Breakaway Books

Authored by Layne Fargo; Published January 2025; Romance

⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️

If you are old enough to remember the figure skating drama that accompanied the likes of Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, and that was your jam, you may enjoy The Favorites. Frenemies, competition with Olympic-level stakes, and endless relationship drama are featured in this ice dancing epic.

In The Favorites, Kat and Heath are impoverished aspiring ice dancers who manage to catch the eye of former Olympian Sheila Lin. They work grueling hours to train under her watch along with her own children. However, they are split apart both as an ice dancing and romantic pair when Heath understands that Kat believes he is bringing her performance down. Kat perseveres on, partnering with one of the Lin children, only stumbling when Heath returns, a far stronger competitor than before. Kat struggles with how to deal with his reintegration into her life and her sport, but she never stops aspiring to the ultimate dream: an Olympic gold.

Rarely have I read a novel with quite so much interpersonal drama, but it fits the plot to a T. Of course, shoving a bunch of competitive teenagers into a training institute will cause drama. But it was difficult for me not to think that if Kat and Heath could ever manage to have a conversation about their emotions, they could have averted many, many of the obstacles they encountered in the novel. Kat and Bella, Sheila Lin’s ultra-competitive daughter, at least had more clarity between them: They would both do anything to win the gold medal. Their frenemy-ship didn’t exactly fill me with warmth—my competitive nature is not on their level, and I don’t understand how a friendship could withstand it—but they did seem to understand each other. The novel relieved some of the drama by switching between first person narrative in Kat’s perspective and excerpts from an ice dancing documentary, which I appreciated.

Above all, this is a novel about athletes competing to win at the most elite level. I love the Olympics—I will settle in and watch every minute I can every two years. I fervently hope that the way ice dancing is depicted in this book is not representative of all Olympic sports. At its worst, it was underhanded and dirty, but even at its best, the athletes reached incredible heights of pettiness. The entire book foreshadows truly terrible events that take place at the Games, and it gave me a pit in my stomach. Granted, from what I remember of the coverage of the Sochi games, some of the trickery described is disturbingly true to life. But Kat matches all of her competitors with her sheer desire to win and her fiery temper; there is no question that what she wants more than anything is victory.

The Favorites is the one to pick up if you’re looking to immerse yourself in an intense, competitive environment. It’s not for the faint of heart!