I’m just going to say it…I loved this book! It touched me on so many levels and I found it so relatable. Soccer…I’ve learned to love the game. The references of all that goes into the training and the sacrifices were spot on. The sister dynamics, along with the mother/daughter interactions are always somewhat hard to capture, but this storyline was so well done. It really highlights what it means to be a family. The illness reference hit very close to home for me. These characters were raw, life threw so much at them, but I loved their development and the ending was all that I hoped it would be. This book is to soccer what Carrie Soto is Back was to tennis. This book was emotionally charged and I can’t stop thinking about it. Have tissues handy. This will definitely be in my Top 10 for 2025.

I’ve never read this author before but she is now on my radar. I look forward to her next book.

Thanks to NetGalley and The Dial Press for this ARC. This is my honest opinion.

“Spectacular Things” was an unexpected surprise. This novel draws you in and takes you through a wide range of emotions.

I enjoyed the setting and dynamics of the family. As well, really enjoyed the Women’s soccer storyline.

This story follows a single mother raising two talented young ladies. As time involves, daughters, Mia and Cricket, must rely on each other to survive. Mia sacrifices so much to make sure Cricket gets opportunities that she never did.

This is such a well written book. The characters are likable and complex. Highly recommend this read! Thank you to NetGalley and Dial Press for this advance read.

This book will be compared to TJR’s Carrie Soto, but for soccer. Spectacular Things is a great book club pick — there will be a lot to talk about — so it’s not surprise to me that Reese made it her July pick. The opening scenes of this book are phenomenal. Mia is in the hospital with her husband, Oliver, after giving birth to their first child. She has a major ask of her younger sister, Cricket, a professional soccer player whose career is on the rise. This opening will hook you and get you sucked into the world of the Lowe sisters, their mother Liz, a former teen soccer standout, and the world of soccer. There is a lot of soccer in this book, but it worked for me.

Love and Sacrifice for a Sport

Are we expected to sacrifice for our family? Do we throw away our own dreams for a sister? Do you give your best friend your kidney? In this unusual novel, Beck Dorey-Stein presents the epitome of a single mother, Liz Lowe, who sacrifices for her daughters. Liz finds herself pregnant in high school. She believes the father of her child loves her but she really does not know him. She gives up her college scholarship and sets up a new life for herself and her baby girl, Mia. Her parents abandon her, and the reader never knows anything more about them Liz sets up a life for Mia involving great sacrifice and hard work. She becomes pregnant again when Mia’s father shows up and gives birth to another girl. Liz names her Cricket. The father has never paid any child support.

Liz is a constant presence; she raises her daughters to live out her dream of playing soccer. I learned about women’s soccer, its search for the best players, the significance of competition, the demand of extreme training and intense competition. The details of training and competition were substantial; the reader was well aware of the detriment of a physical injury, personal competition, and the overwhelming sacrifice of this young mother. Mia and Cricket are talented and love each other with a deep respect and need to please their mother in this quest for soccer excellence. There was very little money, Liz worked two jobs; the three of them were a team determined to be successful.

More disappointment and tragedy are present in this novel which makes it more realistic. The novel educates the reader about sacrifice in women’s sports. It is the author’s best book (her third). She has much to tell the reader and uses her writing talent to capture a realistic drama of a single, positive mother with a credible dream for her beloved daughters.

My gratitude to NetGalley and Dial Press for this pre-published book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Absolutely adored every second of this book and already missing these characters like I knew them personally :(

'Spectacular Things' takes us through the Lowe families lifetime, from their mother Liz's childhood love of football to her daughters Mia and Cricket, and their intense sibling dynamic. I love books that span over many decades but this is the first I've read that was over more than one generation! Beck Dorey-Stein manages to create such a personal connection between reader and her characters by spilling every detail of their lives across her pages. All of their flaws and bad decisions just made these characters feel so much more human than the words on the page!

The main question this book poses is how much would you give up for someone you love? When Mia needs a kidney transplant after the troublesome birth of her daughter, it seems obvious that Cricket set up. However, with careers and her own dreams - as well as her mother's - finally coming to fruition, is this the right move for her? What seems like an obvious answer from the books opening chapters becomes a lot more complex when you fully explore the Lowe family and what they have overcome and sacrificed leading up to present day.

I feel like this book really accurately portrays sibling bonds in such a tender way I've not read much before. Mia and Cricket have been through a lot together, but they always know they have each other to rely on - even if the other one doesn't realise that themselves.

To me this was a perfect book and I couldn't fault any of it or wish the storyline went differently at any point! I love stories like these that give a glimpse into someone else's lives and I would love to read even more about them!!!

Thank you to Random House Publishing, NetGalley and the Dial Press Marketing team for sending me this arc !!

*All opinions are my own !!*

“The books say you don’t move on from grief,” Mia murmurs in Crickets ear. This only makes her sister cry harder. “They say that, to accommodate all the love and loss and loneliness, your heart has to grow bigger”

Mia and Cricket are about as close as sisters can get. With a young single mom, Mia had to do a lot of the caretaking for Cricket through their childhood while Cricket became a local soccer star. Now that they have grown up though, situations change which leads to the question… would you give up everything you have ever wanted for person you love the most?

I was fully in this book from the very first chapter, and could not put it down! Chapter one brings a life changing situation. Then we go back in time and follow along as Mia and Cricket grow up, and how their childhoods have shaped who they have become. As seems to be the case with other sports books (Carrie Soto for example) I am not a soccer fan, but I think I may have become one while reading? This book was such an emotional adventure that I truly just adored. The story, the writing, the eventual conclusions… just absolutely perfect!

Thank you to @thedialpress for my gifted copy of this book!

Loved this book with the flawed characters, sisters, who are asked to sacrifice for each other what matters most to them. At the core of the story is the game of soccer and the love of the game Mia and Cricket both inherited from their mother, and which nearly destroys their relationship.

If you enjoy stories about family dynamics, you will definitely like this book. It begins with Mia giving birth, the same day as her sister Cricket is in the Olympics, playing on the soccer team. When Cricket finally gets home from the Olympics, Mia is still in the hospital. She needs a kidney transplant, or her prospects are not good. Next, we travel to the past as the women were young and raised by a single mother. Their mother gave up a college scholarship for soccer when she unexpectedly became pregnant with Mia. As they grew, Mia and Cricket soon developed the roles that followed them for their lives. Mia was always the responsible and sensible one, even more so than their mother. Cricket was the star athlete, always the center of attention. How their personalities developed shows throughout the story. It was a good story, and when it gets back to the present day you wonder what the outcome will be. I really enjoyed this book.

Also reviewed on B&N (1IrishEyes430) and Kobo (IrishEyes430)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for inviting me to read this ARC! I don’t know if I would have otherwise, and then I wouldn’t have known about the great Lowe sisters which would’ve been a shame.

Having women’s soccer be at the forefront of this story was an amazing decision! The pressure, sacrifices, and “What if I’m not good enough” anxiety was all told in such a beautiful way. Add in the dynamic of a young single mother, and 2 sisters on 2 very different paths for their lives and you see the layers of similarities & differences between professional athlete aspiration and domesticity/academic aspiration, but the underlying heart of “I will make it” from both.

Liz, Mia, Cricket were a wonderful, albeit sometimes short-sighted family, and I truly loved getting to know them. I felt like I lived their lives with them having been given their entire background stories, but that helped build a bond with their characters that was essential to this type of storytelling.

The way the topic of grief was explored/told in this story was phenomenal! As someone who lost a parent I can attest to the fact that what the characters did in the wake of their grief is legitimate. And also that grief never truly goes away but finding a way to intertwine in our daily lives as time goes by.

This was an absolute gem of a read and I’m looking forward to reading more from this author!

I went into this totally blind and LOVED it. I loved the sister story, the soccer, the romance—all of it. This is such a beautiful family story, and this author consistently nails it for me. Her memoir is one of my all time favorites, and I love her fiction so much too. Bravo!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the eARC.

Spectacular Things was just that, spectacular. I adored this book. I loved these characters and I especially loved the sister dynamic. This book felt so real to me and I could not put it down. 5/5.

Liz, a teen soccer star, gets pregnant right before she was going to UCLA to play soccer and fulfill her dreams. Instead, Liz moved to Maine and raises her daughter Mia to become the star she wasn’t able to be. A few years later Mia’s baby sister Cricket is born and it turns out that Cricket is an incredibly gifted soccer player. Mia and Liz sacrifice everything in order to support Cricket’s trajectory to soccer stardom. For much of Cricket’s life Mia has pushed her own needs aside to make sure Cricket becomes the star she is destined to be. But then one day Cricket is the one asked to make a sacrifice, and it will determine how strong their sisterhood bonds are.


I love a good sister book (as an only child, who knows why) and a good family drama - this was both. There is a lot to absorb in the first 35% of the book, quite a bit of grief and trauma (and I put it down for about 10 minutes) but the rest of novel was a great story of an athlete (lots of soccer in here - which just like when I read Carrie Soto, I may have skimmed the sports stuff a little), a dysfunctional home, and familial and romantic love. I spent the day reading it and once I got a certain part I couldn’t put it down. I really enjoyed the audiobook’s narrator (I listened to about 1/4 of this one) and I could have kept listening, but the lounge chair by the pool was calling my name.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s a gripping story about family, sacrifice, sisterhood and the pursuit of dreams. Both sisters stories held sadness and growth but so much love!

This will easily be in my top 10 of the year as might just be my #1! What an outstanding family story. I was rooting for all of them, and wept alongside this family. An incredible story.

A beautifully told story about sisterhood and soccer, I enjoyed this one a lot even though I sometimes found the plot to be too slow paced.

The real highlight of the book is the characters. They are so real, and the family dynamics so relatable in all their imperfection.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

Set against the backdrop of women’s soccer, SPECTACULAR THINGS examines family dynamics and the willingness to sacrifice in pursuit of a dream.

The book opens with an impossible choice. We meet Mia and Cricket, sisters raised by a single mother whose lives are focused on a singular goal: glory on the soccer pitch at the world championship level. That goal is within reach, but at what cost?

I was hooked from the first page with my heart fully invested in this saga of deferred dreams and incredible personal sacrifice. In order for one sister to pursue her goals, the other must put her own needs and desires aside. These all too human characters are faced with the question of how much of themselves they are willing to give for the other. Where do the dreams of one end and the other begin?

This is an emotional and poignant journey with the highest of highs and lowest of lows. It is beautifully written and showcases both incredible strength and tenderness.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the advance copy. All opinions are my own.

Liz's parents weren't really interested in Liz until she became really good at soccer and was accepted to UCLA but in her senior year of high school she got pregnant. She moved away and settled in Victory, Maine to raise her daughter, Mia, and train her in soccer. When she has her second daughter, Cricket, she is a natural and Liz and Mia sacrifice to help facilitate her rise in the sport.

If someone had said this is a book about soccer and you're going to love it I would have laughed but I did love it. Soccer is a huge part but it is more about getting ahead in something you are passionate about. The sisters are close but Mia is always the level-headed one. In the opening chapters Mia is cheering on her sister while she is in labor and due to complications her kidneys failed and she needs a transplant. What a dilemma for Cricket. Give up everything she's worked for or save her sister's life.

I cared about all the characters. Liz's positivity, Mia's selflessness to help both her mother and sister and Oliver, Cricket's coach. Cricket could have come off as selfish but the author did a great job having her walk a line between family loyalty and a career path.

I give this 4.75* rounded up to 5*.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for providing me with a digital copy.

An absolutely wonderful story of two sisters, Mia and Cricket, and their single mom, Liz in a small coastal Maine town. They are strong, loving, hard-working, fierce, and loyal. I loved these characters as individuals and when all three are together on the page, it's just fantastic.

Women's soccer is the theme that links the past with the future and the characters to the timeline. The way the various soccer matches and practices were described, I felt like I was there watching and rooting. The ending made me so happy and a little misty.

A final observation: Maine is really punching above its weight this summer: Maine Characters, Hazel Says No, and now Spectacular Things. All five-stars. Highly recommend all three.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Random House | The Dial Press and NetGalley for the advance reader copy. #SpectacularThings #NetGalley

I was invited by the publisher to read and review this novel months ago, but due to a too-long to-read list, I pushed it aside and forgot about it until publication week. WHAT A MISTAKE THAT WAS. I predict this will be on my top list or 2025 reads: I could not put it down (I read this in less than 24 hours!). This is the kind of propulsive, character-driven novel I love the most.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5

Such a beautiful story!
A story of mothers and daughters, and sisters.. mostly the sisters.
Sisters who come from a family of soccer stars, and face many challenges after a huge loss.
Heartwarming story.., wonderful characters.. a big part of the story will give you insight into women’s soccer..
just loved it!

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House/Dial Press for the Arc!