Wow! This book far exceeded my expectations. I loved the high stakes and complex main characters. I really enjoyed the writing style.

💭 ⓂⓎ ⓉⒽⓄⓊⒼⒽⓉⓈ
All the stars for this book! If you have heard the buzz, let me assure you it is absolutely worth the hype. With a documentary style format, TJR esque writing, and a story packed with scandal, endless tension, and an unforgettable romance, this book will have you hooked from start to finish.
The characters are pure perfection, and the vivid writing places you right in the Olympic stadium, holding your breath as the ice dancers compete. It brought me back to my childhood, reliving the magic of watching figure skating during the Winter Olympics on TV.
I adored the complex flawed characters and the intricate messy relationships they shared. Kat, Bella, Heath, Garrett, and Sheila felt so real that I did not just read about them, I knew them. This story is gripping, intense, and deliciously scandalous. It definitely has potential to be a top contender for my favorite book of the year!

📚 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
⛸️Sports romance
💕Childhood friends to lovers
🎥Documentary style
❌Toxic relationships
🥇Olympic rivalry
❎Complex flawed characters
🎭Dramatic and scandalous
😭Emotional and intense
🔁Multiple timelines

⛸️𝕄𝕐 ℝ𝔸𝕋𝕀ℕ𝔾⛸️
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

💕Q U O T E: “ 𝐻𝒶𝓅𝓅𝒾𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹𝓃'𝓉 𝒷𝑒 𝓌𝑜𝓃. 𝐼𝓉 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹𝓃'𝓉 𝒷𝑒 𝒽𝓊𝓃𝑔 𝒶𝓇𝑜𝓊𝓃𝒹 𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓃𝑒𝒸𝓀𝓈 𝓌𝒽𝒾𝓁𝑒 𝒶 𝒸𝓇𝑜𝓌𝒹 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓈𝒶𝓃𝒹𝓈 𝒸𝒽𝑒𝑒𝓇𝑒𝒹. 𝐼𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓈𝓃'𝓉 𝒶 𝓅𝓇𝒾𝓏𝑒, 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓌𝑒 𝒽𝒶𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝓊𝒻𝒻𝑒𝓇 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝑜𝒾𝓁 𝓉𝑜 𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓃. 𝐼𝒻 𝓌𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓅𝒾𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓈, 𝓌𝑒 𝒽𝒶𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝒸𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓉𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈𝑒𝓁𝓋𝑒𝓈. 𝒩𝑜𝓉 𝒾𝓃 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓂𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝑜𝓃 𝒶 𝓂𝑒𝒹𝒶𝓁 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓃𝒹, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎 𝓈𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓁𝑒 𝒹𝒶𝓎, 𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒶𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃.”

🙏 Thank you NetGalley, Random House, and Layne Fargo for providing me the eARC to go along with my physical copy!💕

Not the usual book Layne writes! But I enjoyed it! Some parts were unnecessary but I’d recommend it!

This book reminded me why I love to read. It hooked me from the first page and I could not put it down. I binged this in two days because any free moment I had, I picked it up because I had to know what was going to happen. The complex characters, betrayal, and the tension with high stakes athletics was so refreshing and addictive. I loved the commentary on class and a peek into behind the scenes (although fictional) drama that occurs in the world of sports for athletes. While I did not like the characters, I did believe they grew and evolved for the better so I was happy with the ending. The book made me FEEL for Kat and Heath. I wanted everything to work out for them and I could not look away. I did not find this long and I found the pacing to be done very well. What a great departure from her last book, They Never Learn. I also read and loved that one back in 2022. It is so impressive when an author can dabble in writing different genres and do both very well!

This book is juicy, irresistible, and exceptionally messy but I loved it.

Warning: Reading this book may result in a catastrophic reading slump or a bookish hangover so profound that no other book will excite you for weeks because that is what has happened to me!
Thank you so much to Random House for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

4.5/5

I couldn’t put this book down. It was excellent. The writing was so good. The story was so good. You rooted for Katarina Shaw the whole time. She’s driven. You also wanted to yell at her sometimes. The book gives you all the emotions. You cheer during the competitions and you want to yell at the end.
Definitely worth the read.

I have a feeling THIS novel will be one of the ones everyone reads. It might even be picked up by a big.name book club. It's that damn good. Passion, ice skating, drama--it's all in there.

✩4.5

Katarina Shaw was in the building, and that bitch had come to win.

✦What to Expect✦
•Figure Skaters/Ice dancing
•Olympic dreams
•Documentary style/interview format
•Drama
•Backstabbing
•Toxic relationships

✦Characters✦
•Katarina Shaw
•Heath Rocha

•Isabella(Bella)Lin
•Garrett Lin
•Sheila Lin
•Ellis Dean
•Nicole Bradford
•Jane Currer
•Kirk Lockwood
•Francesca Gaskell
•Inez Action
•Veronika Volvkova
 
✦Fav Quotes✦
Everyone thinks Heath Rocha was my first love. He wasn’t. My first love was figure skating.

I hated them. I wanted to be them. I couldn’t take my eyes off them.

He looked at me like he’d been wandering in the dark for years, and I was the sunrise.

One way or another, Heath Rocha and I will be in each other’s lives until we die. Even if we end up killing each other.

✦Thoughts✦
Oh my god

What a wild ride. Truly unwell now.

The betrayal. The backstabbing. The tension. The DRAMA!

First off, the DRAMA holy crap! It was so addicting and had me clenching my jaw so much. My blood pressure and heart rate were through the roof at times because some of the stuff that happened had me audibly gasping and literally screaming into the void.
IT’S FINE, I’M FINE (narrator: she was in fact, not fine)

Kat is going after her dreams and is
going to do whatever she needs to do in order to win gold.
Kat is unapologetic about it too.

The journey she goes through with Heath, Bella, Garret over the years to reach her dreams, it is WILD F’ING RIDE so buckle up!

I can’t get over how much I enjoyed this book. It grabbed my attention right away, and kept me completely entertained the whole time. I found myself feeling every sort of emotion towards these characters. Loved them, hated them, cheered for them and against them. I loved that we got the full story of Kat and Health, from the very beginning until the conclusion. I didn’t feel like I finished this book and was missing something. I can’t wait to see everyone else fall in love with this story on Jan 14th!!

If you grew up in the 80’s when figure skating/ ice dancing and the Olympics were all the rage on Tv, you will most certainly enjoy this book. You are taken on a ride as Kate and Heath start at the bottom skating and work their way up through the ranks.
Kay gets to train with her idol while escaping a terrible life away from her abusive convict brother.
I enjoyed the ride which meant I was able to read this book very quickly.
Be prepared to read a lot of interviews of multiple people as well as commentary through out from a bunch of people
I don’t like books that make me read text messages, emails or interviews with multiple people. So, while I thought this book was great, I gave it 4 ⭐️ instead of 5 because so many chapters were interviews/commentary.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc.

Wow. WOW.

I just finished reading this book, and I could have never predicted where we were headed, where we would land, and what it would take to get there.

Resilience. Determination. Work. HARD work. Love. Fierceness. Undeterred focus. Strength by the rose petal.

THESE are the characteristics in a FMC I love to see.

This story is easily gold medal worthy.

Get your hands on this book immediately. You won’t be able to put it down.

Wow. Just wow. The Favorites is the story of ice dancing duo Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha. Kat will stop at nothing to become an Olympic gold medalist and Heath will do just about anything for Kat. With the release of an unauthorized documentary, Kat decides to share her story, from the lead up to her first competition with Heath, to their final skate together. Throughout the book, we get bits of interviews from the documentary from various people connected to Kat and Heath. From the very first chapter, I was hooked.

This book was an emotional roller coaster. I cried, wanted to scream and throw my Kindle across the room, then cried some more. These characters are all flawed, complex, messy, and I loved and hated each of them. Well, some of them I just hated. I’ll be thinking about this story for weeks and absolutely cannot wait to listen to the audiobook. Now, excuse me while I go watch ice dance compilation videos and pretend they’re Kat and Heath.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!.

This book was so interesting, I don’t think I have read anything like it before. It is pure drama in a way that there is plot twist after plot twist until the end. As someone who loves drama I was eating up every second of this, I could not put my Kindle down the whole time I was reading.
While the drama was fun I do think that this book lacked emotion. Our two main characters really had no discerning personality traits. Katarina’s was that she wanted to be a winner and Heath’s was that he was in love with Katarina. Other than that nothing, I feel like the side characters were even more flushed out than our main characters.
The author is constantly telling us things rather than showing us. Like we are constantly being told that Katarina and Heath are so in love with each other but we don’t see really any meaningful conversations between them or really any chemistry. I also feel like Heath’s character as whole was severely underdeveloped.
Also, Katarina has a major personality change at the end for which there was no build up really. She had one mindset and then in the next chapter she had totally flipped. This was jarring and really made no sense.
I did really enjoy the side characters in this book the way they are woven so deeply into the main character’s lives is so heartwarming and compelling. Especially with the way that the book ended.

Absolutely loved The Favorites by Layne Fargo! This will absolutely be one of my favorites of the year! I tore through this book in less than 24 hours.

If you loved Daisy Jones and the Six you’ll love The Favorites. I’m already recommending this to everyone!

The sports themes intertwined with a love story kept me invested.

The Favorites is one of those books that reminds me why I love reading. Thank you Layne Fargo, I can’t wait to read what you write next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing group for an advance copy!

Reading this book was an intense emotional journey. There were moments when I felt so furious, heartbroken, and frustrated that I wanted to throw my Kindle across the room. Just when I thought I had found peace, it would slip away again, leaving me feeling lost. But as I reached the end, I realized that’s how life is—full of unexpected twists and turns. Somehow, the story ended in a way that felt right, and despite everything, I loved it.

It reminded me of my love for the Olympics. I’ve watched every Olympics since I was a kid, and I’ve always been fascinated by the dedication and sacrifice of the athletes. I especially remember the 1998 Winter Games, where the figure skating really stood out to me. Watching the athletes give everything they had, chasing their dreams, was both inspiring and humbling.

The book also made me think about the battle for success and winning the gold, and how the desire for it can sometimes overwhelm athletes and those around them. The hunger for success isn’t wrong, but it can push people to the brink, clouding what really matters in the process.

The writing was addictive, and the interviews woven throughout the book were refreshing. They gave a deeper layer to the story and made it feel more personal, allowing me to connect even more with what was happening.

As I finished the book, I couldn’t help but reflect on the bigger picture. The story delved into the pursuit of success, but it also showed how fragile those dreams can be when the pressure becomes too much. It made me think about life in general—about what truly matters in the end. What do we really win when everything is said and done? What is the true cost of reaching the top, and is it worth it? These are the questions that stayed with me long after I finished reading. So I ask myself: what have I really won? What does it all mean?

Book Review: The Favorites by Layne Fargo
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Layne Fargo’s The Favorites is an absolute triumph, a novel so rich with emotion, complexity, and raw human connection that it left me breathless. This beautifully written, harrowing love story unfolds within the glittering yet brutal world of elite figure skating, and I was completely swept away. Fargo doesn’t just tell a story; she immerses you in the minds and hearts of her characters, leaving you reeling with their love, hatred, passion, and pain.

At its heart, The Favorites is the story of Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha, two fiercely determined individuals bound by a connection that transcends the ice. From their humble beginnings—Kat chasing Olympic dreams without her family’s support, Heath surviving the foster care system—to their meteoric rise as an ice-dancing duo, their relationship burns with an intensity that is both awe-inspiring and deeply flawed. Fargo masterfully depicts the fine line between obsession and devotion, creating a bond so compelling it’s impossible not to root for them, even when their choices are maddening.

The novel is unapologetically raw. Fargo peels back the layers of Kat and Heath’s relationship, exposing their insecurities, ambitions, and darkest secrets. Neither character is conventionally likable, but that’s what makes them unforgettable. Their humanity—messy, beautiful, and deeply relatable—shines through. I felt every moment of their journey, from the fiery highs of Olympic triumphs to the gut-wrenching lows of betrayal and loss.

The narrative’s structure is another triumph. The use of an unauthorized documentary as a framing device adds a modern and voyeuristic edge, allowing Fargo to explore the public and private facets of Kat and Heath’s lives. As the layers of their story unfold, the tension builds relentlessly, and the truth behind their dramatic split is as shocking as it is heartbreaking.

Described as part Wuthering Heights and part Daisy Jones & The Six, The Favorites lives up to the comparison and then some. Fargo’s prose is as sharp as a skate blade, her characters as vivid and unpredictable as a live performance. The novel dances between love and hate, creation and destruction, with the grace of a gold-medal routine.

For me, The Favorites is more than a book—it’s an experience. It captured my heart and refused to let go, leaving me emotionally wrecked and utterly satisfied. This will be a tough book to beat this year. If you love stories that are equal parts passion and pain, with unforgettable characters and a setting that dazzles and devastates in equal measure, do yourself a favor and read this book.

Layne Fargo, take a bow.

If you're a fan of Taylor Jenkins Reid's writing style, you'll LOVE Layne Fargo's THE FAVORITES. In the same vein of DAISY JONES & THE SIX, it's partially told in documentary style - following the tumultuous journey of figure skaters Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha. Intercut with chapters from Kat's POV, you get a very well rounded story of these two from many perspectives, and baby...I was eating that sh*t up like candy. Growing up as an avid fan of figure skating, I was living for the juicy drama of it all. THE FAVORITES is definitely for those fans of ice skating, soap operas and fictional autobiographies. I love Taylor Jenkins Reid, and I love Layne Fargo now. If it hasn't already been optioned for film or TV, it will be because the pacing hooks you and never lets go.

Special thanks to Random House Publishing Group for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

i will sing Layne Fargo’s praises for ever and ever. her work is so different from book to book (i LOVED temper and they never learn so i knew i had to read THE FAVORITES asap!

i loved reading something different - this was an intense, melodramatic litfic-esque book will have readers hanging onto every word. the full cast audiobook really brings this to life.

the twists in this book will leave your jaw on the floor. huge congratulations to Layne Fargo for another hit!

Thanks so much to Random House for the arc!

Unfortunately, this one just wasn't for me. It dragged and the drama was there for shock value vs actual plot points. Some people who love the classic may like this though

really enjoyed this one. after seeing so many early raving reviews I knew I had to try and get this one and I’m so honoured to have gotten an ARC. this was like a reality tv show but in a book form. I loved every single moment of it and found myself grasping my kindle wondering what the heck is going to happen next. The characters were so well executed that they felt so real. beautifully flawed characters are my fav. I love characters that have a strong passion for something and this is exactly what was portrayed in this novel. I was obsessed from the very first chapter. My first read of the year and it was one that will live rent free in my mind for quite sometime!

imagine the loneliest people in the world repeatedly stabbing one another with love and hate in equal measure and just when you think they shouldn’t be alive to stab another day, they turn around and stab YOU🫵. on ice!

real review to come tyvm (1/7/25)

okay update (1/10/25) actual thoughts, long and messy but whatever:

(1) i think my initial reaction still stands. but here’s more detail.

(2) this book was incredibly fun. i tore through it. it goes down incredibly easily just boom boom boom. and it really provoked an emotional reaction in me, which i find happens less and less the more i read; i feel quite inoculated. that said, i do think that was because some of it was melodrama. again, very FUN, but certainly more heightened. as someone who grew up on shonda shows in middle school, i can very well appreciate a Heightened Situation (bomb in a body cavity is some of my favorite television ever) but i don’t tend to seek that out in my reading so this was kinda new and i enjoyed it very much.

(2a)[note: some of the events at the end of the book, without spoiling, started to stretch my credulity and feel a little like the fics i was reading on wattpad also in middle school, but then i really liked the way it resolved (f*******a!) and the lesson katarina learned, they way it tied up threads from throughout, the emotional growth katarina finally had to face, etc. so i won’t complain too much, but when i was in the middle of reading those events i was like uhhhhh.]

(3) re: this being a wuthering heights retelling: i have not read wuthering heights, despite meaning to get to it, so i can’t comment specifically on the character representations and relationships and whatnot. i know the basic plot though, and i’d say the first half follows that plot fairly closely and the second forges its own path in order to continue the telling of this modern story.

(4) re: the characters: (again, idk exactly what they are like in wuthering heights but make of this what you will) i really liked katarina (kathy). she was not a passive object upon which others’ plots (romantic or vengeful) were imposed, but rather she had intense desire and drive that moved the entire story and all of the characters. she was very interesting to read about. heath (heathcliff) was very brooding, as i’ve always heard he is, but i feel like he otherwise got lost a bit. of course he has his intense love for katarina and his vengefulness upon his return, but he doesn’t have much face-level personality. just brooding. and so where katarina and isabella were deeply realized, heath felt more cartoonish. that’s not to say i didn’t love him and hate him at various times. he certainly elicited emotions in me, the reader, in addition to the other characters, but i found myself wondering if there was anything else to him?

(5) my understanding of wuthering heights is that heath’s nonwhiteness plays a key role in his social position and while this retelling did include that element, it felt a little hand-waved at. katarina and heath are both looked down on by the ice skating community: first for their nontraditional style—a reflection of their lack of money and access to the upper echelons of this world—and then later for their “trashy” choices (bringing drama to the ice, choosing to become media darlings/influencers, selling their romance, etc) which again reflect that they will never fit into the conservative, wealthy world of skating. while heath’s race is remarked upon, it’s mostly in passing, and he and katarina are both looked down upon together for the aforementioned reasons. sometimes we even see katarina receive harsher treatment for not fulfilling conservative womanly ideals. while i found all of that to be interesting, it would’ve also been interesting to see moments where heath was treated differently by the skating community not because of anything he did or his manner of behavior (he gets frisked at the airport once, but i emphasize by the skating community because that’s where katarina and heath are trying and struggling to find purchase). again, i don’t know myself how heath’s race is actually portrayed in wuthering heights or how people feel about it, but i think there’s more room for that in this retelling than fargo utilizes.

(6) i love ice skating movies and books. so. this was bound to be a hit.

in conclusion, so fun! read it and enjoy!