Author: Christina Hill

Synopsis:

Myra wasn’t expecting to get divorced. She also wasn’t planning to book a flight to the Montana mountains to teach herself to ski. But after three glasses of wine—maybe it was four?—and her newly purchased just-for-me underwear, she embarks on her solo ski trip.

There’s just one minor issue, and he’s ten years younger.

Lincoln and his avalanche dog, Otto, moved back to patrol the mountains he grew up skiing. It wasn’t his first choice, but he’s on a different journey now. One he thought would be easier to navigate on and off the slopes than waiting for a stork-delivered girlfriend to drop from the sky. Instead, she rammed into him.

Running into each other had its perks. She now had a fake boyfriend to prove she was definitely not in a divorce-life-crisis. She was, but would rather give up her beloved Gilmore Girls DVD set before admitting it. He just wanted to bring a woman home to impress his family. If only it wasn’t so easy to fake it.

But Myra’s second chance at love and Lincoln’s crash course in speaking his mind might come with more bumps than getting off the chair lift.

For fans of Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez and Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison, readers will swoon and sweat over this laugh-out-loud romantic comedy set in a small town in Montana.

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Review:

Tips Up was an age gap, fake dating romance, that was a quick read.  But as someone who loves to get emotional when reading a book, I wasn’t able to connect with one of the main characters.  And when that happens, I usually struggle enjoying myself throughout the book.  There were also some other issues I had, with how the story played out.  But don’t mind me standing on my own little island.  So many other people on Amazon and Goodreads love this book, and I seem to be the anomaly. 

First off I have to say my three favorite things were Lincoln, his dog Otto, and the whole scene before and after something involving a swimsuit.  Lincoln was one of the good guys.  He was sweet, kind, and lovable.  And if you adore men who take charge of a situation, with just a touch or a word, he is your man.  Lincoln had me melting time and again.  He was so swoon worthy!

My main struggle was that I couldn’t ever connect to Myra, let alone like her.  I gave her slack in the beginning of the book, for arguing with an eight year old child.  Because I expected her to grow.  And while she did grow from that first page to the last, I still couldn’t click with her.  I struggled to see what Lincoln saw in her besides their scorching chemistry and someone who was interested in him.

The other struggles I had were with scenes that played out in the pages.  Some of them were…

*The dog scene and the bed.  Nooooo.  That made me go from this is so hot, to being thrown in a cold shower in 2.2 seconds.

*When there’s an age gap, I have no problem whatsoever with that trope.  I have multiple family members that have 10-15+ years between them.  But when the older person refers to the younger person as a baby-man, newborn baby-man, and says baby-man’s dick that just gives me the ick factor.  I can’t do it.

*The ending.  I hated it.  Yes, it’s a happily ever after.  But that’s just not what I thought would pan out.

*I felt like Myra still needed to work on herself, before jumping into a new relationship.  When she cried because she saw something, that made me pause.  I get that emotions can be messy, but it felt like she shouldn’t sleep with someone, let alone fake dating someone until she had moved on and healed herself.

*I also felt like the reader was supposed to suspend their belief for a few things on the mountain to make the story flow.  I’ve read contemporary books, and some arcs, where it states to suspend your belief in this contemporary world and I loved that lol.  So I think if you read this story as someone who rarely ever or never skied or snowboarded, then you wouldn’t have the same issues as me.  But as someone who spends almost every winter weekend snowboarding, and has a lot of friends that work for ski resorts in all different areas of the business, the two things that bugged me were…

-I really struggled that a ski patrol person would take a beginner on a lift, when they haven’t even tried the basics like pizza on the magic carpet ride.  Even when you take lessons, for someone who has never ski/boarded before, you start out on the magic carpet ride.  Which is a fraction of a green run, and usually not as steep.  Then part way through your lesson, you move over to the bunny/green run.  I’m thinking it was probably done this way in the book, so there could be a swoon worthy scene.

-The struggle in the latter half of the book.  Oh gosh.  I’m thinking this is another thing where I should have suspended my belief?  I’ve been to 7 different resorts from tiny to huge and there are sooooo many warnings above and below ☠️ lol.  I don’t want to say more than that, because of spoilers, but I really struggled with this scene.

So while this book didn’t work for me, so many other people love it!  I think it’s definitely a me issue.  And I hope if you pick this one up, that you end up finding everything in the pages to love!

PS How can you not like leftovers?  I think chili and soup are always so much more tasty that next day.