The Favorites
Ratings25
Average rating3.8
Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha rise from troubled childhoods to captivate the world as champion ice dancers. Their fiery chemistry and rebellious style on the ice mirror their turbulent off-ice relationship and made for a good romance read. It’s wasn’t quite the Olympic gold, but it’s a solid silver medal 🥈 read for a sports romance drama.
(it's me, I'm sickos)
I love faux-celebrity gossip/tell-all books because I get all the juice I crave without having to feel guilty about real-life people being harmed by the media attention ^_^
If you love the Olympics, telenovelas, and so much drama – this is for you. Layne Fargo did not give any time to catch your breath with the pace she takes the reader through. I thorough enjoyed it. So much dark and broodiness juxtaposed with the documentary interviews (some of which I caught myself chuckling with how different the point of view each party was). I wasn't exactly happy with the ending (too neat and tidy for how the rest of the story went down — and maybe I would not have been okay with all the acceptance between certain characters), but not a deal breaker.
Just think of the main characters as kind of incestual and twisted ‘best friends squad' if you watched the latest iteration of She-Ra on Netflix with She-Ra as Katarina, Bo as Heath, and Bella as Glimmer.
Still, I love the Olympics, and this reminded me of my youth with Tanya/Nancy (how could it not) blended with the Cutting Edge (regardless of it being ice dancing).
Surprisingly good, for non smut book. Although still too long for a contemporary book.
I liked the format of this book, and the premise of itself was unique compared to my normal reads. Unfortunately I was close to bored.
While suspenseful, and I didn’t know what to expect, it was a bit blah for me. I liked how it switched between present time first person, then third person documentary style. It was a cool concept!
I get why people could love it but it wasn’t my thing.
Kat and Heath was all kinds of toxic, as (seemingly) is the ice dancing and Olympic hopeful community. All sorts of crazy mean girls, sabotage, etc. while interesting, I also didn’t connect or care about them.
Thanks to the publisher and Libro.fm for the alc!
I have to say, this one really hooked me. It had all of the Wuthering Heights brooding vibes I wanted, with intense characters and high drama. The audio production was stellar. The documentary format performed by multiple narrators kept me so engaged and allowed for a multi-faceted view of Heath & Katarina. I've always had a soft spot for figure skating, so seeing inside the competitive world of ice dance also piqued my interest. All in all, a well constructed story with interesting characters (just the right amount of tortured for a WH inspired tale) that were represented by excellent narration.
