Thank you NetGalley and @williammorrow for the e-ARC of this powerful book that chronicles the life of a fictional, young gymnast with dreams of becoming a member of the US Women's Olympic Gymnastics Team. The reader lives with the young girl and experiences the sacrifices and ups and downs of her training, and its effects on her personal, social, and family life. The book was well-researched with references to real-world people in the organization and recent scandals. I couldn't read the book fast enough and found myself rooting for the young protagonist, despite the disturbing and dark world of professional gymnastics where winning is everything. This is the first book that I have read by Alena Dillon, but it won't be my last!

Don't you just love it when you find a book that completely captures your attention 100%? Alena Dillon, author of Mercy House, has a new novel out and it is a showstopper - The Happiest Girl in the World. Just who is the happiest girl in the world? In the case of Dillon's pulse-pounding book, it is a young elite gymnast vying for a spot on the Olympic team. But is being a world-class gymnast as glamorous and fun as it seems? Dillon's novel dives deep into the dark side of USA Gymnastics, and is, quite frankly, the best fictional account of what happens on the inside that I have ever read. Any fan of the sport MUST read this novel - I promise you, you won't regret it!

The Happiest Girl in the World follows a young Sera Wheeler through her training from a pre-teen at her local gym to the world stage. Dillon shows us the side of gymnastics that we never see, and it's not just the rigors that gymnasts put their bodies through and the mental and emotional abuses they suffer from their coaches. Dillon also explores life at the Balogh Ranch (the Baloghs are a fictional stand-in for the famed Karolyis, prominent figures in USA Gymnastics for decades), the relationship between gymnasts and their families, the corruption that took place within USA Gymnastics for years, and perhaps, most famously, the predation of Eddie Levett, Dillon's version of the convicted sex offender and former Team USA doctor, Larry Nassar. There's so much to unpack within these pages, and every single sentence is utterly gripping.

The Happiest Girl in the World is a stunning page-turner that is sure not to leave the minds of readers anytime soon. If your image of USA Gymnastics wasn't already tarnished due to the recent scandals, this novel will further open your eyes to the price gymnasts pay to win gold. So much research went into this book to make it feel authentic and true to the elite gymnast experience, and Dillon's writing is utterly captivating. The Happiest Girl in the World is an absolutely harrowing tale of sacrifice and strife, but also one of perseverance and glory. I loved every minute of this novel, and I am excited that it is being published just in time for the re-scheduled 2020 Olympics Games in Tokyo (yes, Dillon even touches on recent events in the form of the coronavirus & the postponement of the Olympics in this book!) A must-read for anyone who is fascinated with the sport.

Wow. Just wow. Dillon doesn't shy away from tough topics AT ALL. This book will have you worrying about your non-existent child who might want to be an Olympian athlete. I loved the real-life events that were brought up throughout the story. You can tell that Dillon did a lot of research about gymnastics at the elite and Olympic level, along with the research of the USA Gymnast Doctor Sexual Abuse Scandal.
This novel follows Sera, her friend, coaches, and family who all want to see her make it to the top level of gymnastics, The Olympics. But gymnastics can be a grueling, unloving, and harsh world. Sera makes tough decisions that cut her friendships short, her family financially struggling, her parents relationship destroyed, and her twin brother ignored. Sera has shown she's willing to sacrifice everything to make it to the top, but can she do it?

Sera Wheeler is an Olympic hopeful. Her mother, Charlene, does everything to help her daughter realize her dream. When her teammate and best friend, Lucy, is abused by the team doctor and tells USA gymnastics, Sera fails her friend so she can continue working towards her own dream. Will Sera make the Olympic team and at what cost to herself, friendships and family? Will it be worth it?

My gymnastics loving heart was thrilled to receive a digital arc of this novel. Although fictional, there are many names and events that will be familiar to those who follow USA gymnastics. The author describes how the excessive training takes both a physical and mental toll on gymnasts, especially Elite gymnasts, and weaves this into Sera’s story effortlessly. Parts of the novel are maddening and sad, particularly how the abuse was covered up. This is an important book, for parents, coaches and athletes. “If over these many years, just one adult listened, and had the courage and character to act, this tragedy could have been avoided.” Aly Raisman.

Sera Wheeler has trained in gymnastics since she was a young child with the hope achieving Olympic gold. She is pushed by her mother who is living vicariously through her daughter’s achievements. The work combines the fictional Sera with references to real Olympic gymnasts and a team doctor with a situation similar to the doctor actually accused of many cases of sexual abuse. Sera will do anything to keep training for her dream. She endures constant, pain, injuries, and rejection and her family sacrifices much. She refuses to testify against the team doctor for fear of losing her place on the team and destroys her relationship with her friend Lucy, who needed her support. I found the combination of real events and fiction an uncomfortable fit. The novel, though repetitious in the training segments, did give a harrowing picture of the sacrifices and hardships of single-minded focus on achieving Olympic fame, no matter the physical, emotional, or moral cost.

The Happiest Girl in the World by Alena Dillon is fiction, But, in reality it is an in-depth and behind the scenes look of the training and life of a young girl who trains hard and sacrifices so much to become an Olympic Gymnast! I found the novel to be fascinating and was surprised that it kept my interest! It is well written. I read Alena Dillon's Mercy House and was captivated. I am now a bigger fan of the author and look forward to reading her future novels! Thank you to NetGalley, Alena Dillon, and Facebook's Book Club Girls for the ARC!

The Happiest Girl in the World by Alena Dillon was a disappointment for me. The author used the real names for so many of the gymnasts and then used made up names for her main characters, like Sera. It didn’t work for me. I felt like she just used the news of this tragedy and changed a few things to make up her story of Sera.
I feel like this is a story that could have had so much potential but just really fell short for me. Others may really like this one, I just couldn’t get behind it.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow and Custom House for the opportunity to read this book for an honest review.

Sera and her best friend Lucy dream of making the Olympic gymnastics team, and see the sacrifices made by themselves and their families as just the price that must be paid. But that price is even steeper than they imagined, as they learned when something happens that threatens to tear apart their friendship.

Quite a timely read, during this Olympic year.

Thanks to author Alena Dillon, William Morrow and Custom House, and Net Galley, for the Advanced Reader Copy.

I really enjoyed Alena Dillon's Mercy House, so I was eager to read her follow-up novel. The Happiest Girl in the World certainly did not disappoint. Dillon has a talent for taking timely and difficult subject matter and creating really lovely and complex characters and moving stories that involve them. The story of abuse in the world of gymnastics is a dark one, and Dillon doesn't shy away from that, but it doesn't entirely overwhelm the story. It's hard to say I enjoyed the book, because it is such a difficult read, but it is very well written and I'm glad I read it. I would certainly recommend it, but with caution.

My thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow and Custom House for an advance reader's copy.

When I heard this author had a new book coming, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it! Much as she did in Mercy House, the author tackles subjects that have been newsworthy, and spins a fictional story around them. In this book, the subject is the sexual abuse scandal of the Team USA gymnastics doctor, prevalent in the news in early 2018. Not only do we read about the scandal, but we also get a close up glimpse of just what these athletes go through on a day to day basis, the ones who make it to the world stage, and those whose dreams are crushed before they ever get there. As a Mom of a daughter who spent years of her life as a competitive cheerleader, I could relate to many parts of this book (although thankfully not the grittier aspects). The endless practices, the money for competitions and traveling to out of state events, and yes, the overall rush of pride and happiness when her team came away with a win! Ultimately, a recurring knee injury had our family putting the breaks on her continuing in the sport, but the girls in this story power through injury after injury, practice after practice, in order to get the ultimate prize.......an Olympic berth. While we mostly follow one fictional girl and her family, I loved how the author kept it real with mentioning the actual Olympians, along with the correct timelines surrounding qualifiers, and Olympic events. The effect this has on the family is well documented, especially when in this case, one parent is more on board than the other. We even get the pandemic thrown in when those waiting to go to the 2020 Olympics find out they are put on hold! Having some armchair knowledge of gymnastics events would probably be helpful going into this book, but for the casual viewer of only Olympic events, you'll do just fine.

If you have never had any experience with sports at an elite level, or even if you have, I think this book will shock you in its boldness to tell it like it is in competitive sport such as gymnastics. It really exposes the lengths athletes go to in attempting to achieve the ultimate dream of winning. And when that dream is fulfilled, are they really the happiest girl in the world?

I was excited to get an E-book ARC of this book, because as I kid, I absolutely loved watching gymnastics. To be honest, I still enjoy watching it as an adult. So when I heard about this novel, detailing the life and training of Olympic hopeful Sera Wheeler, I jumped at the chance to read and review it. 

This book starts out when Sera was young, and was just one of a crowd of hopeful gymnasts, training in both Indiana, and occasionally going to "camps" at the "ranch" (where a fictional Vanda and her husband coach and pull all the strings of the US Olympic program.) Many of the characters are stand ins for real life people in the book - Marta and Bela Karolyi are featured as Vanda and her husband, running a ranch in Texas where gymnasts go to train, gymnastics team doctor "Eddie" who stands in for a real life Larry Nassar, convicted of sexually abusing hundreds of young aspiring gymnasts. I would say. technically, this is a story based on a true story, with a fictional Sera Wheeler's story as the vehicle for the storytelling.

Sera is an aspiring gymnast, and sacrifices her childhood to reach her dreams. After many, many setbacks, she finally gets her chance to live the dream (qualifying for the Olympics). Sera is an incredible athlete in her own right, but finds she has to step on some toes to get to where she wants to be. This story details her actions, and later guilt over the actions she did (and did not) take.

This book is important, and really opened my eyes to the drive and determination that some people have, and how their childhoods are taken over (and in some cases, ruined) by the drive. Sera's mother often appeared to push her own dreams onto Sera, adding extra pressure to her to excel. It was a reminder (for my own life) to encourage children, but don't add extra pressure. Gymnastics was life for Sera, but many times throughout her career it wasn't fun for her anymore. This book reminded me that things like this are supposed to be fun, and when they no longer are, we shouldn't push to keep doing them.

Overall, this book was excellent. I loved the real life references to gymnasts that have instant name recognition (Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, etc.) They are minor characters in Sera's story, but definitely not the main story. This is Sera's story, and a story for all girls (and boys) and parents with aspirations to be great. That greatness comes at a huge sacrifice, that needs to be weighed carefully. 

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars, and would definitely recommend this to others. Thank you to Alena Dillon, William Morrow publishers and Netgalley for providing me a free advanced copy of this book, in exchange for a fair review.

The Happiest Girl in the World
Alena Dillon
Publication date 4/20/21
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sera Wheeler is an Olympic hopeful. Her life revolves around her training. This riveting novel takes you inside the gyms, the summer programs, and shows you a scary side to the abuse of so many gymnasts. Sera and Lucy train together, best friends but it seems a bit easier for Lucy. Sera faces many setbacks but she is destined to finally make it.
The novel parallels the real life gymnastic sexual abuse scandal with Larry Nassar. Heartbreaking at times this book examines how these girls strive to be their best while practicing with various injuries, suppressing their appetites and how they survive repeated physical, emotions and sexual abuse. I loved how Dillon incorporated the final Five Olympian girls I rooted for in the 2016 Olympics. I was star struck reading there names as they became characters in the book. It really brought the novel to life. I fell deeply for Sera, so much is as stake and to go on this journey with one of your best friends can be bittersweet. In such a cut throat sport how far will Sera go to make it?

Although the storyline deals with some difficult touchy social issues our children are facing it was written in such a beautiful way!! This is a five star must read, thought provoking and raw this is a story that will stay with you.

Thank you to William Morrow, NetGalley and Alena Dillon for his electronic advanced readers copy of The Happiest Girl in the World for my honest opinion. Looking forward to reading more of Dillon’s books.

Review posted on my Goodreads and Instagram.

http://www.instagram.com/donnasnotsosecretbookdiary

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/12409011-donna-beiderman

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As a mother of girls, this was both hard to put down and yet difficult to read. While it’s a fictional story, I realize so much of the realities of the professional/elite gymnastic world - and some aspects also in other professional sports - is accurately portrayed in the book. How much the girls destroy their bodies as a requirement, how coaches, doctors, etc take advantage of them and abuse them is horrifying, parents become as much of the obsession as their kids... and all especially because you know it really does happen.

As a mom, you want the best for your daughters and while you want to teach them determination and perseverance and commitment, there can become this fine line that quickly blurs into obsession and unhealthy ambition. And as with Sera’s mom, not only in gymnastics but life in general, too many parents to try to live vicariously thru their kids instead of helping them find that balance and identity in who they are, not what they do. The author brought valuable focus on aspects like how much kids need honest and open conversations with their parents as well, and what happens when that’s lacking; how much friends need to have each other’s backs; and the value of integrity even at your own risk.

I loved how the author showed the dangers but also the intense effort and skill these girls put into it, while bringing to light the horrific dark side of the gymnastic world. Well written and great story.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was amazing, incredibly well written, absorbing, interesting and emotional, it broke my heart a little and I'll surely reread it!

This book was a page turner from beginning to end. I literally couldn’t put this book down and finished in one reading. By now everyone knows the story of the sexual assault that rooks place with the young US gymnasts. But to know the full day to day struggles they go through. The mental and physical abuse. This book was hard to read but necessary. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I really liked this book. Alena took multiple tough subjects and wrote about them in a way that made them seem like something that could happen in any family, to any person. I felt I could relate with many of the characters and what they were going through.

My one beef with the book is how she kept saying everyone from the Midwest is fake and can't/won't say what they think. Being from Kansas, I have never felt that we are fake. We say things we mean and are probably more blunt than we should be. A couple references and I would have let it go but this was all through the book.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me an ARC of this book for my honest opinion of the book.

3.5 stars rounded up!

I'm very conflicted about the rating of this book. On one hand, it's pulled straight from real life and the story is quite literally the same story as what happened with USA gymnastics, Larry Nassar and the Kayroli ranch. It was a weird blend of reality, using the names of actual olympic team members and what was happening in the world (including COVID conversations and quarantine lockdown), but at the same time, this book was so readable and I sailed through this book. I was invested in the characters and while some of the choices the author made may not have been the choices I would have made, I get it and it's a careful balance the author had to walk between bringing these issues to light, while not stepping on toes and telling a story that isn't there, and I think the author did a good job of that. If you are interested in what has happened in USA Gymnastics, I recommend this book.

At first I thought this was going to be another book about abuse in the gymnastics world (it is), or about helicopter moms who live through their daughters (it is), or about the pain and suffering endured by the elite athletes (it is). But, it is sooooooo much more. It is a story of resilience, determination, perseverance, and at long last (spoiler alert) success. But more important than anything is what Sera does with her success, this was one of the best endings I have read in a long time and it was such a surprise! I hope this book is read by members of the gymnastic world, the ice-skating world, and any other sport that is similar--by the athlete, families, and coaches and taken to heart.

I was pleasantly surprised to find how good this book was. Well flowing writing that kept me interested through the whole story and compelling characters along with a great storyline made for a wonderful read. One never gives thought to what an athlete puts themselves through to be the best at their sport. I found myself feeling angry at what was expected of the kids during gymnastics, yet admiring their commitment to their goals and what they were doing. This is absolutely a must read!
5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the Author and publisher for a copy of this ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

Sera Wheeler wants to be an Olympic Gymnast and is willing to do anything to achieve that goal. Family, friendship, health and emotional well being are all sacraficed so Sera can follow her dream. Accusations of inappropriate conduct against the team medical doctor are made by her best friend. Sera and her family must decide whether to believe her and stand by her. This story pulls no punches and reveals what it really takes to become an Olympic Gymnast; the constant punishment the body endures, and the mental fragility of wondering if you will ever be "good enough". The story is very technical, and I had difficulty picturing all the moves and routines that were going on. I do not think I will look at an Olympic Gymnast the same way again.