The Slope Rules Paperback – February 14, 2017

Calliope (Cally) is a 15-year-old, high-school sophomore. Her mother died tragically in a car accident when she was 8 years old and, since then, she's been phobic about riding on the left side of a car due to PTSD flashbacks of her mother's death. Cally's beloved mother was an outstanding skier, and she taught Cally how to ski, starting at age 3. As a result, skiing is not only important to Cally for its own sake, but because she feels emotionally connected to her dead mother when she is skiing.Cally is very close to her responsible, affectionate and nurturing father, which is a welcome departure from the YA cliche of bad parents who are either clueless, neglectful, addicted, criminal, or just plain mean. When Cally and her father are on a skiing vacation in Boulder, Colorado at the beginning of the book, Cally has a classic, romantic-comedy, "Meet Cute" on the slopes with a wonderful boy named Blake, who is her same age. Where Cally is an extremely talented skier, known for her amazingly high, aerial jumps, Blake is almost equally skilled as an aerial snowboarder. Blake is also handsome, attentive and very sweet natured, and the two of them become very close in a matter of days. But, sadly, since Cally lives in Burlington, Vermont, and Blake says he is from Lake Tahoe, California, she assumes she will never see him again, and is very depressed about it. Then, totally surprising Cally, her father informs her that they are moving. He is co-owner of a very successful, independent, craft-beer brewery in Vermont, and he and his business partner have decided to expand their company by opening another brewery in Boulder. Cally has been staying in touch with Blake via text, but when she texts Blake about the move, he inexplicably stops texting her back.Shortly after they settle in at their new home in Eldora, a small, bedroom community outside Boulder, Cally is shocked to discover that Blake attends the local high school. Unfortunately, the sweetheart of a guy whom she met on the slopes a short time ago is not the same person at school. He acts as if he doesn't even know her.The setting of this story is so well drawn, and so crucial to the plot, it made me want to book a trip to Colorado. Cally and Blake are each intriguing and sympathetic characters. Their superior skill at their snow sports is vividly displayed in many exciting scenes, and the uniqueness of a school having a ski team is a fascinating part of the story as well. The story also has "girl power" elements that are fun to read. There is a classic "mean girl" antagonist named Brianna, however, her previous history with Blake, which is revealed toward the end of the book, makes her much more than a one-dimensional, teen-romance stock character.All in all, this is one of the better YA romances I've read, and definitely an excellent sports romance.Parental advisory: I personally would give this book a G-rating. It has no sex, only kissing, and there is no underage drinking or wild parties. One teenage subcharacter casually mentions smoking pot, but this is a realistic situation given that recreational pot is legal in Colorado. Notably, neither Cally nor Blake smokes pot.I rate this book as follows:Heroine: 4 starsRomantic Hero: 4 starsSubcharacters: 4 starsRomantic Plot: 4 starsSports Plot: 4 starsSetting: 5 starsWriting: 4 starsOverall: 4 stars

The author obviously knows her subject first-hand, because the action on the slopes (and in the air!) was extremely well done throughout. There was plenty of action and it was pretty exciting.But what I loved the absolute most about this book was the honest communication, trust, and down-to-earth relationship between Cally and her dad. It was mostly in the background, but you always knew it was there. Blake was a good guy, a genuine sweetheart, and a bit of an enigma. That one teacher was fantastic too. I’ve forgotten her name, but she was the best kind of teacher, willing to go the extra mile, speaking up even when it’s awkward. Also not putting up with any foolishness or bad behavior. Cally was amazing once she got back to being her authentic self instead of who she thought she needed to be in order to survive in school. I found it difficult to believe she would put up with the mean girl crap for as long as she did. It seemed out of character.The extreme extent of the mean girl behavior was also difficult for me to believe. But maybe I was just lucky that my school was small enough that everyone knew each other and no one would put up with someone acting like a jerk all the time or telling other people what they could and couldn't do. Neither the teachers nor the students would tolerate that. But once Cally finally got fed up, got a pep talk and encouragement from her best friend back home, and decided to be herself again, she was amazing! She was fierce in protecting, encouraging, and standing up for others and being there for her wide variety of friends.The most frustrating thing was incidents of miscommunication - or total lack of it between Cally and Blake, also times when they made assumptions about each other. They seemed better and smarter than that, so it seemed out of character. But overall, I loved this book and will definitely be reading more books by this author!

I'm not sure where to start with this book, there are so many things that I loved about it!!!!~friendship - it was great to see true friendships in this book, (especially with the Cally and her girlfriends!) keeping the ones back in Vermont and developing new ones in Colorado, standing up for yourself and your friends~family - Cally lost her mom several years ago and she has a great relationship with her dad! Loved seeing this in a YA book!~skiing - not something you typically see in books, I love Cally's confidence with her abilities plus she encouraged and helped fellow skiers (and snowboarders) - and I have to mention Melanie did a fantastic job describing what it felt like going down the hill.~romance - I loved seeing the development of the relationship between Cally and Blake! It felt very real! (ok, the entire book was very real, nothing was too over-the-top which was so refreshing!)I highly recommend this book!! There is so much more to this book than just a YA skiing romance!

The thing I loved the most about this book is Cally, even though she is only 15 she is incredibly smart. She knows almost instantly that she can't trust the snow bunnies. I also love that she was smart enough to tell her dad about his missing notebook and she wasn't afraid to talk to her teacher/principal about what was going on with Brianna. She has been through a lot and she has also learned from those experiences which made her very enjoyable to read about. I would have liked a little of Blake's point of view as well, just to see what was going on in his head when Cally first showed up at his school. The relationship between Cally and her Dad is exceptional! That is not seen very often and I really loved it.