I was drawn to this book because of the comparison to Heathcliff and Cathy, one of my favorite literary couples, and although Heath and Kat have their toxic moments, their story reaches a resolution Heathcliff and Cathy never did. Despite wanting to love this book, I found it to be just fine. The angst I hoped for between Heath and Kat didn’t quite hit the mark for me, though the issue might lie with my own expectations.

Kat, the protagonist, felt hard to connect with, she kind of comes across as overly competitive and cold. Although there’s some growth in her character, I didn’t feel she was as well-written. The repetitive interview-style chapters also became tedious, especially when each ended with vague statements that somewhat break the fourth wall.

The book’s pacing felt off—introducing a mystery towards the end, which wasn’t given enough time to develop. I think it would’ve benefitted from either being shorter or focusing more on suspense earlier on.

That said, I did appreciate the complexity of Kat and Heath’s relationship. It’s not your typical romance, and their challenges make their growth, both individually and as a couple, more rewarding to witness. While it didn’t fully resonate with me, I can see others really enjoying this book so you may love it!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for a copy in exchange for an honest review!

Any time I'm reading a synopsis and I see the name Heath (followed by a Kate, Kat, KATARINA), I automatically ask: Is this a Wuthering Heights reimagining? Answer: Yes. Every time. 😆

Although Fargo infuses creativity into this version of Cathy and Heathcliff's turgid love story, overall the plot feels shallow and really soapy. I just didn't find Kat and Heath to be fully formed characters in their own right and their chemistry felt derivative. The inserted documentary transcripts initially added some drama but gradually just created anxiety with its blatant foreshadowing.

You do not need to have read Wuthering Heights beforehand, but it will be useful to have some knowledge of the sport of figure skating.

Raw and intense, more an experience than a book. A deep dive into the ultra competitive world of competitive ice skating - the drive, struggles, physicality, betrayals and manipulations to the top. Tense and emotional, so primal that you feel the emotions as if you are there. Highly recommended.

Wow! What an another amazing novel by Layne Fargo. I greatly enjoyed They Never Learn and was cautiously optimistic about The Favorites since it was a different genre then the authors last. I really enjoyed the Favorites. It did read more Fiction then Romance. I can see why previous reviewers have drawn similarities to Daisy Jones and The Six. The story felt realistic, messy, and addictive. I do recommend!

I really loved this book. I loved the set up with the documentary and everyone giving their opinion and then diving back into the actual things that happened. All the characters were great even when they were acting terrible and I just really loved the ice dancing setting and everything related to it. I loved it and will be recommending it to everyone.

Not your typical sappy romance all tied up with a bow and I loved it. Could not put it down.
Katarina and Heath are our “favorite” ice skating couple with big dreams. Kat thinks they have a shot when her Olympic idol decides to train them. This couple risks everything time and time again to try and achieve that Olympic gold.
Fantastic character development…I found myself cheering for the favorite skating couple and hating all the obstacles that got in their way. I loved their version of a happily ever after, not perfect but content.

Katarina Shaw wants Olympic Gold. Starting at a young age, Kat dreamed of following in the footsteps of legends and showing the world her figure skating abilities. Kat began her journey in a gloomy home with a brother raising her. Her father believed in her and left their family in debt upon his passing to support her dream. Kat meets Heath Rocha in their small world outside of Chicago. Together the two become a power duo full of life and hope. Watch their rise to stardom and the falls they face along the way.

A documentary is currently interviewing people who know the Golden couple, each with their own thoughts on their lives. Who do you believe in a world so ran by media? At the end of it all, what matters more? Everyone has an opinion on Katarina Shaw, but what does she think of herself.? When Kat breaks her silence after ten years, she's ready to tell her story, from the good, bad, to down right heartbreaking, buckle up for all the duo's heart wrenching tales.

Layne Fargo stepped out of her norm with this and was deeply rewarded. She created a story built on people who are just that people. Kat, Heath, Garrett, and Bella have personalities and you truly feel for them throughout the story. They put themselves in the limelight but all handled that pressure so differently. This gave Daisy Jones and the Six vibes. Bursting with triumphs, downfalls, backstabbing, gossip, and realness, Layne Fargo built a story that immediately grabs attention and begs to be read without stopping. I absolutely enjoyed this book in its entirety. Plus the cover is just stunning. Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. I cannot wait for the release in January.

THE FAVORITES by Layne Fargo grips the reader in a tight hold from the first page and doesn’t let go until the thrilling end. This novel combines Katarina Shaw’s perspective on her and Heath Rocha’s ice dancing career along with an effective oral history format that gives others’ insider perspectives into a complicated skating dynasty. It publishes January 14, 2025.

I was “all in” on ice skating in the 1990s and early 2000s, like a huge segment of the country. The 1994 feud between Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan spurred many of us to be glued to our TVs and become enamored by the beautiful skating. This novel gives many vibes similar to those of DAISY JONES AND THE SIX but set against ice dancing instead of music.

In this fictional story that takes elements from the ice dancing world, Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha meet early in life, and they both don’t have role models. They just have each other. They are scrappier than the other ice dancing couples, including Garrett and Bella Lin, who are the twins of ice skating legend Sheila Lin. When Sheila Lin takes Katarina and Heath under her wing, they move to the upper echelon in skating with more resources and coaching skill at their disposal.

Part ice dancing manifesto - with play-by-plays of many competitions, from Katarina’s as well as other insiders’ perspectives - and part interpersonal drama, I was glued to this novel from the first page. The main characters were fascinating along with the characters that give commentary on each performance in a documentary interview style. I think if you’re like me and have seen several ice skating competitions, this will pull back the curtain on a world that is very intriguing.

While a little longer than the typical novel, I didn’t feel the length at all and had to find out if these ice dancers attained their ultimate victory, given all the obstacles and frenemies in their way.

I am truly left in awe of this figure skating drama. It's my pick for my best read in 2024.

I was a figure Skater for 9 years and a coach for 1. I felt all the highs and lows of this book. I know the butterflies in the stomach while you take the ice, nearly blacking out most of your performance and the blur of leaving it all in the ice.

I was not the classic figure skating body type. I had to work hard for my axel and solo spots. The spirit of un-belonging and scrappiness to get to the top was perfectly mingled with deep desire and passion.

I gasped, I nearly cried, I closed my eyes at one point out of fear of what may be next and I literally cheered..out loud, to the fear of my cat, dog and husband. There were moments I was tempted to look on YouTube for these performances only to remember Layne Fargo created all these moving scenes.
Shaw and Rocha will be forever my favorite fictional Ice Dancing team.

I absolutely loved this Wuthering Heights retelling set in the world of competitive ice skating. The characters are so well developed and Fargo does a great job of showing us their flaws without making us hate them (except when we're supposed to, lol) I was already a fan of this author and this book solidified her on my auto buy list.

This was absolutely riveting. Layne Fargo never disappoints, and this was no exception. This was twisty and fun, with lots of drama and scandal. I'm fascinated by the world of figure skating, so this was a win from me!

5 freaking spins. 5 twirls. 5 gold medals. 5 stars. I AM REELING!! The Favorites is a chaotic story filled with scandal, rage, revenge, love, lust, and fiery characters who WILL DO ANYTHING TO WIN!!! Brb as I go back in time to become an ice dancer. WHEW LAYNE CRUSHED THIS!!! It has been so long since I’ve been hooked from the get-go. The story switches from Kat’s recollection of events to interview-style summaries from other characters AND MAN DID I EAT IT UP! I felt like I was living the highs and lows of Heath and Kat’s Olympic journey WITH THEM! Now, don’t let the cutesy coupley cover…this is not
written as a romance. Yes… there is love. But if you look closer, this is a story of two people who have given EVERYTHING for the chance to stand on a podium.

Kat is a hard girly to root for. She makes questionable decisions. She hurts people. She gets hurt by people. She cracks under pressure. She rises from the ashes. BUT YOU JUST GOTTA LOVE HER!!!

PLEASE READ THIS WHEN YOU GET THE CHANCE!! I WILL BE BUYING A PHYSICAL COPY IMMEDIATELY ⛸️☝🏼

If you are remotely a fan of any of the following - ice skating, competitive sports, the Olympics, cut throat competition, and a jaw dropping love story, get this book on your TBR list.

Let's harken back to the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding skating scandal of "94, but this time we'll change the Olympic sport from womens figure skating to couples ice dancing and jump forward a decade. Our main characters this time are a teenage couple from Lake Forest, IL, with stars in their eyes. Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha want nothing more than to become Olympic champions.

Katarina (Kat) suffered the loss of her mother when she was just 4 years old. She found solace that very evening as she watched TV and saw Olympic skating star, Sheila Lin, take the gold. Kat decided at that very point that she, too, would some day be an Olympic champion. Her situation is not ideal. She does have the talent, the drive, the grit; however. her circumstances now see her living in her family's run down home on the rural Lake Michigan shore with her older, alcoholic brother as her guardian after her father's untimely death. Her skating partner, Heath Rocha (himself coming from numerous foster family situations), resolutely believes in her...and in them.

The saga plays out taking them to California to train, in fact to Sheila Lin's now famous Skate Academy. What ensues is a plethora of victories, of defeats, of break-ups, of make ups, of scandals, of disgraces, and of glories spanning their lives from sixteen to forty.

This is a book about dreams; it's a book about the cut throat world of amateur and Olympian sports and what one would do to reach those top levels. It's about revenge and about finding oneself. Along the way, we meet so many more colorful characters - the judges, the journalists, more skaters, coaches.

The timeline and POVs played out so well in this story. It is told as a flashback mainly through Kat's eyes, but interspersed, we have chapters in almost television interview dialogue shedding more light on the characters from people from Kat and Heath's past (some who wanted them to succeed, some who did not).

The story is sometimes scandalous, sometimes exhilarating, and sometimes scintillating. Thank you, Netgalley and Random House, for this dazzling ARC that hits shelves Jan 14th.

Layne Fargo is an auto-purchase for me, and I Wuthering Heights is my favorite classic. So of course this is a five star read for me. Loved it!

Katarina Shaw has always had one dream - to be an Olympic gold ice dancer. And her childhood love, Heath Rocha, wants to be the one by her side. But as they get closer to their dreams, outside forces AND Kat’s own determination gets in the way. And now it’s nearly 10 years later and an unauthorized documentary is out there, reigniting the questions of what went wrong.

I originally saw this book and thought The Cutting Edge, a 90s movie that I adored, but this book felt so incredibly dark in a way that I wasn’t expecting. From Heath’s childhood filled with foster homes, to the death of both of Kat’s parents, to her abusive brother, that only scratched the surface of the pain happening inside of this book.

But through all of it what remained clear is Kat’s determination to WIN, no matter what (or who) tried to stand in her way. Kat reminded me a bit of Carrie Soto by Taylor Jenkins Reid but Kat was FAR more unlikable. She had absolutely no self awareness which made it really hard to root for her, especially as she destroyed so much in her path. And the relationship with Heath just felt toxic by the end.

At over 450 pages, this book also just FELT long. I felt like I was slogging through it with so many details that I ultimately just didn’t need. I really liked the insert of the documentary portions throughout to give us a fuller picture of what the outside world was seeing, but even so, I think this really could’ve been condensed by at least 100 pages.

I can’t say that I fully enjoyed the book because Kat was just truly awful, but at the same time, I never wanted to give up on it, and I did want some of the central mysteries solved (though one of them ended up being entirely anti-climactic.) So, we’ll stick with a solid, middle of the road rating.

This was one of the best books of 2024 I've read. These two characters kept me intrigued the entire time. I don't know anything about competitive ice skating, but this book really drew me in from the beginning and kept me turning the pages. Such a great read.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing for giving me the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I rate it 3.5 stars

Overall I thought this book was fine. This book was presented to me as Daisy Jones and the Six meets Wuthering Heights. While I do think it measured up to the Wuthering Heights aspect, it fell short of being like Daisy Jones.

The main difference comes from our female protagonist Kat. Daisy is a deeply flawed character, but you still root for her to be happy despite all of her problems. Kat, I found to be unlikeable (which I understand might have been the point). While she does have character growth towards the end of the book, she comes off as hyper-competitive with no regard for anyone else. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing a female protagonist with ambitions, but I don't think Kat was a well-written character.

Now, let's talk about the layout of this book, it is very repetitive. One of the things I disliked the most was the repetitive nature of the interviews within the book. All of the chapters ended with someone saying something like, "But you know what happens next."

I also think this book could have been shorter. Towards the end of the book, a mystery begins to be set up. 100 pages is not enough time to set up a mystery thriller aspect of a book and have it be somewhat decent. The thing that makes mystery and thrillers good is the suspense that is built up throughout the entire book, and there is not enough time to do that.

Here's what I did like!

The relationship between Kat and Heath is interesting and dynamic. This is not some cozy romance where there is a third-act breakup and that's it. Kat and Heath's relationship was raw and went through trials, but despite all of that, they found a way to make it work. We also see the very important lesson in this book that your relationship is not going to work if you don't grow as a person. This is all I can really say about this without spoiling:)

I know I've been critical of this book, but that doesn't mean I didn't like it! I think that there are going to be a lot of people who will love this book when it comes out and I encourage people to pick it up and try it themselves!

Do I know anything about ice dancing? No. Did I know competitive ice dancing was cut throat and potentially blood thirsty? No. Do I love a good book with best frienemies, drama, and the Olympics? Yes. I could not put this book down. Right from the start, the book hooks you and doesn’t let go. Told in a first person with a documentary woven through makes it one of those instant read in one sitting kind of books. I was constantly reading with bated breath to see what would happen next. I want to go back in time, so I can read this book again for the first time.

If someone told me this book was written by one of my favorite authors Taylor Jenkins Reid I would have believed them because its just that good.

One of my top reads of the year!!!!! I was obsessed with their toxic, push me-pull me relationship! Don’t sleep on this one!