Recently Iβve noticed more books about competitive skiers in general fiction. This is a rarified sport, for those fit and wealthy enough to travel to fresh snow and expensive lodgings. Claudine Potts and her daughter, Wylie Potts, used to experience a rare BLUEBIRD DAY on the slopes, a perfect day for skiing. But they both, having excelled, dropped out of the sport. And, we learn, from each otherβs lives. Β Claudine, having wrecked her knees, continues to stress them, as she leads CycleTron enthusiasts who pedal at home, trying to keep up with the determined woman trainer. Sport can happen online these days. One anonymous follower is Wylie, who is using the training to gain fitness as she and her boyfriend plan to take on a disturbing-sounding pair fitness challenge in Paris. When fate intervenes, Wylie breaks a two-year silence to ask her mom to compete on her team. They meet on a train to Zermatt, a Swiss village under the Matterhorn with ski trails to France and Italy. Β The visit is only supposed to last a couple of days, en route, but an avalanche traps thousands of tourists and skiers in the scenic location. Helicopter rides are for those with priority health issues. Not those with non-transferable travel tickets. The mother and daughter suddenly have time to talk, to meet other people, to look around and breathe the clean, Alpine air. But they want to get to Paris! Β I love the descriptions of Zermatt, the tourists resigned to entertaining themselves and the avalanche precautions. While thereβs no ski race, we get a lot of flashbacks, memories and conversations about Claudine and Wylieβs years in the sport. Anyone whoβs trained hard for the fiercely competitive sport will understand what was driving them β but some trainers are worse than others. The generational cycle continued from bullied mom to nervous daughter. Claudine has a secret. She tries to contain it, but these days, social media bubbles up with speculation. I donβt like to think what social media would have been remarking about every athlete from a few decades ago, and the posters always seem to go harder on women. Β Β Β Megan Tady has excellently reminded us, through her characters, that alpine ski contests burn huge amounts of fuel, and sometimes artificial snow has to be made, with shrinking glaciers and exposed mountainsides. On a BLUEBIRD DAY, we should look at who and what we love in our lives, and try to protect the natural environment that makes it possible.
In this hilarious, heartwarming tale, mother-daughter skiing champs face the bumps in their own relationship when an avalanche in a Swiss village forces them together.
Alpine skiing G.O.A.T. Claudine Potts and her daughter, Wylie, have been bred for gold medal glory. They’re skiing their way to fame, but this gilded future is cut short when a fall forces Claudine’s retirement and Wylie’s debilitating anxiety sends her off the slopes.
With the collapse of their ski careers, their relationship falters and now it’s been years since Wylie and Claudine have even spoken. They live on opposite coasts, pursuing different passions, until a chance opportunity to pair up in a European fitness competition drives them back together. Can this duo survive snow-buried regrets and family secrets and have the happy reunion they’re hoping for?
Set in a dreamy Swiss village with a colorful cast of characters, Bluebird Day will make readers laugh and swoon, as Claudine and Wylie slalom through the complicated terrain of lost ambition, past mistakes, and mother-daughter love.
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