I really, really liked this story, but I’ve also always been fascinated by ice skaters.

Olivia is passionate about skating, but feels like she’s not good enough after a poor performance and living up to her parent’s gold medal past. Meeting Jonah helps to rekindle Olivia’s passion for skating and she is determined to chase her own gold medal dreams.

Olivia is a little self-centered. She is super close to her friend Mac and her former partner Egg (Stuart) but holds herself aloof from friends at school. As the story progresses, she opens herself to love with Jonah, and also real friendship with her classmates. She is very independent as her parents are not really available to her, so is inclined to rebel when they put their foot down.

Jonah is dedicated to skating, and puts all of his focus there until meeting Olivia at the rink. His dad pushes him to focus on his skating and workouts, his mom encourages him to be a normal teenager. He opens himself to a relationship with Olivia and friendships with Mac and his classmates.

Olivia and Jonah understand each other’s focus and commitment to their sport, though Jonah is a little dismissive of Olivia at times, as she isn’t currently skating. They are actually really good together and inspire each other to try new things.

I liked the ending, and the way that Olivia and Jonah (and Mac) all stood up for what they wanted. There is a lot of hope, and I wouldn’t mind another book looking at where everyone is now.

Disclaimer: I received an eARC for review consideration through Net Galley on behalf of the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Every Reason We Shouldn't by Sara Fujimura is a refreshing and emotionally resonant contemporary romance that explores the complexities of first love and personal growth. The story centers on Mia, a talented figure skater who faces a crossroads in her career and personal life, and Lucas, a boy with a troubled past. Their unlikely connection sparks chemistry, but their relationship is complicated by the pressures of Mia’s competitive world and Lucas’s inner struggles.

The author does a great job balancing the romance with deeper themes of family, trust, and self-acceptance. The characters feel real, with well-developed backstories that give their decisions and emotions depth. Mia’s journey in particular stands out, as she learns to navigate her passions, her relationships, and the difficult decisions that come with both.

The pacing is steady, and the writing feels natural, with moments of genuine tension and vulnerability. While the plot touches on familiar romantic tropes, The authors sensitive handling of the characters’ growth makes it a compelling read. Fans of character-driven stories will find a lot to enjoy in Every Reason We Shouldn't.

The book was fine, but even tho I liked the premise, it didn't hold my attention.
The plot wasn't really clear and the characters not the most memorable.
It could still be very well liked by others, just didn't work for me personally.

Interesting enough, it just sort of drags. The elements are solid, the characters sufficiently complex. There may be too many complications, too many side elements, cluttering up the plot.

This book was a quick, fun read. Nothing too serious. Just a little light YA romance with some cultural diversity and set in the Skater Bubble - a world unfamiliar to me.

This book read young for me and because of that I couldn't get very far into it. The main character seemed a little self-centered and it bugged me so I had to stop reading it. I see plenty of others enjoyed it and I'm happy to hear that. Just not the book for me so time to move on.

Aside from being annoyed with the main character, I didn’t really dislike anything about this book. The problem is I also didn’t particularly like anything about it, either. Maybe it was me, so if the summary sounds like your thing don’t let my apathy stop you. Give it a try.

Most of my experience with figure skating comes from watching the Winter Olympics, so this story was an informative -- yet absolutely engaging! -- breath of fresh air.

The romance is cute, the characters are compelling, and the skating descriptions were oh-so-lush and descriptively gorgeous.

Unfortunately, there were a couple plot and dialogue decisions that, in my opinion, made it difficult to love -- notably, a terrifying lockdown that could have easily been swapped out for something less triggering. Though I initially chuckled at the light-hearted "warning" in this title's Netgalley blurb, there should definitely be a legitimate content warning as part of its selling package, as well.

Barring this controversial plot choice, however, the rest of the story was cute and engaging, and I found myself rooting for Olivia and Jonah's banter, friendship, and budding romance from beginning to end. All in all, EVERY REASON WE SHOULDN'T was a cute and unique glimpse into an (oft-forgotten) sport and the relationships it brings with it!

Cute story about two skating teens, one trying to live up to the Olympic dreams of her parents. Nice main characters navigating teen love.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I find books about skating of any kind FASCINATING. This one, however, was unfortunately pretty forgettable for me. That's not to say it's a bad book. It was just okay with me, and that's pretty much all I have to say about this one.

I don’t know a thing about ice sports outside how pretty the costumes for ice skaters are. Maybe it’s because I’m from Florida and snow/ice is so foreign to me, but I’ve never had much interest in the sports. But a romance between a speed skater and a former figure skating champion who don’t get along at first? Let’s do this!

Olivia spent much of her childhood as half of a champion figure skating pair, but one bad performance at Skate Detroit put an end to all that. Now she’s trying to get used to life as a normal teen. Well, as normal as one teen can be when your parents are Olympic champion pair skaters, your father is gone on a tour, and your mother is trying to cope with her sport-related chronic pain as well as the possibility the family ice skating rink will have to close. It’s easy to forget sometimes that Olivia is just fifteen because she has so much to deal with.

It’s particularly fascinating how she connects with Jonah and her “normal” (read: non-athlete) teen friends in school. Her friends are baffled by Jonah’s dedication to his sport and his absences for competitions, but having lived that life throughout elementary and middle school, Olivia gets it. She came to school with sports-related bruises often enough to concern her teachers and competition-related absences could get a kid in trouble for being out too often. Homeschooling was often an easier choice for child athletes. Even if I were someone who followed ice sports, I don’t think this is a part of the skaters’ lives I would have ever thought about.

First and foremost, this novel is a romance. When Olivia and Jonah are together or when it’s time to skate, the novel is fun and pretty darn cute. The way they’re written makes it a bit obvious the author is a white woman trying to write Asian teens, but they’re fun together, especially when Olivia’s co-worker/best friend Mack helps them arrange dates to the local roller derby matches. Jonah’s first encounter with soda is pretty darn funny!

Where things fall apart is elsewhere. Some of the humor falls flat, especially when there’s a recurring joke about having Ebola throughout the novel. What really got my goat was the use of a terrifying school lockdown as the catalyst for Olivia and Jonah exchanging “I love yous” for the first time. A student’s father makes threats to the school and it’s clear in the book how terrified the students are, thinking they’re about to be the site of the latest school shooting.

God, it’s just so insensitive! Think about all the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the site of a mass shooting in 2018. Think about videos from within the school showing how scared the kids were, the activism they engaged in after the event because the adults have failed to do anything about school shootings in the twenty-plus years since Columbine, the two survivors who committed suicide a year later because they couldn’t cope with what they went through and what they lost.

If you’re not from Gen Z, you have no way to reckon with how badly they’ve been messed up by our inability to act and keep them safe. These events have been normalized and they’re utterly terrified in any lockdown situation.

And this novel uses such a lockdown as a way to advance the romance. I’m sickened.

Once you hear more of the criticism regarding Olivia’s Skate Detroit performance with her longtime partner Egg, you might find yourself thinking that criticism applies just as much to Every Reason We Shouldn’t as a whole. There are some undeniably good pieces in Every Reason We Shouldn’t, but they fail to pull together into a cohesive whole. It’s not a bad book and I’m not saying you should avoid reading it. If you love ice sports, go for it! There’s just so much more this book could have been.

And screw how the lockdown was used. It was Glee-level bad.

A super cute YA story that involves olympians? Sign me up. The figure skater and the speed skater fall for each other and life finds away

Every Reason We Shouldn’t was an adorable read, it is a YA story with biracial rep (although it is not an own voices novel). The main character Olivia, struggles with being labeled as a teen washout. Her life revolves around skating, the ice rink owned by her family is where she feels most at home. Slowly she learns that she does not have to be confined to her skating bubble, that she can have just as much fun being a “normal teen” and hanging out with non-skater friends.
While reading this story I felt very mislead by the title, until the very end. I started this story with the expectation of it purely being about skating and maybe a little romance (based off the cover), but it was more than that. It was a story of perseverance, of dreaming big and never giving up not matter how hard or unattainable the dream feels.

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVED THIS BOOK TO PIECES. I became quite obsessive with reading scenes in it multiple times.

It was such fun, filled with drama, pain, family, morals, and pride. With so much love and care.


Thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy in exchange for a review.

This was cute...but some other YA books seem to capture the romance/ relationship slightly better. I would pick up another of this authors books

What a fun book to read!! Every now and then I love to read a good YA, they’re just so fun and makes me miss my youth! The characters in ERWS were likeable and at times a little more mature than their age. There was quirkiness in this book, which I like as well. And I really enjoyed living in the world of ice skating while I read.

Overall I would recommend this book if you’re looking for a quick and fun YA, I don’t think you will be disappointed.

This has so much hype and expectations going into it I just truly don’t think it could live up to that and it didn’t I wish there was a bit more that I could grasp on to with this one wasn’t for me

I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, but what I got wasn’t it. I think the synopsis made me assume it would be more enemies-to-lovers, but that’s not what this was. Also, if you like books about skating then you will be into this. As I have no knowledge or interest in skating, this just was not the right book for me.

I do appreciate the multi-cultural aspect of this book, but I'm afraid that its setting and premise is a little too out of reach for a lot of my students. The whole Olympics angle is just not that relatable for them. I won't be singing its praises to most of my kids.

Interesting read about teenagers over coming angst and obstacles in their personal and academic lives. Bonus that there’s ice skating!!!0