1st book of 2025 done! This was actually fast-paced and so gripping to read. Prior to receiving the earc (advanced reading copy), I already knew of The Favorites and have heard/seen such promising reviews online that made me very excited to get started.

I would say it totally delivered, especially with its melodramatic plot and over the top characters. You have an MC who is obsessed with winning, her partner who is insanely in love, and ice dancer rivals who would do ungodly and messy stuff just to be victorious. It all felt like a major soap opera or intriguing documentary you can't help but watch. For me it definitely gave off some Taylor Jenkins Reid vibes.

Decided to give this one a 4 because even though I was hooked, so many things that happened came off as predictable (and also too convenient at several points of the story). The last 20% of the book didn't in my opinion do justice to the first 80% and I didn't like that the author decided to add a suspenseful little twist of completely different tone and rather turned flat in the end.

The most intoxicating un-put-downable, book I’ve reads in ages. This book follows Kat Shaw as she goes from an orphaned, impoverished girl with a dream of going to the Olympics for ice dancing to a World Champion. Kat’s skating career is intimately tied to Heath Rocha, her childhood best friend turned skating partner turned lover. This books feels reminiscent of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Mick Riva universe. Kat and Heath (and Bella and Garrett) are fictional celebrities who feel so real, I had to fight the urge to look up there nonexistent Wikipedia pages. Similar to TJR’s Daisy Jones, this books takes place in the midst of a retrospective looking back on Kat and Heath’s careers. The book is part narrative from Kat, part transcript from the retrospective. This storytelling choice from Fargo helps illustrate just how big of a deal Kat and Heath were and shows us how their actions impacted those around them.
This book is also slightly reminiscent of the Magnolia Parks books. The love story between Heath and Katarina is so complex. You get the sense that being together will kill them, but so will be being apart. Their relationship made my stomach hurt. It made me want to throw my Kindle. It made me want to scream. But it also compelled me to keep reading late into the night.

If you want a book that will take you through the full range of emotions, this is it. Love, betrayal, hope, fury, uncertainty, joy, toxicity. The joy I felt reading this book was only overshadowed by my devastation that it ended.

I adore figure skating, so I was so excited to receive this ARC! It’s an epic love story set in the world of competitive ice dancing in the late 90s and early 00s. The story alternates timelines and features commentary from the documentary made about Shaw and Rocha ten years following their chaotic Olympic performance.

Katarina Shaw is a competitive skater, who we meet as a young teenager. Heath Rocha is a little older and down on his luck, living in foster care. They meet and bond quickly and become ice dancing partners. The novel is told largely through Katarina Shaw’s perspective. The quotes from the documentary about them were interspersed and added great color to the novel.

I loved how dramatic the novel was. Cutthroat competition, soapy romance with edge, and ice skating. What’s not to love?! The cast of characters was fantastic. You don’t always love them, but they are compelling. I especially liked Kat Shaw and the Lin twins. Kat is fiercely competitive and unapologetic. She made me think of singles skaters, Tonya Harding and Amber Glenn, who are phenomenally talented but don’t fit the precious figure skater mold. I wholeheartedly enjoyed this one!

Though I read this as an ebook, I listened to part of the audiobook, and it was phenomenal! It’s narrated by a full cast, including a smaller role voiced by Johnny Weir. I think I would recommend that instead of the physical/e book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this ARC. All thoughts are my own.

A modern retelling of Wuthering Heights set in the world of competitive ice dancing. It’s like The Cutting Edge, mixed with Daisy Jones & the Six, with some Dylan/Brenda 90210 vibes. To quote possibly my new favorite character, Ellis Dean, “Tell me that’s not some epic daytime soap-opera shit! You can’t.”

Kat & Heath are an ice dancing pair bound together by tragic childhoods, and of course fall madly and obsessively in love. When they take the next step in the competitive sport, and are taken out of their bubble, their professional and personal relationship is tested and things get crazy. There’s scandal after scandal and I was here for all of it! I could not get enough. Because it follows Wuthering Heights closely I expected some of the twists, but that didn’t lessen my rage at one moment in particular. The timing of it felt way too quick and unbelievable, but we only had Kat’s POV. (All I’m saying is that she was totally justified in throwing that chair.) Overall, I did not love Heath and wonder if that’s because the reader, like Kat, only knew what was willing to be shared rather than his own reasons/motivations.

This book is fabulously over the top dramatic in all the best ways. As with all of my reviews, my rating reflects how much I enjoyed the book. It will allow you to escape reality, focus on other people’s dramas, and be immersed in a fictional world of competitive ice dancing. All things I needed to start 2025. Cue me listening to “The Last Time” (TV) on repeat for the rest of the day. Love a Red/Swiftie moment.

Is it a true 5 🌟? I’m not sure, maybe 4.5/4.75 rounded up?, but anything less seems too low. I can’t wait until it’s a movie or a series. The audiobook has a full cast and I’m already looking forward to listening to it.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for this advanced copy.

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Format: Audio/Physical

4.5🌟 - I really liked it!

Thank you Random House for the #gifted ARC and Libro.FM and PRH Audio for the ALC!

A book of love, complex relationships, obsession, grit, and all the drama!! There is no doubt this book will be on the “favorites” of many this year!

Fans of TJR need to run to pick this one up! It incorporates an interview style format similar to Daisy Jones with the vibes we got from Carrie Soto with some drama the level of Magnolia Parks! This book is a Wuthering Heights retelling, which I have never read but absolutely need to now!

I thought Kat was an incredibly strong, determined, and dynamic FMC! I could not get enough of Heath and Kat’s electric and tumultuous love story.

Something about the story left me without that 5 star feeling! I might have had too high expectations after all the early reviews, but this is one that I think so so many will be obsessed with and absolutely is one to keep your eyes on this year!

If you have the chance, absolutely do the audio! It has a full cast and was truly immersive!

Immediately hooked on the story and read it straight through. Captured the intensity of competitive skating and added a flair of drama to go with it.

Starting the year off with a book this good is crazy. I had high expectations for this book because I loved the author’s other book They’ll Never Learn and I was NOT disappointed. This is the kind of book where once you start you truly cannot put it down. It reads like a way more vicious Daisy Jones sat in the world of figure skating rather than music. The characters you want to root for, but you also want to shake your head at every single thing they do. This book is full of chaos and madness and every time you think maybe we we’re getting something happy don’t get your hopes up.. that being said, I could not get enough. The audio I did with the book and it was so entertaining with the full cast. I really cannot recommend this one enough.

I'm calling this now - this will be one of the biggest books of 2025. Do yourself a favor and read it when it comes out because it is going to be everywhere. Although, it is certainly worth the hype! I read it via Kindle, but I heard the audio is amazing because it's read by a full cast.

I stayed up for hours these past few nights because I could not stop reading! I feel like I personally know these characters and I have felt some very visceral reactions to what happens throughout their story.

At the core, this book is about Katarina Shaw & Heath Rocha, the hottest ice dancers of their generation. The book is set up as part documentary and then, we get a first hand account from Kat's perspective. It's scandalous, diabolical, and full of drama.

I absolutely loved Layne Fargo's thriller, THEY NEVER LEARN and you can see her thriller roots in this book. In her acknowledgements, she gives a nod to Taylor Jenkins Reid and you can see how TJR's books inspired this one. If you are a fan of either author, read this book! (Also, I really hope they adapt this on screen.)

THE FAVORITES was a compulsive read. I started it and finished it within 24 hours. Once I started, I could not put it down. Tackling larger ideas of relationships, women in media, feminism, ambition, and competition the hype this book is getting is well deserved. I cannot stress how much I loved this book and, honestly, it’s probably going to be a favorite read of mine for 2025. It’s been a long time since I absolutely devoured a book like this.

I loved everything about this book. From the story to the writing to the characters, it all stuck with me and made me think. The author does an incredibly job fleshing out this story and, by extension, the characters. Katarina, the FMC whose perspective this story is told, is such a complicated character who does not follow the rules of society regarding women. And it was refreshing as it was interesting. I love me an unlikable female character and she was, to an extent. Her choices, while not ones I would have made, favored ambition over all else. And how this plays out, how it impacts her relationships, made the story and her character intriguing and genuine. While she isn’t my favorite character, she is one I can respect for her choices, ones that are wholly her own.

And the story itself had twists and turns where I audibly gasped out loud because I was so invested in the narrative. I was expecting this to be a story that focused on the connection between Katarina and Heath, the MMC, but it was more than that. It was more of a story about choice, ambition, perception, and people. And the author did an amazing job conveying these ideas into a central narrative.

Overall, I adored this book. It gave me Taylor Jenkins Reid vibes mixed with I, Tonya. If you love short chapters, complex characters, and a great story filled with topics that generate discussion and make you think, read this. It’s worth your time.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

My new favorite book!!! I absolutely loved this, immediately went to get a physical copy and telling everyone I know to read it. The chemistry was unmatched and all the characters felt so significant, I just adored it!

Wow.

I could not put this down!

When I did have to put it down (you know, to sleep) I could not stop thinking about it as I drifted off and immediately resumed thinking about it when I woke. Talk about addictive! I was borderline obsessed with these characters while reading this story.

Kind of The Cutting Edge meets Carrie Soto meets Wuthering Heights, The Favorites documents the life and career of fictional ice dancer partners Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha. Their relationship with each other is borderline obsessive (like how I was while reading), passionate, explosive, all the metaphors you could use to describe an epic love story. You can use them ALL of them to describe these two.

I loved the writing style, broken up into chapters from Kat's POV and snippets from a documentary about them, it read like watching a series unfold.

What a great read to start 2025 with!!! I will be thinking about this for weeks to come for sure. Highly recommend!!

OH. MY. GOD. The drama, the passion, the scandal, the plot twists! Layne did an incredible job immersing us in the world of competitive figure skating. I’ve never rooted so hard for two characters like I did Kat and Heath!!! Mind you they both did things that were infuriating and downright frustration but their pull kept me locked in throughout this whole book.

Screaming, crying, throwing up. Brb while i make this book my entire personality for the next 3 weeks

Ps thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced e-copy of this!! I am so grateful!!

LISTEN TO ME!! WHEN THIS BOOK COMES OUT JANUARY 14TH PLEASE READ IT!! I finished this book over a week ago and still cannot stop thinking of these characters. If you love Daisy Jones and the Six for the drama, documentary style interviews, and the TENSION between the main characters, this is the perfect book for you. There were so many scenes that had me on the edge of my seat, rooting so hard for kat or heath. While also wanting to scream at them. And the amount of INSANE emotional things they had to go through?? What a whirlwind and a beautiful story of grit, love, and passion.

The Favorites is about an ice dancing duo, Kat and Heath, who have been best friends since they were kids. The two grew up together, competed together, and naturally fell in love. Kat is a whipsmart, ambitious, cutthroat queen who will do absolutely anything to be the best in the world. Heath is the emotional, vulnerable, shy, insecure man who just wants to keep Kat at his side and make her proud. The book is set around the documentary created about Kat and Heath's relationship, and what led to their ultimate blowup at the Olympic Games. While the book is mainly told in the style of narration, following Kat's perspective as she details the many years of her skating and relationship with Heath, there are also interview style chapters peppered in, similar to Daisy Jones, where those closest to Kat and Heath, and in the ice-dancing industry, share their perspective on the biggest moments in their career.

This book is ENTHRALLING. I simply did not want to put it down. Reading this book simply did not feel like reading, it felt like I was watching the build up and break down of one of the most successful and dynamic ice dancing duos in history. THESE CHARACTERS FELT REAL. What I did not expect was for Kat and Heath to suffer such violent, traumatic incidents throughout their career and relationship. Because their relationship started at such a young age, they really learned each other's weak spots and knew where to hurt each other. But that also lead them to not want to let go, even when they needed space and time for individual growth. There were parts that made me SO ANGRY that one of them could decide to hurt the other in such a personal, awful way. A lot of the book was miscommunication, however, it made the characters seem even more raw and real. The buildup to the climax of the book was like none other, you knew that only blood and gore could be the end of their story, but you couldn't look away from the train wreck!!

I truly have no words other than I will be recommending this book to EVERYONE!! It is not a romance, it is a contemporary fiction book, with so much emotional depth, drama, and ANGST. I have not fell so deeply in love and obsessed with a story since Daisy Jones & the Six and Magnolia Parks. This will easily be one of my favorite books of the year. Please read this book, and please listen to the audiobook!! Thank you so much to Random House for sending me this free book!!

The Favorites is an absolutely stellar book that I could not put down. Thank god for holidays because I don't think I could've survived reading this during breaks at work. The characters are incredible, and I could never choose who to love, who to hate, who to trust. They practically jump off the page because of their multifacetedness. Their relationships are just as messy and chaotic.

The writing style was absolutely perfect for this story. It jumps between a first person POV to share the real story and interviews with side characters to show how our main characters and their actions are perceived by others. A beautiful decision.

I would describe this book as a must-read Daisy Jones & the Six meets figure skating story. I cannot recommend it enough, and I will be telling everyone I know to pick up a copy when it releases.

Thank you to the publisher for the e-copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Perfect read for fans of Taylor Jenkins Reed's fictional journalist memoir subgenre style (Carrie Soto, I'm looking at you!)

Anyone who still fondly remembers the ice skating romance film The Cutting Edge should grab this book immediately and not put it down until finished.

This novel is a fast-moving, sharp-witted, lovingly scathing look at what it means to be a superstar athlete. As well, it's a bittersweet love story and an action-packed thriller.

The conceit that really works here, though, is the documentary script the reader is treated to throughout the book. Little glimpses of the shots, dialogue, and narration of a shock doc - that holds the whole novel together.

And if you haven't listened to Taylor Swift's "The Last Time"? You should.

"We could use it - channel our rage, our love, our hate, our lifetime of simmering resentments and jealousies and secrets, spill it all out onto the ice and leave it there."

This book was suchhhhh a gem! The characters absolutely stole the show bc they felt so real, like people you’ve met (or wish you hadn’t). The story unfolds in such a satisfying way, with just enough tension to keep you on edge while still hitting some unexpectedly emotional notes. It’s the kind of book you keep recommending to friends because it’s just that good. Can it be a beach read in the middle of winter?! I think so. Almost perfect - 4.5 stars (so close to 5 stars!). Thank you to the publisher and author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've read all of Layne Fargo's novels, and love them all but The Favorites is absolutely my favorite of her books -- no pun intended! It's an absolutely fabulous look at the incredibly competitive world of ice skating/dancing and it's exhilarating and sexy and, as typical for Layne Fargo, features a mfc who is dazzling and not afraid of darkness in herself or in anyone else. It is just such an intense read and I loved every twisting, crazy, sexy, thrilling moment of it! Absolutely highly recommended.

I’m writing this the day after finishing The Favorites. My heart aches and my eye still get teary just thinking about this novel & how it’s affected me. THIS is why I read. To experience something that brings such an emotional response that I feel as if my DNA has been altered.

Seriously, someone give Fargo a raise. She deserves it.

The execution of this was brilliant. The set up of the documentary and the interviews. And then Kat getting to tell her side of the story. Phenomenally done.

I loved and hated the story. It pushed and pulled. Gave us the romance we all desire in real life. The drama everyone can’t look away from. I will never recover, in the very best way.

I wish to feel this way every day for the rest of my life and also wonder if I will ever recover from the emotions that so thoroughly wrecked me? Who knew Fargo had that in her.

CAN’T WAIT FOR EVERYONE TO READ THIS!!

Where to begin?! The drama!! The tension!! The suspense!!
 
The Favorites showcases how ruthless competitive sports can be, especially when you get to compete at an Olympic level. The behind-the-scenes drama, while outlandish at times, still feels possible, given the real-world scandals we've seen in the past. You will be rooting for the characters while simultaneously wanting to give them a reality check for some of their insane behavior. This is a story of friendship, love, betrayal, revenge, and a desire to win above all else.
 
I was hooked from the first page, and the book never let up. The story is told with our main character, Katarina, telling her side of the story as if she's talking straight to the reader. At the same time, we are also getting transcripts from a documentary about her life that is coming out 10 years after her huge career scandal. The transcripts add so much color to the story, allowing us to better understand how the public interpreted the scandal while also offering humor and a bit of unreliable narrator spice.
 
I found the narration style to be so compelling - I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, constantly thinking I'd read "just one more chapter" before stopping for the night. The pacing made this so bingeable, and the descriptions had it playing as a movie in my mind. I put down the book multiple times to watch ice dancing videos so I could picture everything more accurately!
 
I was sucked into this story and feeling the whole range of emotions. If you need a book to get you out of a slump, this is the book for you!!
 
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC!
 
Release Date: January 14, 2025