a new life together that merges things like work and higher education with their love of the ice. The author pulls her focus back from the abrupt set-up of the opening chapters and gives the reader the big picture of the complicated, intertwined lives of these two skating families. At the center is the intense training that Jason and Laurent maintain in order to participate in the even more intense testing and competition that underlies all figure skating.
The physical nature of the sport becomes enormously important, both athletically and emotionally, as Jason and Laurent learn to become true male partners in a sport that requires one skater to literally throw the other into the air while speeding across the ice. Issues of sexuality, gender norms, and sports bias all come into play. Caluen manages all these different threads with great skill, weaving a vivid tapestry of young athletes who love their sport as much as they push against the limitations it imposes on them.
Five stars.
TOTALLY THROWN was inspired by a video post on Instagram featuring two gifted and daring male figure skaters doing something I’d never seen before. Down the rabbit hole I went, putting months of research into the history, limitations, and possibilities of pairs skating. This is my first sports romance and, like many of my stories, it features characters at a career turning point that affects every facet of their lives. Jason and Laurent’s romance evolves in the context of their long road to professional reinvention and creative self-discovery.
Dedicated to Gabrielle Papadakis, Madison Hubbell, and Zabato Bebe, for showing it can be done and making it look like fun.
