I loved the story behind the two sisters who overcame grief, heartbreak, and many obstacles. No matter what they went through they always stuck together and made it out the other side with a positive outlook. I felt moved by this story and what the sisters were willing to give up for the others happiness. This book is a tear jerker and makes me think how much I would be willing to give up for the people I love the most. Beautiful story!

What a gift!🫶🏻🥹
Spectacular Things is a stunning, character-driven novel about love, loyalty, sacrifice, and resilience. I was completely captivated by Mia and Cricket’s story of sisterhood. Reminiscent of how tennis guides the storyline in Carrie Soto is Back, soccer is a major theme throughout Spectacular Things. I am not a soccer fanatic, but I really enjoyed the way soccer tied the Lowe women together and showed the level of ambition needed to be a professional athlete.

I absolutely LOVED Beck Dorey-Stein’s writing. Many lines throughout the novel gave me chills and brought tears to my eyes. Most of the novel is told from the past, but the present timeline bookends the story, wrapping everything together in a very satisfying way.

Spectacular Things is both heart wrenching and hopeful - I didn’t want it to end!

I have been a fan of this author since she wrote her first book, a nonfiction account of her time in the White House. I saw her talk about her book at Browseabout in Rehoboth and enjoyed hearing her talk about her writing experiences. I am super excited that this is her sophomore fiction book and that it was picked up by Reese so that she gets more exposure as a writer. Beck Dorey Stein deserves it!

This book was a solid book and it was really enjoyable. As a girls soccer player in the mid 90s I enjoyed the soccer plot and all of the references to players over the years. I loved that the book started out in the present and then you get the whole back story leading up to the present again. I did find Cricket to be annoying at times and super selfish. I wanted to shake her, even when she was younger, and tell her not to be so selfish. The end started to drag a bit leading up to the present time again but overall it was a solid read.

Thank you to Penguin Random House for a gifted Net Galley copy.

I read this one pretty quickly. The sister story pulled me in immediately. The soccer aspect was a very interesting look at sacrifices the whole family has to make in sports in order to make it to something like the Olympics. The ending petered off a bit- but I thoroughly enjoyed this read and the family drama/sports bend!

This book absolutely blew me away! From the very first page, I was hooked. The writing flows effortlessly - sharp, emotional, and completely immersive. I didn’t want to put it down, and when I wasn’t reading, I was thinking about the Lowe women.

Mia and Cricket are drawn so vividly - flawed, fierce, and full of heart. I laughed with them, I cried with them (seriously, many times), and I felt their pain and joy in every beat. The bond between the sisters is both tender and complicated, layered with history, resentment, love, and loyalty. Dorey-Stein captures sisterhood and grief with stunning precision and grace.

The structure, starting in the future and jumping back, works brilliantly, pulling you in and then gently unraveling the story in a way that’s both suspenseful and deeply satisfying. The pacing was perfect and not a single moment dragged.

I was also captivated by the rich settings, especially the small town of Victory, Maine. Every place the sisters went felt lived-in and real, from their hometown to the soccer fields that defined so much of Cricket’s life.

And speaking of soccer, I’ve never played a day in my life, but I was completely engrossed. Cricket’s journey, her ambition and sacrifices, were thrilling and heartbreaking. The sports angle never overshadowed the emotional core, it enhanced it.

This is one of the most moving books I’ve read all year. Beck Dorey-Stein has written something truly spectacular, full of vulnerability, strength, love, loss, and hope. I can’t recommend it enough.

My copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and The Dial Press for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book was so heartfelt! And gut wrenching. What a beautiful store of three generations of women’ that surround the world of soccer and a drive to succeed. Everyone has different dreams and goals and what may inspire them is the heart of this story. So thought provoking too as just because a goal seems small doesn’t mean it is.

We know Reese doesnt mess around with her book club recommendations and I can understand why. This book sat me for a full day where I started and had to finish it. This isnt a book I would have normally picked up and moved to the top of the tbr but im glad I did.

Spectacular Things follows the lives of Mia and Crickett, two sisters who are deeply in love with soccer and have an unbreakable bond between themselves. We learn about the sacrifices both girls had to make, as well as how they grew up in the aftermath of their mother's death. I especially loved how this book handled sisterhood and the implications of the deep bond some family members may have. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and especially about reading about soccer and how the dynamics of the game related to the themes of sacrifice and love.

Spectacular Things
By Beck Dorey-Stein

This is about a multi-generational family of talented soccer players – Liz Lowe, the mom, was a superstar on her way to playing for the UCLA Bruins when she finds herself pregnant. Liz, in the face of parental opposition, decides to have and keep her baby girl, Mia. Liz is still a kid herself when she becomes a mom. Therefore Mia becomes a second adult in the house at a very young age. After several years, Mia's previously un-named father shows up and spends a few months building a relationship with her – before he takes off again, leaving Liz pregnant again with Cricket, her second daughter. Although Liz had been grooming Mia to become a soccer star, Cricket's obviously superior talent leads to Liz and Mia putting all their hopes and dreams into Cricket.

Over the years, each of these women has a role to play and sacrifices to make. The nature of the sacrifices asked of them is sometimes heartbreaking. But in the end, the lessons learned make them stronger.

Having had a husband who was a soccer coach and two sons who played for years, I can relate to what is required to fulfill your dreams. I only have one issue with this story. I am not sure why Q needed to come back into the story as he did. I actually expected that he would reappear to bring about a satisfying resolution for all – but that didn't happen.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

This is such an interesting novel about the sacrifices one makes in life - not only for a sports dream, but also for family. I really enjoyed it.

4.5 ⭐ rounded up to 5⭐

Power resides in words. The power to elicit emotions. The power to garner understanding. The power to incite change. <i>Spectacular Things</i> is a powerful story told in an accessible voice.

My immediate draw was toward the cover art the painting captures an energy and simple beauty. After finishing the novel, I love it even more and can say it is a perfect fit. I will say despite the beachy cover this isn't light summer reading. It is an intense look into the lives of this family through the years.

This may be a sports themed novel, but I have to say that the real story is beneath the surface anything could have been the center of the lives of these characters and the book would've been interesting because each character is compelling.

The timeline goes back to the mother Liz's childhood. Liz lives an upscale life with parents who treat her more like an accessory and her mother views Liz's youth as competition. Her upbringing is rather cold. She is sent away to summer camp where she finds out she has genuine talent for soccer. Her parents sign her up for every high-level training they can but do not attend her games or have an interest until local politicians and colleges begin to show interest. They are basically showing her off but not loving her. It broke my heart. She felt more love from a game than family and that changes the trajectory of the future. Liz becomes a teenage mother and sets out to build a life far from her own upbringing. The timeline shows Liz's life with only Mia her first born. Then we see Cricket added to the little family. The timeline continues to follow these sisters through adulthood.
Both girls are great at soccer especially with Liz coaching them from the time they could run around. Cricket eventually shows unreal potential, and Mia has to quit so that her mother can take a second job to afford the fees for Cricket to pursue a high level of the sport.

Mia experiences her own personal struggles. She was the backbone of her family at too young of an age. Liz often depending on her more like a partner than parenting her like a daughter. Their roles often felt reversed. Starting her own family is a difficult journey. I rooted for her to catch a break because she just seemed to struggle adapt and keep her head up. Sometimes I wanted to hug her.

There were themes that captured my attention such as sacrificial love, empowerment, mind over matter, optimism, coming of age, identity, family, and ambition. I couldn't stop thinking of these sisters their struggles were just incredible and heartbreaking at times. The character development was beautiful. I don't say that with a light tone. Character development is one of my favorite aspects of great books and I like to see the bumps in the road during their arcs. I'm not typically drawn to novels with characters who never make a mistake. That's where the growth happens. Also sometimes getting what you want can be a recipe for loneliness or disaster. This novel showed these sisters through the years, and their journeys were captivating. I wanted their struggles to pay off, but more than that I hoped they would find personal fulfillment.

The stakes were high, the conflicts real, the storytelling rich, making the plot roll without a lull. Each of these characters were grappling with difficult circumstances in pursuit of a dream against tremendous odds. Could the cost become too high?

Raw talent only takes an athlete so far. The pursuit of greatness is filled with sacrifice. This novel was heartbreaking and spectacular.

Thank you to Random House for providing an ARC via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

“Spectacular Things” is a rich and layered coming-of-age novel that explores the intersection of sport, identity, and the quiet complexities of growing up in a family that doesn’t always say the things it feels. At the heart of the story is soccer- not just as a game, but as a language of movement, pressure, and self-expression. The sport becomes a powerful metaphor for control, release, and the expectations placed on young women.

The novel dives deep into sisterhood and the invisible threads that bind siblings together and pull them apart. Through the main character’s shifting relationship with her sister, we see how family roles are shaped by silence, grief, and the ways people try, and often fail, to protect one another. There’s so much unsaid in this family- tension simmering under love- and that felt very real.

I was especially struck by how the book explores maturity: not as a destination, but as a series of small, sometimes painful reckonings. The main character is figuring out who she is in the world, how much of herself she’s allowed to take up space with, and how to break out of roles that were assigned without her consent.

While I found the novel incredibly thoughtful and gorgeously written, I did wish it approached some of its heavier emotional territory with more sensitivity and emotional intelligence. Certain moments felt like they called for a deeper emotional reckoning than the book offered.

That said, this story lingered with me. It’s smart, bold, and honest about the ways we grow up, drift apart, and try to find our way back- sometimes through words, sometimes through a goalpost, sometimes through sacrifice, or sometimes through embracing change.

Read if you like:
✨ Quiet, but emotionally complex coming-of-age stories
✨ Sister dynamics and family tension
✨ Literary sports narratives (especially soccer) with emotional depth
✨ Books that explore girlhood, identity, and pressure

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨/5

Thank you so much to The Dial Press for the gifted book!

I had no idea what to expect going into this book, but since it was a Reese's Book Club pick, I knew it would be a powerful story about women, and it definitely was that.

The sister bond was so strong between the two main characters, Mia and Cricket. Their sisterly relationship honestly felt so realistic (as someone who has two sisters, I speak from experience).

I really liked how the book started in present day with a massive predicament and then went back in time and became a coming-of-age story for the two sisters. It was so helpful to see how their past circumstances shaped them into who they are today and also explains why their current situation is even more of a challenge than I initially perceived.

There was quite a lot of soccer talk in this book as cricket is a professional athlete, but I don't think it ever became to much for me, and I'm not super into sports at all.

I do feel like I wanted a little bit more from the ending just with how dramatically things started at the beginning of the book, but I still think it was enjoyable and will be loved my many.

this one had an extremely similar frame structure that i’m attempting to do for my current manuscript—we start in the present day when one sister is in desperate need of a kidney, while the other is on the brink of glory as the goalkeeper for the US women’s soccer team. to give a kidney would be to give up her life. we then are propelled into the past, where we see their life together blossom then fall apart. it gave me a ton of ideas on how to strengthen my own plotting, but by the end, i just found myself bored. and imo, mia was not mad enough at cricket!!!

A stunning book! Incredible characters, so well written and so likable. I was hooked from the very beginning. This book made me feel so many feelings. A story about sisters will always get me!! One of my favorite reads so far this year

I loved everything about this book: the characters, the story, and the multiple POV. The characters are all so well written and the story is seamless. I loved the structure, with starting in present day and introducing the conflict, then going all the way back and filling in the gaps. This is a new must-read author for me.

Thank you NetGalley and The Dial Press for an advance copy of this book. This is not the typical book I would pick up, but since it was a Reese’s book club pick, I gave it a try. It is a story about two sisters and their single mother, and what they are willing to give up for each other. They are all born with a soccer-playing gene. Female sacrifice, like The Giving Tree, has never been my favorite subject, and ditto sports. Yet the story was mildly interesting from the beginning, and then built in a way that I couldn’t put the book down. The characters became so vivid, and their issues were explored with such depth and realism, that by the end I had fallen in love with them, the book, and the author! This is a fantastic book.

🌟🌟🌟🌟☆

Spectacular Things beautifully captures the intensity of growing up with a sister when your lives revolve around soccer. It is the kind of novel that quietly burrows into your chest and stays there. Through the story of Mia and Cricket—two sisters bound by love, talent, and the unspoken rules of family loyalty—Beck Dorey-Stein unpacks big questions with heart and nuance: What do we owe the people we love most? And what happens when that love begins to cost us everything?
I was pulled in by the dynamic between the sisters: Mia, the grounded, responsible one who grows up far too fast, and Cricket, the one with big dreams and even bigger pressure on her shoulders. Their bond feels real—full of deep affection, unspoken resentments, and the aching push-pull that comes from growing up in someone else's orbit.
The backdrop of small-town Maine and their shared childhood under the weight of their mother's mysterious past adds layers of emotional complexity. I especially appreciated how the story never simplifies the trade-offs women make—for family, for ambition, for love.
A few pacing issues aside, it’s a heartwarming, observant novel about growing up, letting go, and learning to choose yourself—without losing the people who shaped you.

A big thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Random House | The Dial Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

fantastic family drama about the bond between sisters mia and cricket and the lengths they’ll go for each other. the story is engaging from the start, with most of it set in the past and the present framing the story. i enjoyed watching the characters grow throughout their lifelong journey.

This was an excellent family drama about the relationship between the Lowe sisters, Mia and Cricket and what they are willing to do for each other. It was well written and the story captured my attention from the start. It would be a great selection for a book club. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.