This was an enjoyable read. I liked the characters and while the plot was thin, it was still a quick little read!

And yet another 'out-of-genre' book, and yet again found it to be such a fun and enjoyable YA rom-com read!

Every Reason We Shouldn't is such a fun character driven story about Olivia Kennedy and how she is trying to come back from a failure in the skating world and also trying to navigate how to be a normal teenager.

I really enjoyed Olivia as a character, I couldn't quite relate to her as I did Mack though. Who is a side character I would love her own story on.

I absolutely adored Olivia and Jonahs relationship and all their moments together just made me cheesy smile.

4/5 stars because I just couldn't wrap my head around all the skate talk/lingo but loved how relatable most characters were.

A very cute and entertaining read. I love that Olivia and Jonah’s relationship is not the main focus of the story and that it instead focuses on their dreams and how they help each other strive for them. This is a great way to show a high school romance! I love that Olivia keeps going after her dreams even when it feels like no one else believes in her. She perseveres after she falls, even if it isn’t immediate.

Thank you Net Galley for this great book!

A look into the lives of olympic hopefuls and has-beens. This story is an interesting take on what it takes to be a high level competitive athlete and the struggles to balance the live of being a teenager.

I was really looking forward to this book. I'm a sucker for all things skating, but it wasn't for me.

I had to put this down about 25% into it. The main character, Olivia, was miserable and I couldn't handle reading her any longer. My main complaint about her is when she is complaining about having to take care of her mother. Yes, it's hard, but can we not complain about it so rudely? As someone who has had to take care of a parent on multiple occasions for multiple reasons, I hated this.

Also found it strange that the friendship was between a 15 year old and a 20 year old. Five years isn't a big age difference once you're in your twenties and later, but for a 20 year old to befriend a 15 year old, especially being a mom of a toddler? It was odd for me.

Overall, I was looking forward to this, but it was a miss.

I’m a huge fan of books that center around a certain sport and the drama related to it. This book brought both. We had family dynamics, Olivia trying to find herself, and love. It has everything a good contemporary romance should have in my opinion.
Olivia was a bit immature to me for her age, but I couldn’t imagine being in her shoes as an athlete of her caliber so young. I’m not the biggest fan of instalove, but I think the author did a pretty good job with it here. The whole parent daughter relationship was very different from how I grew up so I found that interesting reading.
Overall if you are looking for a cute romance read, you’ll find it within these pages. The added parental and sports drama was a plus.

Every Reason We Should was the contemporary YA novel that I really needed right now. Did I have anything in common with the main characters? Not really. Olivia is a former skater who works at her parents ice skating rink. Jonah is a speed skater training for the olympics. But even thought I didn't have anything in common with them, I just found them incredibly relatable.

A big part of this novel is the fact that Olivia and Jonah were raised in the skating world. Olivia grew up skating and performing in competitions with her skating partner and friend, Stuart (aka Egg). Jonah grew up speed skating and being constantly drilled by his father, who watches each and every practice like a hawk.

But throughout this story, both Olivia and Jonah learn that the world is much bigger than they think. They learn that leaving their "Skating Bubbles" isn't so bad. It made me laugh when Jonah's mother insisted on throwing him a sixteenth birthday party, even though he didn't want it. She's like "Let me do something normal for you!" until he finally gives in.

Some elements to this story that I really enjoyed:
+ Roller derby! Olivia's friend and coworker Mack is a very amusing addition to this story. She's still figuring out her life as a young single mother but she cracks me up. I love how sweet she is to Midori, Olivia's Mom (and also Mack's boss).
+ Interesting side characters. Not only is Olivia's friend Mack amazing, but her parents are very fascinating as well. They are former olympians taking life day by day. Olivia's mom teaches skating at the rink while her dad is on tour, performing in an ice show.
+ Skating. Honestly, I love to watch skating. It's my favorite thing to watch in the Olympics. I also really enjoy skating movies. Ice Princess, anyone?

As a side note, I found the acknowledgements really touching. I am a white woman with a passion for reading & enjoying contemporary YA fiction. And I loved this book. But a big reason why Sara Fujimura crafted this book the way she did is because her children are biracial, and she wants to create stories where Asian and biracial characters are the leads, and not just the side characters.

And that's awesome! I immediately looked up Sara on Goodreads after I finished this book so that I could see what else she has written. Which led me to her website. Check out her list entitled Biracial Asian Teens in YA for more diverse reads!

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this eBook in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the plot of the book (skating, Korean pastries, and roller derby), but just after reading the first few chapters, I got a little bored. It's more for older teens about to be adults. I would recommend this more for young college older teens

Sometimes, not often, but sometimes I am in the mood for a slice of something light.
My tastes hover on the dramatic and morbid and I know it is because I like to see characters fight through the harshness of life and miraculously come out at top. Perhaps not any better than they were but they fought.
And they survived.
It gives me hope in a lame kind of way.
But like I said sometimes I want something not as dark and brooding. I mean, I too would love to sleep at night.
This is one of those books.
Every Reason We Shouldn't is a cute little romance with one of my favorite settings. An ice skating rink.. Whenever the Winter Olympics rolls by Ice Skating is THE sport me and my family watch diligently so this was definitely a book that caught my eye.
Olivia Kennedy has grown up in a family full of athletes. She's seen the great, the good, the bad, the jaded.
And she has been all of the above.
She should be at the Olympics right now but instead she's at her family's ice skating rink and that's when she happens upon fate. She meets Olympics (!!!) bound Jonah Choi. Of course you can only expect there's tension, jealousy, teenaged feelings and grief. Light. Fun.
This book is off in a way. You expect an enemies to lover romance but there's actually none of that? Jonah is a bit of a tight ass yes but he's a future Olympian. It's to be expected, her parents business is struggling, and of course her own big dreams were dashed and she has to face that everyday of her life. So while some aspects of the story fall short it makes up for it in different ways.
I'm looking forward to the next book and more from this author. Sometimes it's best to climb out of your comfort zone and glide (teehee) into the unknown.

Thanks very much to Netgalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

3.5/5

Every Reason We Shouldn't by Sara Fujimura was such a cute, fun read!
The disclaimer on this book really delivered, the story included all the delightful banter, sports and feels.

I highly recommend Every Reason We Shouldn't if you're looking for a light read with a heavy sports plotline.

This was an adorable book and I've been recommending it to everyone I know. My only problem was that it was cheesy at times, but I suppose that's something with every rom-com. Full review to come!

Unfortunately I was unable to get in to this story and had to put it down, however, I'm sure it is a highly loved book and appreciated by the right readers.

Book provided to me by the publisher on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I requested this book because I thought that it was a book by an Asian author and I wanted to read it and help promote it. It's not. I feel a bit like I have been catfished into thinking that this would be an own voices book, when in reality it's written by a white woman whose married a Japanese man. Before I list the points as to why this is bad representation and how I felt about it as a biracial Asian, I do want to acknowledge the fact that the author states that she's written this book to help biracial Asians to be seen in books, for her children and others. I say biracial Asians as in the book Olivia is half Japanese, and Jonah (the love interest) is 3/4 Korean. Even though this book had romanised Japanese (which I could understand and I barely learnt Japanese when I was studying it), I could still tell that a non-Asian wrote this book. Let me set you the seen as to when I realised this. There's a scene in the book where Olivia and Jonah are talking about ice skating (to be fair it's most of the book). It's about 20ish/30ish per cent into the book. Jonah says joking that if speed skating doesn't work out for him, maybe he can be a Kpop Idol. He then says, word or word in my e-Arc, "I work out. I have a sexy American accent. I can sing, sort of. I'm sure Korean girls would be screaming 'Oppa!' and falling all over themselves to get to me." That screamed to me white person, so I had to look up the author because I was like surely no Asian author would actually write and publish this and I was right. Let me break down this section, in case you don't get the subtext.

1) Kpop Idols - Most people who like Kpop know that Idols work their butt off to even debut let alone be successful. Most Idols train from childhood/teenage years to be able to get into an entertainment company, and if they're luck enough to get in a company, they are a trainee for a while. It could be months or years before they even debut, and in that time the trainees amass debt to those companies which they have to pay back. They would hopefully tend pay the training off after they've debut and acquired fans to support them. The comment of Jonah working out, having an American accent and being able to kind of sing irritated me as a Kpop fan because I know that there is a lot more than that to become an Idol.

2) The comment on the "sexy American accent" made me see the white author behind that statement. This may be a bit of a stretch, but it reminded me of white people thinking that just because they're white, that Asians would love them. It's similar here but it's in the sense of being American/having an American accent is better than Asian for attractiveness.

There was also another scenario where Olivia was happy that she was able to take her shoes off in Jonah's house upon entering because she was wearing heels. It's common in most Asian and Middle Eastern countries to take off shoes because you do not want to be bringing the dirt from outside inside your house. It's become a part of the culture, so that being written in the book was also a clear indicator that the author was not Asian.

This book also encourages the stereotype of Asians being the best students and studying when they can with Olivia's friendship group in school being the only Asians, and they study during their lunch break. There's Japanese twins, but I don't remember their names, and Brandon who likes to bake. Most of their dialogue is about homework or how to get to college.

I was tempted to dnf it as the main reason why I wanted to read this book in the first place was because I wanted to support an Asian author. I can understand the authors intentions in writing this book but I do think it's most likely going to do more harm than good. I personally would have much preferred to have a Japanese author or a biracial Asian to have written this book instead of a white woman. I think this book takes up the space of people who have a difficult time in getting published in the first place.

Unfortunately, I wanted to finish this book because I was mildly enjoying the story. It was an easy read, but it still was problematic in other areas, and some of the plot was terrible, but I still managed to finish this book which is why I ended up giving this book 2/5 stars. I will most likely be doing a whole video review of this book on my YouTube channel as well once I have finished studying.

Now I will talk about what I didn't like about this story.

The Plot.
The plot was okay. I liked the skating aspect but it made Olivia and Jonah the stereotype of not like other girls/guys because they're all about the ice. I understand that it is their lives, and it's not something I can relate to, but their general attitude makes it so that they think everything is below skating. School, friends, and sometimes even family. It's skating first. It's done in a way that it's a bit alienating towards the reader. In general, the story is quite slow paced. It picked up in the latter half of the book but there was a plot twist that I really didn't like. This book should have trigger warnings for an intruder in school because I can imagine that it would be quite harmful to some people. I liked seeing that in a book because it was the first time that I've seen in, but it turns out just to be a plot device to make Olivia upset at her mother for not checking her phone/the news. I don't think that it was handled well in the book and I thought that there would be better ways to ensure the same result then to barely discuss intruders in schools/school shootings. I liked the last 30% of the book the best and I ended up reading that in one go. I thought that it was a lot better than the rest of the book because there was numerous stakes involved and you wanted to see how the story would play out.

In terms of the characters, I didn't mind them. I don't think that they are that memorable. If it wasn't for the fact that I feel like I've been catfished by a white author, I would forget this book in a few months. My favourite character was probably Mack - one of the main white people in this book. I really liked her storyline of being a valedictorian, but getting pregnant and pretty much being a single mom and living with her grandmother. I honestly think that the author should have written this story from Mack's perspective because it would have been better, probably in general because her story is quite complex, but also for the Asian representation. But I know that this would have defeated the authors original intention of writing a story for biracial Asians, but as one, I say it's not that good. Skip it.

One of the funniest things about this book is that there is a character nicknamed Egg in this book. His name is Stuart but Olivia calls him Egg because he has twin older brothers who are like peas in the pod and Stuart was the only one by himself so he's a singular Egg. I didn't really understand it but I do think that nicknames are meant to be easy to understand and not involve a paragraph of explaining. I think it would have been better if Stuart only ate eggs, was obsessed with Guatemala, or looked like an Egg. There was no need to highlight the older brothers in this story because they weren't really a part of the story, but a small part of Stuart's background.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book. Whilst I did mildly enjoy reading this book, the positives do not outweigh the negatives. I hope that you enjoyed reading every reason why you shouldn't read this book (book title pun intended).

This was such a sweet story and I loved meeting Olivia and Jonah. Jonah was training to be a speed skater and Olivia had given up on her dreams to be a figure skater. Meeting Jonah put Olivia’s dreams in perspective and I loved how he pushed her not to give up on her dreams for the future. This was a charming story of finding love and what you truly wanted to achieve in life and I loved every minute of it. Definitely one I will read again.

Was an interesting read, i'm not sure if i love it or hate it.
so this book was YA/Contemporary and sport. full of ice skating, it gave ma a feel of *Yuri on ice! (anime ) * the feels.
i like the romance it was light and not the main focus of the plot.
it was action packed.It felt a little too much at times.
i love Mac shes so cool, the main character is a bit of a brat,however shes a teen hehe so its understandable . The parents are very odd.
i might still read book 2 i'm still curious to see how this story will wrap up.

Every Reason That We Shouldn’t by Sara Fujimura |Book Review |
fictiveescapes Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Writing July 22, 2020 2 Minutes
I love books that focus on an aspect of fire or a culture that I haven’t experienced before in media. In this novel Ice Skating in this novel pertains to both the traditional ice dancing variety and competitive speed skating. Roller Derby is another type of skating that is included… I have to say that I am really surprised by just how mainstream Derby seems to be becoming lately; but I’m not hating it not in the slightest.


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The novel follows Olivia Kennedy’s ex-olympic hopeful ice skater whose parents (also were Olympic couples ice skaters) but now they operate and own their well-loved but dying ice rink. Other characters include Jonah Choi the love interest Speed Skater, and Mack the main worker at the rink who is a single mom and is major into Roller Derby.

No matter where the plot goes skating is always at the center of everything. There were multiple moments through out the narrative where it felt like I was out there on the ice, even though I have never skated in my life. (I hope that I am able to try it out one day). The descriptions in this novel are so strong that the rink felt like it’s own character, and given with how much time is spent there it seems warranted.

The things that I valued the most out of this novel was the character’s resilience and the fact that Olivia and Jonah cared more about being their for each other and being friends than whatever romantic relationship they end up in at the end.

Point of interest that readers may want to know before reading for themselves- Both Olivia and Jonah are asian-american. And on a possible trigger warning in the middle of the novel Olivia and Jonah’s school goes into lockdown because of a potential shooter (no one gets hurt though).

I recommend this novel to anyone who likes skating of any form. It was such a fun read that I can’t think of anything that I disliked about it. I hope that Sara Fujimura goes on to write more books because she has definitely just become a new must read author for me. Thank You to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy to review.

Not gonna lie - I was sold on this before even picking it up. I mean, a diverse skating YA romance? I was so happy to find that it more than met my expectations. This was cute and wholesome and exciting, and sure to please anyone with a love for the ice.

For me this book was lacking something, I didn't feel that connection with the book the way that its supposed to be told. I did like the book, i just with that i had that connection with it.

Ever since I can remember, I've loved ice skating, and I always gravitate to reading books that include this sport.

Olivia is considered a washed up skater 15 after it being a while since she's skated. She's adjusting to her new normal while at the same time trying to save her parents' rink. I had a few issues with Olivia, mainly her immaturity. I understand she's 15, but a lot of her attitude and decision-making came from being immature, and a bit of a brat.

Jonah is a skater who arrives at Olivia's family's rink to train for the speed skating Olympics. Olivia's family is thrilled he's there because his family could save their rink. Jonah Choi was the saving grace of this novel. He had me swooning a few times.

I was glad to see the diverseness in this novel. It really gave a certain uniqueness to it. But one other thing that didn't work for me was how one specific mental health issue was barely address--it was mostly brushed off. This could have been a great opportunity to raise awareness; instead, it got shoved under the rug.

Overall, it was a cute story, but I did expect more from it.