Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest book by Layne Fargo. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 5 stars!

Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha have been connected since they met as children. Both had difficult and abusive childhoods, but Katarina had a dream and she brought Heath into it with her. She dreamed of being an Olympic ice dancer like her idol, Shelia Lin. Through true grit and determination, they became a duo not to be dismissed, until an incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to an end. As the 10-year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public's obsession with Shaw and Rocha. Sensational rumors have always swirled around them, but it's time to set the record straight.

I absolutely loved this novel! The story spools out from first person POV to the transcript of the documentary interviews and it's the perfect way to tell this story, It's not only a fascinating look into the ice dancing world, but it's such a good story about the characters' drive, dedication, and the obsession to win at all costs. I couldn't read fast enough because I loved all the drama, tension, and excitement. If you're a fan of Taylor Jenkins Reid or couldn't get enough of the Tanya Harding story, this book is for you. It's a must read!

RANDOM HOUSE *gets aggressively close to mic*…… HOW DARE YOU. 😭🥹😩!!!!!!

This was SUCH a beautiful story and book and the way Layne writes with such conviction in her characters was choke-holding, truly.

I cannot thank you enough for this ARC it was such a beautiful story and serves as the true example of what the human experience can be read AND written as…. I felt so attached to all of them that by the end I was an emotional mess. My heart hurts and I feel heavy and that is the beauty of this book…. to create a space for readers to go and explore what success and achievement look like…. I’m closing this book with goosebumps and immediately grabbing a glass of wine.

CONGRATS to the author!! Editors!! Publisher!! And especially whomever scoops this up for tv because it undoubtedly will be adapted.

GOLD MEDAL BABY!!

4.5 stars

Set in the cutthroat world of competitive ice dancing, The Favorites is unputdownable. Kat and Heath take the world by storm with their scandals and dramatic skating on their way to the Olympics, but then it all falls apart. Alternating between snippets of interviews for a 10th anniversary documentary about the duo and their own stories, this was an excellent and immersive read. For fans of epic love stories and lots of drama.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ 4.5/5 Stars
"The Favorites" by Layne Fargo absolutely consumed me - I devoured it both through immersive reading and the absolutely stellar audiobook performance. This intoxicating story of ambition, figure skating, and devastating love grabs you by the soul and refuses to let go.
At its core, we follow Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha, whose partnership on and off the ice defies everything standing in their way - from Kat's unsupportive family to Heath's time in foster care. Their chemistry is electric, their style rebellious, and their relationship burns with an intensity that both elevates and threatens to destroy them. When tragedy strikes at the Olympics, their partnership shatters, leaving behind a legacy of unanswered questions that resurface a decade later through an unauthorized documentary.
The interview-style narrative brilliantly weaves multiple perspectives, showing how differently each person interpreted the events that shaped Shaw and Rocha's story. What sets this book apart is its unflinching look at the cost of greatness in elite sports, exploring how far people will go for Olympic gold and what happens when your whole world revolves around one person and one dream.
Tropes & Elements:

🎭 Childhood Sweethearts to Enemies to Lovers (sort of...)
🏆 Sports Romance with Elite Athletes
💫 Found Family & Foster Care Rep
🌪️ Toxic Love That Consumes Everything
🎬 Documentary-Style Storytelling
❄️ Ice Dancing/Figure Skating Setting
🔥 Closed Door Spice
🌟 Ambitious Female Main Character
🎪 Complex Side Characters With Their Own Agendas

This rollercoaster of emotions will leave you breathless, frustrated, and ultimately unable to look away. The audiobook especially deserves praise for bringing this intense story to life in a way that enhances the already captivating narrative.

The judges score:
🔟🔟🔟🔟🔟

The most talked about January release and with valid reason.The best book I have read in quite awhile.
It’s so much more than skate dancing. It is addictive, dramatic, mystical, and toxic! You do not have to be a fan of this sport or any Olympic sport to enjoy this page turning, conniving, sabotaging, scandalous, roller coaster love story!!!
There are two main characters, Kat and Heath, with great side characters. At an early age Kat wants to be just like her idol, and win an Olympic gold medal in dance skating.
Heath, a boy shuffled in the foster system, will do anything for Kat. Odds are against them, but he learns to skate to be her partner, always at her side, always has her back.
This is written documentary style with full cast narration. It’s the 10 year anniversary of “what happened” and Kat finally wants to give her side of the story. It will keep you guessing and emotionally involved as you will be cheering then mouth hitting the floor.
Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the 5 golden star ARC in exchange for my opinion/review.
I have told all my reading friends about this book and had my non reading friends listen too! I ordered a hard copy for my library!!!

✨ The Vibes ✨
Wuthering Heights in the world of competitive ice dancing

📖 Read if…
✨ Wuthering Heights is your favorite classic
✨ You become an ice dancing expert during the Winter Olympics
✨ You love complex characters that feel like real people

Happy pub day to The Favorites!!!!

Is it too early to say this is my favorite book of the year?

The Favorites follows Katarina and Heath, two ice dancers who are determined to become Olympic champions. The story starts with the early days of their career and is framed around a documentary that is digging into their history.

This book truly has everything you could ask for. It in some ways reads like historical fiction (even though it takes place throughout the 2000s) because of the oral history elements and extensive details, and there’s plenty of romantic tension between Katarina and Heath that will be sure to satisfy romance fans. I’ve seen it compared to many of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books, which is an apt comparison. I saw a lot of similarities between The Favorites and Carrie Soto is Back, particularly the focus on elite athletes and the highs and lows of competitive sports.

What made The Favorites an instant favorite for me was how the story really came off the page. Katarina and Heath are obviously fictional characters but I found myself wanting to Google them and watch their routines, only to be disappointed when I realized I couldn’t. I audibly gasped at several points but that just speaks to how the story draws you in and doesn’t let go until the very last word. But that’s a testament to how authentic and real Layne Fargo’s writing feels!!!

I’m just one of many people singing the praises of this book but hopefully that encourages you to pick it up. Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Layne Fargo absolutely delivers with The Favorites! This book is a seductive, sharp, and twisty exploration of fame, power, and obsession. I was completely hooked from the first page, unable to look away as the characters spiraled deeper into their darkest desires. Fargo masterfully weaves tension and glamour, creating a story that’s as irresistible as it is chilling.

If you love messy relationships, high-stakes drama, and morally complex characters, this is a must-read!

I love all things ice skating, so was excited to receive an ARC in exchange for feedback.
Katarina and Heath, childhood friends and sweethearts, become ice dancing partners. Their goal is to win a gold medal at the Olympics.
They train under their idol, along with her children at their academy. The story follows heartbreaks and victories, giving an inside look of the skating world.
Great book, kept the pages turning!

I was so excited for this book but ended up having the weirdest reaction while reading. It completely stressed me out, to the point that I had to throw it aside multiple times. This is definitely a case of "wrong book, wrong time" because it is so highly rated and popular. I may attempt a re-read when I am in a different frame of mind. Very strange experience.

The Favorites was a breathtaking dive into the cutthroat world of elite figure skating, filled with ambition, obsession, and raw emotion. Katarina Shaw’s rise from an underdog to an Olympic ice dancer was beautifully juxtaposed with her tumultuous bond with Heath Rocha. Their chemistry, both on and off the ice, was electric, crackling with intensity and complexity that left me utterly captivated.
The narrative structure—split between Kat’s present-day reflections and the highs and lows of her past—added a gripping layer of suspense. The unauthorized documentary framing device brilliantly peeled back the glittering veneer of fame to expose the sacrifices, secrets, and betrayals beneath. The prose was razor-sharp and evocative, making every skate, every heartbreak, and every triumph feel viscerally real.
While the story was steeped in scandal and tension, its heart lay in the fiercely human struggles of Kat and Heath: their longing for freedom, identity, and love. It wasn’t just a book about figure skating; it was a powerful exploration of the cost of greatness and the search for meaning beyond the spotlight.
The Favorites was a stunning portrayal of ambition and artistry, as beautiful and brutal as a perfect double axel. I couldn’t put it down, and I’ll be thinking about it long after the final page.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

THE FAVORITES by Layne Fargo answers idle questions of an occasional viewer of ice dancers on television: what is like to forge such a tight partnership that your lives are as entwined as the dances you perform, what happens when such a tight partnership collapses? I loved the characters of Kat and Heath, as vivid and fully-dimensional as anyone I know and the dramas past and now ten years into the present when a new story purports to tell the real story behind the sweethearts on the ice. I also learned a great deal about ice skating competitions and the brutal demands of such an elegant sport. I enjoyed the read -- ice dancing will never look the same to me again. I received a copy of this book and these thoughts are my own, unbiased opinions.

Well, I cannot give this book more than 5 stars because that's the rating system, but it deserves more. Especially since this is one of those books you cannot stay away from. I've read it in less than two days and while I was not reading my mind kept going back to it. To the drama, the competition, the love, the connection all these characters had, the scandal, the subterfuge, the manipulations.

Katarina and Heath have known each other since childhood. Kate's dreams has always been to win a gold medal in ice skating at the Olympics. Heath's dream has always been to make Katarina happy, no matter what.

The book focuses on these toxic and dysfunctional relationships - ice skating and their love - while their career goes further and more players are brought into the game. You cannot help falling in love but at the same time feeling hate, disappointment and annoyance at them. Kate and Heath were so blindly focused on their obsessions. Making you - the reader - obsessed in return.

This book to me was what Kate was to Heath, an obession, something I couldn't go that long without. My hands are itching to go back to page 1 and read it all again, maybe with a new perspective now that I know what happens. But I already know I will be annoyed at Bella's and her mom's manipulations. I'll hate Heath for those three years and especially what he ends up doing in Vancouver. And I know I still would start suspecting you know who for everything that happened in Sochi way before they got there. And I know I'll end up loving Ellis and his involvement.

I've had this gem on my @netgalley shelf for a while, but I think I was not ready to read it before now. I am grateful NetGalley and publishers and @laynefargo gave me the opportunity to be included in spreading the word about this gem of a book. You should too, come and be obsessed like you haven't before.

#arc #arcreview #arcreviewer #arcreader #thefavourites #laynefargo #netgalley2025 #sportsromance #wutheringheightretelling #katarinaandheath #iceskating #contemporaryromance #obsession #2025readingchallenge #drama

I really enjoyed this book. It was different compared to other stories I have read. The back and forth between timelines was fun. I loved learning about figure skating. A new sport I didn’t know much about.

The Favorites by Layne Fargo is exceptionally thrilling! Every single character was so interesting to follow, and I felt deeply immersed in the world.

My last five star read of 2024! I absolutely LOVED this book. I could not put it down. One of my favorite movies as a kid was The Cutting Edge and this gave me similar feels. I enjoyed the drama, the characters, I even loved to hate some of them! The characters were wonderfully written. I was hooked from page 1 and there were so many twists I didn't predict or see coming. The vibes of this novel reminded me of Taylor Jenkins Reid.

I really want to see this on the big screen. I get this book will not be for everyone as it is heavy on Ice skating. Katarina sole purpose in her life was winning Gold at the Olympics with the only boy she had ever loved and known, Heath. But Life doesn't always go to plan. I enjoyed the commentary in between chapters, I thought it was fun. The audio had so many to list and made the Audio, so good. This is my first Layne Fargo read and will definitely read more from Layne. Thank you netgalley for the ARC, this review is my own opinions.

Re-edit: I literally can't stop thinking about this book. Katarina is unforgettable and made this book a literal ******. Thats 6 Stars I believe it will be my favorite of the year. I know it's only January, but I literally want to meet Katarina and family. I did feel like there was a false ending as I was geared up for it to end soon and at that point it was a 5-star read and really good and the Everything hit the fan and chaos erupted. But Katarina is grown now and is in charge of her life. I absolutely love the ending, as I am still smiling hours later. How do I move on to another book now, as nothing can live up to this.

P.s. I hope I did not hype it up too much and it's not your cup of tea. I hope everyone loves it and wants more.

Wow! Written in a very similar format to Daisy Jones & The Six (interview with mixed media, etc), this book is gripping from the beginning & takes you on a wild ride that is well worth the read (or listen, trust me - the audio is perfection!) I don't know what more to say about this one than I'm sure everyone else has said, but if you grew up watching pairs ice skating at the Olympics & fantasizing about what their relationship looked like & dreaming to be one of those fabulous skakers one day, this book is for you! A love letter to pairs ice skating (ice dancing in particular) with a side of tortured romance & a crazy dramatic cast of side characters, this book was phenomenal & I can not wait to read anything else Layne Fargo writes! Highly recommended.

As someone who grew up watching figure skaters like Kristy Yamaguchi, Michelle Kwan, and others, I've always been enthralled with that world. They made the sport look so effortless. Now I know better, that making anything look easy means it's probably even harder. All of that to say that The Favorites was exactly what I was hoping it would be. Insight into a lifestyle that looks so glamorous on the outside, but is grueling and competitive and rewarding. The characters were compelling, and I really enjoyed how the story was told.

Such an engrossing read, I gulped this book right down! I did find myself wishing for a twist ending and found myself a tiny bit let down by the HEA, but the journey getting there more than made up for it. I’m so excited by the tease of a screen adaptation in the author’s acknowledgements, I would watch the H-E-double custom ice skates out of it! Looking forward to seeing what this author does next!

“The thing is, when pushing your limits is all you know, when it seems normal to you… it’s hard to remember you even have limits. Until you run right into them.”

This is a book I was SO EXCITED to read after seeing nothing but glorious reviews! And OMG!!! It is Carrie Soto + toxic love/ obsession + the behind the scenes of elitist sport + drama. So much drama!!!

I mean IT 👏🏻 IS 👏🏻 WORTH 👏🏻 EVERY 👏🏻 BIT 👏🏻 OF 👏🏻 HYPE 👏🏻

As soon as I started reading THE FAVORITES I was sucked into it. When I tell you this book is addicting, I mean it was impossible to put down! I have watched some ice dance during Olympic Games here and there but now I feel like I need to know more.

My only complaint is that I wish that Heath would have been more fleshed out. Given that technically the story is about both Katarina and Heath, not much is actually known about him. But that didn’t deter me from obsessing over this story.