Trigger Warning | Sexual Assault, Toxic Relationships

Thank you so much @AtriaBooks & @NetGalley for giving me this eARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 23 June 2020)

SYNOPSIS | Avery has trained her entire life with the goal of making the Olympic gymnastics team, however a disastrous performance causes an injury that ends her gymnastics career. She spends the next 7 years adrift & when she breaks up with her football star boyfriend she returns to her hometown and takes a coaching role at the gym where she used to train.

WHAT I LIKED:
- I have never read a book focused on the Olympics or gymnastics as a sport so this was a lovely introduction into both
- The sport & process was clearly researched very well
- Avery's relationship with Hallie as she coached her for the Olympics was so precious to witness

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- The actual romance with Ryan. Their exchanges were flat and I didn't feel any sparks fly between them even though their romance was a long time coming.
- I wanted more of a discussion around the toxic relationship with her old coach Demitri as well as more discussion about the Dr's inappropriate actions even with a parent in the assessment. It was positively linked to the #metoo movement, but I think more could have been said.

4.5 Stars

Avery Adams had one goal her whole life which was going to the Olympics and win gold. She trained from a young age putting all her time and energy, as well as emotional and physical health into being an elite athlete. When Avery is in reach of her goals, it all comes crashing down in a devastating injury: dream over. Unprepared for life after being so single-minded, Avery spends years struggling to find a fulfilling vocation after such a monumental downturn. After breaking up with her famous football player boyfriend, Avery slinks home to live with her parents and once again try to figure out at age 27 where her life is going.

When Avery is offered a chance at helping coach a young Olympic hopeful, Hallie, she realizes that though there are a lot of painful memories, joy is to be found again for her in the gymnastics world. The head coach, Ryan, was a former gymnast also who did make it to the Olympics as a medalist, and now he is working with the next generation. Avery secretly had a crush on him years before so it does not take long for her to rekindle those old feelings. Though their relationship develops, Ryan makes some choices that show him in a less than stellar light exemplifying the idea that it not just the young ones who are seduced by fame and their idols.

Adding more emotional angst and turmoil to the story, Avery’s teammate and best friend, Jasmine, who did make the team went on to have the career Avery thought would be hers as well as marrying their abusive domineering coach Dimitri. When they meet up again after Avery’s return, it is clear that Jasmine’s perfect life on the outside is not so pretty on the inside. After a scandal rocks the women’s gymnastic world, Avery realizes she has a responsibility to help the young girls following after her.

This story also contains real life elements and scandals blended with the fictional characters. The author does a good job of parsing out the life of participants in women’s gymnastics including all the sacrifices the girls and their parents make to have a very small chance at becoming the ultimate winner in this rigorous and demanding sport. The story is centered around training for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, however, as we all know because of Covid, they are postponed until next year. This fact does not take away from the story or what the intensity of this kind of training does to a person as well as shining a light on the darker side of the demands both physical and mental these young girls and women go through to achieve their goals.

DNF. I made it halfway through this book before giving up.

By 31% there had ONLY been chapters and chapters of gymnastics training and pages worth of really unnecessary back story about the female leads last relationship. Zero meaningful conversations, banter, or even flirting between the lead characters.

I kept reading and only got a handful of awkward kisses, zero chemistry, and a very odd sex scene in a gymnastics gymnasium in which the leading man stopped what he was doing in the heat of foreplay and put back on ALL OF HIS CLOTHES to go into another room and retrieve a condom. Imagine how unsexy that disruption would be in real life...it's the same to read about it in a book.

I finally gave up. This book was not for me. You might like it if you're really into gymnastics and like a very tame romantic timeline.

I loved this story. It brought back so many happy memories of being on the mat. I didn’t compete at such a high level, but I can only imagine the intensity and pressure of it all and it was described so well in writing.
I enjoyed reading this story so much!

At nineteen, the Olympic trials were just a formality for elite gymnast Avery Adams: she knew she was going to be on the team, and she planned on medaling in floor, her best event. However, an injury ended her career. She still started college, but soon failed out. Meanwhile, her best friend Jasmine when on to medal in the Olympics and marry their domineering coach, Dimitri.

Meeting Tyler Ettinger, a rookie on, and later star of, the LA Rams team pulled her out of a vicious cycle, but after four years together, they broke up. With gymnastics her only skill and with no money to speak of, she returned to her parent’s home in Massachusetts. Endless days and a series of bad internet dates stretched in front of her until coach Ryan Nicholson from her old gym asked her to help train Olympic-hopeful Hallie.

Avery realizes that her feelings for Ryan aren’t just professional—but she doesn’t want to compromise their working relationship or jeopardize Hallie’s training. Furthermore, scandals in the world of gymnastics force her to confront Dimitri’s training methods and bring her and Jasmine together again.

Head Over Heels has a lot of technical details about gymnastics! I had to YouTube some of the moves described to understand them, and I didn’t always completely get the sequences. At the same time, I have always enjoyed watching gymnastics, so it brought to mind memories of watching Summer Olympic games. I also enjoyed the healing role yoga played in the book.

The characters Avery, Jasmine, Ryan, Hallie--all elite gymnasts—spent their youth laser-focused on a single dream. For Avery, her journey was interrupted by injury, but even Jasmine and Ryan, both medalists, never left the orbit of gymnastics. The book would be useful, I think to readers who have been so intensely focused on a goal but are looking to diversify their interests, given that it’s not just a matter of learning but also identity.

It also gives some attention to coaching styles and the psychological and physical pressure exerted on elite gymnasts. It made me want to read the nonfiction book Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters (1995) by Joan Ryan.

I wish that the characters outside of Avery had been more developed. Also, there were few obstacles or challenges. Jasmine’s subplot, for example, was resolved so easily it seemed implausible. I applaud that Orenstein dealt with issues of abuse in the gymnastics world but think the material around the doctor of sports medicine could have been expanded.

Teen gymnasts or fans of the sport will get the most enjoyment from the book which has a satisfying and inspiring ending.

Note: this was written before the coronavirus and has scenes at the 2020 Olympic Trials and Olympic Games which have now been postponed to 2021.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

Avery is a former gymnast who crashed and burned in her moment of glory at the Olympic Trials, so now she's 27, back in her hometown, and desperate for something to do. She ends up back at her former gym, guiding a teen gymnast through a new floor routine, falling for a coach her own age, and reeling from her former best friend being married to the emotionally abusive coach they trained with as teens.

I've enjoyed the author's past work, but her previous books never fully hit it out of the park for me. Something similar happened with this story, which introduced a lot of plots that never felt like they totally took off. Compared to the author's other books, the writing also had more of a telling quality than showing. Conflicts are resolved quickly without much depth explored, and the way the story ties up is a little too clean and perfect. I didn't feel like I really knew any of the characters, and the second half really slogged for me. Overall, it was a decent read, but I felt like too many storylines weren't fully fledged out for it to be very immersive.

Head Over Heels focuses on Avery Abrams, a retired gymnast as she struggles to put her life back together after she fell during the Olympic trials, and in the wake of a high profile breakup. She returns to her hometown of Greenwood, MA to recover and re-evaluate her life. There she is approached by Ryan, another retired elite gymnast who now coaches at the gym where she trained. He is looking for an assistant coach for promising sixteen-year-old Hallie, who struggles with floor routines, Avery’s specialty. At first, Avery is reluctant to take the job, wanting to completely leave the world of gymnastics behind. But when she realizes how much Hallie needs her, she agrees. When sexual assault scandals come out in the gymnastics community, Avery must face the impact of her years of training before she can begin to heal.

I thoroughly enjoyed Head Over Heels. I loved how it focused on a retired gymnast observing the demanding nature of the training she went through while helping a younger gymnast achieve her dreams. The story is told entirely in the first person from Avery’s perspective. Avery has so much personal growth over the course of the novel. She’s a great character, as are all the gymnasts in the story. There’s a major focus on healing and forgiveness in Head Over Heels, and though the novel touches on some heavy topics, the overall tone of the book is optimist and light.

I have a soft spot for dramas about gymnastics and Head Over Heels really stacks up. Whether you are a fan of gymnastics or not, I think there’s something in this story for everyone! I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a good story with a strong and powerful message.

Thank you to Atria and Netgalley for my review copy! All opinions are my own.

This is a good book. With a focus on the gymnastics community and the recent news that has happened in that community this book felt so honest and real.

Avery Abrams lived a lot of life in a short time, training for many years with the
Olympics as the end goal, it was taken from her right on the cusp and for this big of an event to happen at such a young age, Avey has been through a lot. The book starts seven years later as Avery is returning home and she is at a turning point and has to decide what is next for herself.

The one thing for me that was sad about this book was that the Olympics were cancelled and this book set in the current time, of course, fiction is fictional and I could stretch my imagination, but it did make me chuckle and feel bad for the climate that this book ended up being released into.

I liked the writing, the plot and the characters and would read more from Hannah Orenstein.

Thank you so much #NetGalley and Atria books

So freaking good and I loved the whole gynmastics theme to it and learning exactly how it works.

I loved Avery. She handled everything like a champ including a scandal. I honestly thought this was going to be a huge rom com, but it was so much more. It was sort of weird reading about the 2020 upcoming olympics especially now that there aren't any.

Seriously though, Hanna Orenstein created a world that was so wonderful to be a part of!

What a cute story! We meet Avery, a gymnast, who worked her entire life to hopefully make the Olympic gymnastics team. Then, one horrible injury in her try out routine changed her whole life causing her to move on from the sport. Flash forward a few years and Avery has just broken up with her superstar football playing boyfriend and is back in her hometown where her Olympic dreams started. Being back at her parents house is not exactly the life she envisioned for herself. But then she gets a call from her childhood crush Ryan, also a former gymnast who is now a coach at her former training gym. He is training another gymnast who is an Olympic hopeful. He enlists Avery's help with coaching and she decides to take the job. What follows is a cute love story between the two. I really liked Avery. She was sweet and spunky. What I also liked is that this story wasn't totally heavy on the love. While the love story was there it also gave us a fun peek into the world of competitive gymnastics. It showed us the high stakes of competition, but also the need for perfection and discussed body image issues. Overall, it was an entertaining, adorable and fun read and I really liked it! Thanks to Atria Books and Netgalley for allowing me to read this one! It publishes June 23rd, so for fans of sweet romcoms with likeable characters, it will be a perfect addition to your summer reading list!

Gymnastics is one of my favorite Olympic sports so I loved that Head Over Heels was set in the gymnastics world. Overall, I thought this was a great story, covering a lot of important topics and I really enjoyed Avery as a character. However, I felt there was a lot more telling than showing - it was very explanatory and "this happened then this", which it made it resonate less emotionally. With this, it also felt like things moved quickly from one event to the next and there wasn't time to really let things sink in, which I really would have liked with the heavier topics.

3.5/5 stars

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

One of the biggest things I was looking forward to in 2020 was the Summer Olympics, so I was beyond bummed when it understandably had to be postponed. Head Over Heels was the perfect read to hold me over until the Olympics next year. It also brought up major issues in recently uncovered in the sport, and other issues these young athletes go through. The romance aspect of the story was not as strong as I would have liked, but the gymnastics focus was perfect!

Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This is a very intense, emotional story that relates an intricate picture of the life altering effects on the heroine due to abuse she suffered as a world class gymnast. While I was expecting a lighter romance, this was at least a well written story.

I really enjoyed this book! At the beginning, I wasn't sure whether there was going to be too much gymnastics "inside baseball," and don't get me wrong, there was a lot, but it didn't take me out of the story as much as I thought it would. The characters were likeable and the thing that breaks the couple up in the middle (spoiler? I mean, it happens in all of these kinds of books) is more than just a miscommunication that could be explained off if they just spoke to each other. The pacing of the story was perfect. It is really relevant in the age of #metoo without having the entire story revolve around it. I've never read anything else by Hannah Orenstein, but I will definitely take a look at her back catalogue now.

4 stars

Thank you to Atria Books and to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you for the opportunity to be an early reader. Unfortunately, I was not able to connect to the story.

This was a sweet romance story combined with a very timely examination of how competitive sports can affect the lives of athletes. The setting is the world of high-level gymnastics and the characters are current and former gymnasts. Avery was a world champion on the path to the Olympics when she was injured, ending her career. She is working to rebuild a life for herself after competition. Ryan followed the same path and after making it all the way to the Olympics is working to make a name for himself as a gymnastic coach. The two come together to form a coaching team for a young Olympic hopeful named Hallie.

Along the way Avery and Ryan fall for one another as they attempt to help Hallie realize her dreams while facing the dark sides of competitive sports. We were all horrified when the stories of abuse in U.S. gymnastics surfaced recently and Orenstein handles the situation directly but with sensitivity.

There is a lot of attention paid to the details of the training process and gymnastic skills. I really enjoyed this because although I have no personal experience, I love watching the sport. I thought the love story was sweet, realistic, and well paced. Avery and Ryan are both working through a lot of personal issues stemming from their past and building lives of their own. I won’t spoil anything but I loved the way the author chose to end the book. It left me feeling hopeful and proud of how the characters developed.

Thank you to Hannah Orenstein, Atria Books, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting story about Avery Adams who dreamt of becoming an Olympic gymnast. Her injury stops her from going to the Olympics, but her best friend moves forward to the finals. After a horrible time at college, Avery decided to move back home. When she goes looking for a job she meets Ryan who asks if she would help a future gymnast. Avery doesn't believe she had anything to offer and turns down the job, but then later decided that she would like the job. This is more than just a rom-com as it deals with the actions of a hurtful doctor of the gymnasts. It's thought-provoking and controversial but a story that we should all learn about.

Head Over Heels by Hannah Orenstein is not just a cute, romantic story. Orenstein delves deeply into the world of competitive gymnastics and does not shy away from the physical and mental abuse that young girls in the field often suffer. Avery was on her way to the Olympics in 2008 when a horrible accident ended her career, her hopes, and her life plan. Now close to 30, freshly dumped by her superstar boyfriend, Avery returns home to live with her mother and father while she gets her life together. After a cursory attempt at digital dating, she takes a job at her old training gym. Ryan , a former gymnast like herself (known as Cute Ryan to the girls), made it to the Olympics in 2008 then aged out of the sport and turned to coaching. He is training young Hallie to try out for the Olympic gymnastics team headed to Tokyo in 2020. Hallie is a gifted gymnast, but she doesn't have that extra dazzle in her floor routine that she would need to qualify for the team. While Avery helps Hallie polish her floor routine, she sees a young girl trained with kindness, and unfailing support, but still eager to push herself to achieve what it takes to be an Olympic gymnast. Avery compares training Hallie with her own training by the excellent, but verbally abusive Dimitri, an older Russian coach who gets results, but at what cost?. As Avery builds confidence and begins to truly help Hallie excel, a horrifying scandal comes to light that effects Hallie as well as most of the young female gymnasts in the area. In helping Hallie deal with the situation, Avery has to come to terms with her choices and decide what she will do with the rest of her life, with her attraction to Ryan and her desire to make a difference in the world.

I was thankfully able to read an ARC and became completely absorbed in this book. What I know about gymnastics comes from watching the Olympics so I had a little point of reference. Orenstein explains the training and the sport in such a way that you feel a part of it, not condescended to. Head Over Heels is a very good book - I enjoyed reading it and intend to recommend to all my readers. I hope you enjoy it too!

I'm so glad I was recommended this book! Thanks to Atria Books, Simon and Schuster, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC for review.

I love discovering new to me authors and Rom-Coms are a go to favorite. Head Over Heels is SO very relevant and I feel like a book that is pertinent to several stages of our lives. Avery worked most of her life with one end goal that is nearly impossible to achieve and she didn't. Not surprisingly, she waffled through life for the next seven years.

Ryan, Hailey, Jasmine and Dimitri all play a role in helping Avery find who she can be. That transition and discovery are what kept me and I think others turning the pages.

A retired (due to an injury at the Olympic trials) world-class gymnast returns to her hometown to coach a sixteen-year-old aspiring Olympian alongside her teenage crush. This book was so fun and I read 90% of it in one night. It also filled the hole left by the 2020 Olympics. I LOVE the Olympics - like move every screen I own into one room to watch multiple events at once - my favorites are swimming, gymnastics and tennis.