Thank you Netgalley for the free ARC!

Above All Else is a heartwarming story, about adventure, bravery, love, and challenging yourself to the extreme.

The cover is absolutely stunning, and I truly appreciate the amount of studying this author did for this book. It really payed off, and gave this book a realistic feel.

The story follows Rose and Tate, two high-school seniors who have been climbing for years, working towards their main goal--to summit Mount Everest.

There are many challenges along the way. Rose is heartbroken and must accept that her mother, a fellow climber, cannot join her due to health issues. Tate, who suffered injuries from an accident that could have easily taken his life, suffers from panic attacks and has a sudden change of heart. He doesn't want to let Rose down, but he's broken inside. Can he really do it?

Rose is becoming weaker as the training takes a toll on her body, and Tate is figuring out what to do with himself, and feeling the pressure from his father regarding his future. With all of the hardships and confused feelings for each-other, will the two of them make it to the top of Mount Everest?

The expedition aspect of this story was fascinating. I've always been interested in real-life Mount Everest stories, and putting that into a YA book was such a creative and unique concept. The romance between Rose and Tate was cute, and I found myself rooting for them.

I recommend this book if you want a meaningful yet adventurous story, with the perfect touch of romance and self-discovery.

Have you ever wondered what goes through the mind of an advanced mountain climber? Where does the will come from to put themselves willingly in danger? What happens after a fall? How hard is it to climb again? Dana Alison Levy offers young adult readers a glimpse into the minds and hearts of young climbers in Above All Else. Told from the alternating perspective of high school seniors and best friends, Rose and Tate, this book will capture readers' attention and imagination from the first page. Levy takes readers on the high, lows, terrors, and dangers of mountain climbing from Oregon to Tibet.
For as long as anyone can remember, Rose and Tate have been best friends and climbing partners, but on the cusp of graduation everything is primed for change. Rose and Tate love climbing and just being buddies, right? What if climbing was never really their dream and they would like to be more than buddies?

I really enjoyed the writing, it was easy enough to read. It started a bit slow, perhaps, but closer to the end I couldn't possibly put the book down until I had finished it. All in all it was very intense, that's the best way to describe this.

All the characters were wonderful and I loved reading about them! None of them felt boring or unnecessary, which is pretty amazing and rare.

The start of Rose and Tate's romance felt quite sudden, since at first they were just strictly friends and stated that every now and then but all of a sudden they just kissed. Apart from that, their relationship did feel very natural and realistic. I'm just not completely sure if it was necessary? I don't think the rest of the book would've changed much even if they had just been friends, there can be deep love and the feelings of anger and betrayal even between best friends.

Tate and Jordan's relationship was very believable and realistic for a teenager and his dad.

The way mental illness issues were shrugged off by the characters for the most of the book made me a bit uncomfortable but I was happy to see that there was some progress in that regard, and growth and acceptance in the characters.

I also really appreciate that the book took into account the problematic sides of mountain climbing and the expeditions in regions like Nepal.

I hope I did like this book like so much because the concept and the setting are beautiful. But it was way far than I expected.

The story pacing is quite slow. And sometime, I just skipped a free pages and just summarize what happened. The words are too many to explain one situation.

Although I like the relationship. Rose and Tate are cute together. But at one point in the story, I felt so disgust with them. You know if you read.

Thank you so much NetGalley for sending this eARC to me. This book will available on October 2020.

The premise of "Above All Else" sounds familiar. Think "Into Thin Air" for the YA group. And while it is similar to YA books like "Peak" or "No Summit Out of Sight", it's the characters in the book that set it apart and really get you to buy into the story. Tate and Rose have been best friends their whole lives, as well as climbing partners, so when they set their sights on climbing Everest at the end of their senior year, it seems like a no-brainer. Told from alternating points of view, "Above All Else" delves into heavy-hitting topics like PTSD, parental illness, ADHD, and what it means to be brave. This book flew along and kept me hooked for the entire ride.

I found it really hard to get into this book, unfortunately. I really wanted to love it but I couldn't get past the first 20%. I don't know if that was because of how the ARC was laid out.

I've finally finished reading this book. I loved the idea about teenager going on an adventure and climb mountains but for teenagers to go on climb by themselves I feel a little bit dangerous. But I admire those people who are so brave and do it anyway.

I didn't enjoy the story like I wanted to because the pace was a bit slow it took me quite a few days to finished it. I enjoyed reading about the expedition but to me the expedition was intense even though Rose and Tate have been climbing for years and they have training in difficult weather and all. Still I was quite nervous for them when I read the book.

Other than the plot is slow, I felt the ending was a little bit rushed. Overall, it's still a good concept to talk about teens' adventure and mountain climbing expedition experiences.

Thank you NetGalley for providing this book. This book will be available on October 2020.

(copied from Goodreads) I've been suffering from insomnia during this quarantine, and this book was a fabulous way to keep busy while I was awake. I am really surprised by the lower ratings, because I thought it was fascinating, well-researched, and really romantic. I'm a bit of a sucker for best friends to more stories (Romione shipper for life), but what I loved about Rose and Tate is that they both had flaws and recognized them in each other and didn't try to minimize them. I love climbing books, nonfiction or fiction -- from Into Thin Air to Peak -- and this one was just as great. Yes, it's about climbing Mt. Everest, but it's really about honesty, relationships, finding your person, and parent-child closeness. I highly recommend it, and I plan to add it to the high school library this Fall.

I read this book in just two days, because I just could not put it down. I love a book that showcases different points of view throughout the story, and this book does just that. Both main characters had such different challenges and voices during the story, so it was refreshing and really nice to hear both sides. This book showcased such a journey about climbing Everest and even just getting through traumas and different life experiences. This book encompassed many different emotions, and I would definitely recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

I read this book in basically a day because I could not put it down.

A quick blurb: Rose Keller and Tate Russo are best friends who have been climbing for years, training in extreme weather and traveling worldwide to prepare for their ultimate goal: summiting Mount Everest, the highest point on earth. They head to Everest at the end of their senior year, accompanied by Tate's dad and a family friend, Paul. Climbing Everest is one of the most challenging tasks on earth, but both Rose and Tate have internal obstacles they're fighting hard to overcome as well. Plus, their lifelong platonic friendship seems to be changing.

I really enjoyed the dual POV. Especially with a story centered around such an intense challenge, getting to hear the perspective of two characters was really compelling. The author did a great job giving both Rose and Tate their own distinct voices.

I've always really enjoyed stories about wild tests of endurance, and I'm definitely the type to go down a Wikipedia rabbit hole of stories about Everest adventures. So I knew just from the description this was something I wanted to read. This book really brought together in the best way two genres I love: physical endurance and YA coming-of-age/growing into yourself stories. Best friends to lovers always gets me, and putting it in a setting that so many of us will never experience made it so unique.

Also, this book made me cry. I could tell for the last third or so it was just a matter of time until the tears arrived, and arrive they did. Whew.

I would definitely recommend reading this book when it comes out, especially if you're looking to shake up your typical YA story, or you're looking for a new spin on an Everest tale.

I'm so happy I read this book.

I had never read a story about climbing in my life, and I don't even know why this one caught my attention, but I'm glad it did.
Rose and Tate are going to climb Everest after a life of preparing, and it isn't going to happen exactly how they dreamed about it for such a long time. Rose's mom can't come anymore, even though she was a big part of the plan, and Tate's dad is coming but is not feeling as well as he should. At the beginning it was kind of difficult to get into de story because it kept going back and forth, which made hard to get interested on the characters. The second half of the book was my favorite, I was completely invested on the climbing and couldn't stop reading until I finished. I loved all the details, they made me curious about Everest and I ended up doing what I love the most: opening ten tabs on my browser so I could read EVERYTHING about it.

I was kind of disappointed on the romance: it was unnecessary. Still, I understood why it was there so I made the effort to read those parts, too (thank God they were only a few).
In the end, this book is not just about climbing the Everest, it's about a journey. It's about people that want to do something big (all of them for different reasons) and how their past affects the experience. I loved getting to know these characters.

4.5 stars. A really excellent read that's sensitive and thrilling at the same time.

Tate is an absolute sweetheart and he's my favorite character. His mental health is one of the best parts of the book I think because of how PTSD and ADHD are handled. Absolutely incredible.

Rose is frustrating to read about sometimes because she's so stubborn and can be insensitive to the people around her. Tate is a good balance to her. The parents are present in this book and are nuanced, realistic characters. Rose's relationship with her mom is so sweet and well developed.

I appreciate the attention to culture that the author gives. It's a weird dynamic when wealthy tourists come to Mount Everest and pay the Sherpa people to risk their lives so the tourists can have an adventure. And this book did a good job addressing that and the problematic aspects. It's respectful of the people who have died climbing the mountain, too. The author has a good author's note in the back about her research.

All in all, a great book about adventure, friendship, and love. Definitely recommend.

*I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

This book surprised me a lot. I thought that it would be typical YA contemporary story with characters that are ok, but not great, and with a plot that would not be so special or unique. But honestly, this was amazing!

Above All Else is a story about Tate and Rose, two young climbers. They both have problems in their lives, Tate has trauma because of recent climbing, and Rose's life is completely different after her mother's diagnosis. But none of it is important now. The hardest climb had just begun, and there is no room for mistakes while they are summiting Mount Everest.

I quickly fell in love with both characters. Tate has an amazing personality! His parts were really emotional, and I enjoyed them even more than Rose's parts. On the contrary, Rose is strong female character, who is not afraid to do anything to achieve her goals. But even she had a few hard times in this book, especially at the end, and to be honest, these scenes were heartbreaking.

The plot is gripping since the beginning, and it's not only about climbing on Mount Everest. There are also parts that explain Tate's past and his trauma. So prepare for adventure with a lot of thrilling scenes, some romance and a few sad parts that will break your heart.

Overall, this was a great book. I enjoyed it and I truly cannot wait to read it again.

I feel like I gotta start with saying that I am not one to read books about climbing. I think this is the first book that I ever really read that was about climbing specifically and I wasn't completely sure what to expect, but this was such a nice surprise. The plot was fast moving, the characters were delights, relatable and lovable at the same time, and the end of the book and the end of the climax both felt realistic and terrible and shocking and great at the same time.

At the beginning of the book there was a past/present structure of the storyline and not going to lie, I thought it would go like that through the book and I was wondering what could have possibly happened in the past that would take up half the book, but the author handled it really well and after a few chapters we saw what happened, we got just enough information to know and understand the present and the characters and their motivations and then we just get the main plot for the rest of the story. Which was pretty good, not going to lie, I enjoyed it, but for me, the heart and soul of the story was the two main characters and their relationships. They were best friends for as long as they could remember, they always climbed together, and wanted to climb Everest together, while they relationship naturally develops and turns into a romance during the book. It was so palpable how much they loved each other and cared for each other, I honestly loved every bit of their relationships and the ups and downs of it.

I also really enjoyed Tate's storyline the most. His trauma and PTSD from the climbing accident during the flashback chapters was so real, his struggle of needing to do everything everyone around him expected of him, wanting to be there for Rose and his father and everyone else, while also struggling with his mind changing about climbing and his wants and needs changing, and dealing with the trauma and the nightmares and the fear was so captivating, I loved reading about every single second of it, and I was so proud of him when he decided that he didn't want to climb and not just because of the fear but because he didn't want it. And I was even more proud when he went up at the end to help out his friends.

Rose's storyline for me was a little bit less interesting, but maybe part of that was that just in general, to me climbing Everest feels like an insane thing that I could never imagine anyone wanting. So I couldn't really understand her drive, but at the same time, it was inspiring, and I love how during the story it turned from wanting to do it for her mom into something that she wanted to do for herself and nobody else. I was really proud of her.

And mostly I really enjoyed how the story didn't glorify or try to romanticize climbing Everest. I do believe that for those who do this as a passion, it's an incredible thing, but it's also extremely dangerous and full of horrors, and the book showed both sides and I really enjoyed every bit of it!

Super interesting read. Drama on the side but a lot of cool climbing info, really gives you a feel for what it may be like to climb Mount Everest. I don't always love having two perspectives but both characters were equally good.

Who doesn’t have a goal that they set from childhood? Above All Else focuses on Rose and Tate’s big goal that they came up with when they were young- to climb Mount Everest! This gripping tale of childhood climbing friends will definitely make you feel like you’re right there with them!

Levy wrote this book with two points-of-views, one from Rose, and the other from Tate. Whilst Rose’s storyline generally progresses in the right then and there, Tate’s story flicks back and forth between the past and the present- giving some background for some very important points towards the back-end of the book. Personally, I loved how everything was intertwined and I wasn’t missing anything, which is always a great sign!

Rose is portrayed as the smart, headstrong girl who keeps on going when everything else is falling apart around her, especially as her mum suddenly falls ill and is unable to climb. Tate on the other hand feels very much in the shadows of his family and of Rose, often comparing himself with Rose schoolwise. The contrast between our two characters definitely helped with reading their storylines a lot, as they weren’t the same.

In the story, I loved how the focus was on friends (old and new), health (both physical and mental), as well as touching sensitively on death throughout the book. I also love how all the characters strive in their different ways in order to make climbing Mount Everest happen in the first place- and when they finally arrive at Everest Base Camp, I truly smiled.

As Rose and Tate developed whilst climbing, I did love how there was a little bit of romance, but that wasn’t the biggest part of the story at all, as if the most important thing to both was their friendship and climbing. I also did love the angst that happened at points, especially when Rose and Tate had different views on certain issues, and I thought it was excellent to see that in this read rather than just having nothing but sunshine-and-rainbows.

The description of how gruelling climbing is (whether it be Everest or just the local mountain range) was super intense, and at times made me feel like I was climbing- even though I’m certainly no climber myself! Levy described Everest in such a way that made me even so scared to climb the stairs in my house, just in case I fell because I let go of the railings! I love how Rose and Tate both overcome the challenges they face within themselves and with their new-found friends from the trek.

I did like how there was diversity, with mental health problems, family issues, and physical ailments, and how these were described in enough detail that made me feel like I was right there, dealing with everything alongside everyone in the book. Heck, I even cried at some points because the feels hit me so much towards the end of the book!

Overall, this was a gripping tale with triumphs and losses, and a lot of feels! I was always rooting for Rose and Tate, and this book is definitely something for those who are adventurous or want a different type of contemporary read!

Rating: 4/5
(This review will go live on my blog on September 29th!)

I really wanted to have enjoyed this book, but I did not connect with the writting style nor with the characters, not really.
The premise of the book is beautiful though. I might read it again in the future int he hopes my opinion changes

I think I love the idea of this story more than the story itself. I am absolutely fascinated by all things Mt. Everest and, although I would never ever attempt to climb it, I always try to get my hands on any story that talks about people who do.

I also love that this is a YA story. I honestly don't know many teens who are driven and prepared enough to undergo such a dangerous and intense expedition, so it's really interesting to read about their motivation and desire to climb the mountain.

And although I love the topic of the story with my entire heart, there's just something about this that's missing and I can't quite put my finger on it. I'm not sure if it's the pacing (slow with a slightly rushed ending) or if it's the writing (feels a bit basic), but there's just something stopping me from obsessing over this.

Overall, I think it's a great concept - definitely unique and one that I haven’t read before!

Thank you Netgalley for an advanced read of this book.

There were parts of this book that I found to be exciting and thrilling but for most of the book I was frustrated. I felt like there was a lot of repetition and circling around topics with no real resolution. I guess that is the angst in a book but it was not done well in this book. In fact, it was really frustrating. I felt like a lot of things were pushed that were not necessary to the story. The premise that two teens have been friends all of their lives and have been in training for climbing Mt Everest, awesome! Sounds like an exciting read for sure. However, there was no tension in the relationship that led up to them suddenly "hooking" up one night. I just never really felt that the relationship went beyond friendship, the romantic part did not feel realistic to me. I felt like other kinds of relationships were just thrown in as a politically correct filler but really had no substance and I really hate that in books. Also, it is hard for me to believe that the tension between Tate and his Dad was over something so small. It built up in the book and in the end when they finally resolved it, it didn't feel like there was a reason for that much tension to begin with. I guess it all comes down to communication but it just didn't play out well. Overall, I appreciate the book and the research that went into writing a book about Mt. Everest. That was fun. It was repetitive and drawn out in some ways but a great topic. I just felt the character development and the relationships were not done very well.

Tate and Rose, two teens that have been friends since childhood embark on the opportunity of a lifetime - summiting Mount Everest. As they confront their untold feelings for each other and the difficult situations they left at home, they are faced with life-and-death challenges to overcome on the mountain.

From the writing itself, to the very odd and inconsistency in the characters and the narration, this one just didn't hit for me. Maybe Jon Krakauer ruined all adventure narrative for me.

The beginning dragged and I didn't connect with either Rose or Tate. Their relationship was predictable and not very nuanced and ultimately this story just didn't quite make the emotional cues it tried to. Perhaps this is a novel for a reader seeking to read a hard-hitting contemporary that doesn't care too much for the plot.