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The Touch of the Ice: Follow up to Skating on the Edge
The third in the best-selling series about Alex and Samantha the trouble prone Ice Dancers. Samantha and Alex now have an American trainer, Walt Danvers, who is priming them for stardom - or is he? Nothing is ever quite as it seems. Plotting is rife and somebody doesn't want Samantha and Alex to skate successfully in the British Championships. These thrilling novels rip the top off the world of Ice Skating and reveal the passions, the heartbreak and the skulduggery that go on in the professional world.
145 pages, Paperback
First published December 3, 1993
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October 6, 2025
I loved the first two books in this series. I own them both in paperback, and probably bought them before ebooks were really a thing. I discovered there were more books in the series years and years later after ebooks were definitely a thing and picked up the 3rd and 4th books but never got around to reading them. They got somewhat lost in my Kindle (a serious problem with ebook libraries - or at least with mine!).
I found this one last night and being in the proper mood, jumped right in. It picks up from the second one the same way the second one picks up from the first. The couple has just finished their award winning free dance routine, having performed it over and over in between the end of the previous book when they debuted it and the beginning of this book. It’s being retired; a new season is beginning and the story takes off. Unfortunately, this one didn’t come together as nicely as the previous two. It reads more like an earlier draft. There are jumps in time and in action, which are typical of Walker’s writing, but the linking bits and filler bits are missing.
The story does fairly well following its main characters Samantha and Alex. The plot involving Walt is mostly concluded though we don’t get much actual closure. There’s no explanation for when and how Alex and Samantha learn and practice their free routine; it’s just assumed that they find the rink time /space, and presumably the three weeks I think they have from when Alex concludes Samantha is right until the British Nationals is long enough? But honestly, the timeline is unclear as well. And it’s unclear how much Alex continues to do with Samantha and how much he’s listening to Walt.
Time is given to another skating couple - it turns out Walker’s written a book or two featuring them, which maybe explains it.
There’s some skulking around in the dark, which has been typical in the previous books in the series, and most of who is doing what and when and for what reason does come out in the end. Liz and Sue and Toby all appear and disappear without much fanfare, backstory, or subplots. For instance Toby in the last book gets a decent amount of time in terms of his goals and dreams, his sister’s wedding, and his interest in classmate Hilary. In this book we find out Toby’s still cooking, is not with Hilary, is having problems with a classmate, and at one point is struggling with creating a soup. But it’s all disjointed, and there’s no real point to it, nor any resolution to Toby’s dilemmas. Likewise, both Samantha and Alex are struggling in school and not keeping up. It’s indicated that neither set of parents is happy with that state of affairs, yet nothing changes. They don’t fail. They don’t improve their study habits. Their parents don’t try to forbid them skating until their schoolwork is done. It’s superfluous information since nothing is done with it. I didn’t care all that much since my main focus was on Samantha and Alex and what would happen with their skating, but even there things were a bit thin. In the previous books I was super excited to see how their free dance would come together. There was a sense of vindication each time as all they worked for came together and all their foes felt defeat. If I go back and dip into the book before this one I really enjoy reading about Samantha’s getting one over on the bully in her private school with her escape to compete. I feel Sue’s pain over loving skating so much and yet not being good enough for anything other than her love of doing the sport to justify the hours she spend at it - she’s a very important character because she actually represents the vast majority of athletes in any sport. Even though we all identify with Alex and Samantha and Benjamin and Belinda, the reality is most of us are Sue.
So…I liked this book because it continued Alex and Samantha’s arc, but I didn’t like it as much as the previous two, and I wouldn’t recommend starting with it.
Also, I just reread the blurb for the fourth book and figured out why I hadn’t read these earlier.
I found this one last night and being in the proper mood, jumped right in. It picks up from the second one the same way the second one picks up from the first. The couple has just finished their award winning free dance routine, having performed it over and over in between the end of the previous book when they debuted it and the beginning of this book. It’s being retired; a new season is beginning and the story takes off. Unfortunately, this one didn’t come together as nicely as the previous two. It reads more like an earlier draft. There are jumps in time and in action, which are typical of Walker’s writing, but the linking bits and filler bits are missing.
The story does fairly well following its main characters Samantha and Alex. The plot involving Walt is mostly concluded though we don’t get much actual closure. There’s no explanation for when and how Alex and Samantha learn and practice their free routine; it’s just assumed that they find the rink time /space, and presumably the three weeks I think they have from when Alex concludes Samantha is right until the British Nationals is long enough? But honestly, the timeline is unclear as well. And it’s unclear how much Alex continues to do with Samantha and how much he’s listening to Walt.
Time is given to another skating couple - it turns out Walker’s written a book or two featuring them, which maybe explains it.
There’s some skulking around in the dark, which has been typical in the previous books in the series, and most of who is doing what and when and for what reason does come out in the end. Liz and Sue and Toby all appear and disappear without much fanfare, backstory, or subplots. For instance Toby in the last book gets a decent amount of time in terms of his goals and dreams, his sister’s wedding, and his interest in classmate Hilary. In this book we find out Toby’s still cooking, is not with Hilary, is having problems with a classmate, and at one point is struggling with creating a soup. But it’s all disjointed, and there’s no real point to it, nor any resolution to Toby’s dilemmas. Likewise, both Samantha and Alex are struggling in school and not keeping up. It’s indicated that neither set of parents is happy with that state of affairs, yet nothing changes. They don’t fail. They don’t improve their study habits. Their parents don’t try to forbid them skating until their schoolwork is done. It’s superfluous information since nothing is done with it. I didn’t care all that much since my main focus was on Samantha and Alex and what would happen with their skating, but even there things were a bit thin. In the previous books I was super excited to see how their free dance would come together. There was a sense of vindication each time as all they worked for came together and all their foes felt defeat. If I go back and dip into the book before this one I really enjoy reading about Samantha’s getting one over on the bully in her private school with her escape to compete. I feel Sue’s pain over loving skating so much and yet not being good enough for anything other than her love of doing the sport to justify the hours she spend at it - she’s a very important character because she actually represents the vast majority of athletes in any sport. Even though we all identify with Alex and Samantha and Benjamin and Belinda, the reality is most of us are Sue.
So…I liked this book because it continued Alex and Samantha’s arc, but I didn’t like it as much as the previous two, and I wouldn’t recommend starting with it.
Also, I just reread the blurb for the fourth book and figured out why I hadn’t read these earlier.
Displaying 1 of 1 review