Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC of "The Favorites" by Layne Fargo in exchange for my honest review. I raced to NetGalley to request this book after seeing dozens of positive reviews on Facebook groups and GoodReads. I was over the moon thrilled that I got approved and raced to read it, finishing it in a few days. This is definitely a 5-star read and had everything you could possibly want in a book - developed characters; an engaging layout (reminiscent of Daisy Jones and the Six with the interviews) walking through interviews given for a documentary; and a great story arc. The book follows the ice dance journey of Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha, friends (and more) since childhood who both come from a less than stellar background. Without giving too much away, the team of Shaw and Rocha are followed over the course of a decade as they navigate their relationship and the world of professional/competitive ice dancing. It was a wonderful read and I wish I could wipe it from my memory and read it all over again.

Layne Fargo’s The Favorites is a beautifully crafted, high-stakes tale that explores love, rivalry, and ambition on the ice. With complex, magnetic characters and a plot filled with passion, betrayal, and unforgettable moments, this story grabs hold from the start. Katarina and Heath's journey is intense, capturing both the thrill and agony of Olympic dreams with a raw, emotional depth. Fargo’s research shines through, offering a vivid, realistic portrayal of the world of ice dancing, which only deepens the story's allure. The mix of first-person narrative and documentary-style interviews pulls readers into the drama, making it impossible to look away. It’s a story that left me gasping and lingering on every twist, making it both a page-turner and a book I didn’t want to end. If you’re drawn to tales of fierce competition and turbulent relationships, this book is a must-read.

"The Favorites" by Layne Fargo is probably one of the best books I've read this year. I don't normally gravitate toward darker stories, but this one was an exception since it features ice dance. As an adult figure skater, I appreciated all the small details and hidden gems Layne added to her novel. The world of skating has gotten so crazy, I wouldn't be surprised if antics mentioned in the book ended up occurring in real life.

When I first started reading, I wasn't sure what to make of Heath and Kat, but the deeper I got into the novel, the harder I fell for them. By the midway point, I couldn't put the book down and needed to keep going until I finished it. I deeply appreciated the storyline and how well written both main characters were. I felt as if I was growing and developing as they both were over the years. The ending had me going through a full rush of emotions, but without giving away any spoilers, readers will be satisfied with the ending.

This is my first Layne Fargo book, but it certainly won't be my last. If you are a fan of figure skating, this book is a must read for you.

5/5 stars.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House for allowing me to enjoy and advance reader copy of this book.

All opinions and thoughts are my own.

I'm not sure what I was expecting with this book. They Never Learn was one of my favorite reads last year. This was a really slow burn, like really slow, and then the last part of the book just felt extremely rushed.

I'm from the suburbs, just north of Chicago , so I appreciate her accuracy of the area ave setting. I just started this one with that was inspired by Wuthering Heights with
⤵️

⛸️ ice skating
🔪 murder
🔎 Mystery
📹 Documentaries

Katarina and Heath have been childhood friends and have really only had each other. Kat lost both of her parents fairly young but luckily had mentors who helped continue her ice skating dreams. Around age 11, heath would go to the ice rink to hang out and watch the skaters as this was an escape from his foster home. Him and kat become friends, and she teaches him to skate. Together, they try to achieve kats dreams of becoming a world-renowned skater who wants to win worlds and Olympic medals. The road to success is never easy as their journey will try to be sabotaged, death will come to some, and jealousy and envy are a guarantee.

The Favorites follows Kat and Heath over ten years. Will their relationship make it, and will they achieve their goals? Can they beat the odds, or will they come short like most skaters?

Release date January 25, 2025

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book had me absolutely enthralled from start to finish. The story of Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha spans decades. From meeting as young kids and starting to ice dance together, to national championships, controversial performances, injuries, romances, splits, reunions, and a shocking end to their career. The story is a retelling of/inspired by Wuthering Heights, but because that’s one of the classics that I’ve never read or seen an adaptation of, all of the twists and turns of this plot surprised me. So I can’t say how well it works for people who know the source materials, but I had a blast with it.

The book is told through documentary interviews that are being recorded 10 years after their last competition together and in a traditional narrative from Kat’s point of view as the events are happening. I really enjoyed having the dual perspectives of the book. The interviews from the different people in their lives and the skating world provided interesting commentary on the sport as well as fun foreshadowing and intrigue when you realize which characters aren’t being interviewed in the later years. I was on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what the disastrous event was at the 2014 Olympics.

On top of being a compelling personal story of the romance, friendship, and partnership between Kat and Heath, there’s also a lot of interesting commentary about ice dance and the ways that women are treated by the media. The characters talk about the strict gender norms in figure skating, pressure to stay closeted, old fashioned judging, how opinionated women are treated, online gossip blogs, and so much more.

This is one of those books about fictional famous people where everything is so fleshed out that it starts to feel like reading about real events. The story is expansive without ever feeling like it’s too drawn out or confusing with the number of different characters. If the plot of this sounds interesting you should definitely add it to your TBR!

3.75 rounded up

I was super excited to receive an ARC of this book because I had loved the author's previous book "They Never Learn" and this seemed very Tonya Harding-esque, which had me immediately interested. I feel like I went through a lot of different thoughts while reading this book; first off, it was a pretty long book. My kindle doesn't show me page numbers but it was 85 chapters told in 5 parts, so even when I felt like I had read a significant amount, there was still a lot left. However, I also don't know that there are any clear sections that I think could be cut out and I read the whole thing in about 2.5 days. From how the book starts I feel like I was anticipating a much more dramatic incident than what was actually revealed at the end, but I stayed fully invested throughout the whole journey. I actually loved both Katarina and Heath, even though they weren't necessarily the best people -- I was rooting for them the whole book. Going back and forth between transcripts of the documentary and chapters of the actual story also helped keep me engaged.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and while I was afraid I would be disappointed with the ending, I actually loved it. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

This book was a little out of my comfort zone, I usually stick to general fiction or thrillers and The Favorites by Layne Fargo falls firmly into the sports romance category. It employs one of my favorite tropes: documentaries. The story revolves around Kat and Heath and their ice dancing legacy. According to the description, it is “inspired by the love and hate that fueled Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.”

The Favorites has plenty of steamy scenes, love and romance. For a book about Ice Dancing (similar but not exactly the same as figure skating) it was full of drama , heart, action and even includes a full cast of love-to-hate them enemies. The characters were detailed and well executed. One does not have to glide far to feel the humanity imbued in each character.

Even though this book fell outside of my usual genre, I enjoyed it. The story often inserts packages of documentary footage to help set the stage, and this plot device helped the plot. Reading and seeing each character’s name set forth as though one was reading a play helped enhanced the drama and made it easy to imagine hearing each character’s unique voice. I tend to shy away from sports dramas, but given the subject matter of this one, I am glad I decided to take a chance. Ultimately, The Favorites is a winning story. Any medal will do.

I received this advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and feedback.

I did not realize this was Wuthering Heights on ice until.i started reading it. I am not a huge fan of Wuthering Heights, but I do love ice skating. My opinion of the book reflects that. The inside scoop on the hypercompetitive sport of ice dancing was fascinating. The toxic romance between Katarina and Heath felt overdramatic and tired. Both characters seemed one-dimensional. Katarina was all ambition and Heath was the jealous, creepy ex. Instead of wanting them to get together, I wanted her to get away from him. So clearly this did not work for me. Because the characters were one note, the book felt repetitive. If you love a soap opera/tragic romance, you will love this. I just don't. Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC.

Amazing!! I was sooo drawn in to the storyline. It was such an incredibly fun and exciting read! I hope everyone gives it a shot! I will say the first couple chapters felt a little long to me and I had trouble connecting with the story and characters. But after a few chapters, woah!! It picks up and really has you thinking what did I just read! It's like watching a really drama full story unravel right before your eyes! Such a fun and quick read.

I want to love these salacious, scandalous competitive skating world novels and I just can't. I will say the writing was spectacular and the story was good. I will read other works by this author.

thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review <3
⭐️4.5 rounded up

I absolutely LOVED this book and I reaaallly loved Fargo’s approach and modern take on a beloved classic. This is the story of two childhood best friends with dreams of achieving Olympic gold in ice dancing and the heartbreak, triumph, betrayals, manipulation, and everything in-between along that journey.

The Favorites is Wuthering Heights meets Daisy Jones and Carrie Soto, with the characters mirroring WH, mixed media story telling like Daisy Jones and the focus on a determined, seemingly unfeeling but actually very human main character in the sports world like Carrie Soto is Back. (I actually don’t know if any of those comparisons make any sense, but I can definitely see the Taylor Jenkins Reid inspiration all over this book, which I loved.)

My one and only critique is the mystery introduced in the last part of the book. Maybe I didn’t pick up on the suspense early enough, but the whole thing kind of came out of nowhere and was resolved before it ever really had time to develop. Other than that, I really adored the characters and this story. I already loved Layne Fargo after reading They Never Learn, but The Favorites has cemented her as an auto-buy author.

HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK

I never thought I would like an ice skating drama, but here we are. This book had everything we needed for a great read - one that keeps you up at night, one that reminds you we are all human, one that gives us a love story full of twists and turns. I loved the drama. I loved the way this one was written, and I would L O V E a spinoff just based on Ellis Dean. This one would make a wonderful book club, so now I need to wait till January to float it to mine. 10/10.

The way I devoured this book!! Top read of the year. If you liked Daisy Jones and the Six and watching ice skating growing up #ninetieschild omg this book is for you. I want to listen to it as well as I think it will be such a good read through that medium as well. Off I go to look up this author's other books!! So so so good! Recommend! Thank you Netgalley for this advanced copy!! Going to be recommending this one come Jan 2025!

Love Layne Fargo so much! The way she writes her characters where you don’t know if you love or hate them is so good! Literally felt like a roller coaster of emotions!

An entertaining thrill ride that I absolutely adored. This was so readable and well-researched, and the details of everything really made it sing. I was totally immersed in the world of professional skating, and I feel like the Wuthering Heights elements were really there. The character archetypes and plot points felt true to the original but also so organic and lived-in. Fargo basically tossed out all the gothic elements and went full Daisy Jones and the Six, instead of trying to do a bunch of different things, and it works. I had a great time reading this- it was a tisch on the long side, but all the twists and turns were delicious. I felt for it's length, Heath was still lacking the interiority that I crave in a WH adaptation, but that's difficult for any iteration of this story to do. No spoilers but I do think the very very end kind of defanged it a little bit, and it doesn't fully commit to the tragic undertones of WH. I was still a satisfied reader and I'm excited to promote this when it comes out in January.

THE FAVORITES is an astounding achievement!!! I just finished the book and am a sobbing shaken up mess…an idyllic way to finish a book honestly!! I’m obsessed and will be telling everyone that I’ve already read my favorite book of 2025—the drama, the romance (friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, one bed, fake dating, it’s everything!!), the friendship, the backstabbing, the ambition, the MUSIC. Inject the playlist into my veins. I’m just blown away. The research the author did for this book is astounding. Kat + Heath forever (and Bella and Garret and even Ellis!). I can’t wait to see all the amazing things that happen for this book when it’s published. I’d give this 8 stars if I could.

Thank you so much for the advanced copy! I will be sharing this on my Goodreads as well.

5/5 stars because !!! Wow. I’m so mad at myself for not downloading and devouring this earlier, but honestly was afraid I would be comparing it to Daisy Jones and the Six the entire time.

I loved this novel. Yes, the theme and partial interview style will resonate with Daisy Jones fans… but only in the best of ways. The Favorites is the perfect hybrid of Daisy Jones; I, Tonya; and maybe even a Gossip Girl Magnolia Parks esque vibe. The writing was well-done and the chapters and interviews complemented a good reading pace (considering how much I wanted to cancel plans to read it straight through). The world of ice dance rather than figure was also appreciated.

Fargo did a phenomenal job. Her writing brought each character’s personality to life, created a romantic drama that will have readers turning page after page, and carries a kind of suspense that had me questioning the final outcome(s) until the very end.

Thank you, again. I will absolutely be recommending this to anyone and everyone.

Wuthering Heights is my favorite classic so when I heard that THE FAVORITES was inspired by the ultimate toxic couple, I knew I had to read it immediately. Three other major pluses: it’s set in the late 90s/early 2000s (cheers for nostalgia) amongst the competitive world of elite figure skating AND I loved the author’s book THEY NEVER LEARN!

Sadly this wasn’t the gold medal winner I hoped for. The pacing is slow and didn’t really pick up for me until the second half. I did love the parallels to WH and felt THE FAVORITES paid homage to that story without overdoing it or trying too hard.

I absolutely loved the documentary elements and the hate-to-love ‘em characters. This book was totally toxic but incredibly fun and while it might not have been perfect, what book is?

I love faux-celebrity gossip/tell-all books because I get all the juice I crave without having to feel guilty about real-life people being harmed by the media attention ^_^