We looove a book about female friendships, but I was a little overwhelmed by the number of characters it kept flipping between.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hogarth for sending me this book!

I was drawn to the premise of this book and at the beginning was very much into the dynamics between the women, how the sport of cross country played into their friendship, rivalries, and personalities. However, at times it felt like the book could not decide what it wanted to be. That being said, I appreciated how each of the women were complicated and felt real, and that it didn't hold back from talking about serious issues while at the same time remembering that these women were still young and were still developing their own thoughts, feelings, and voice.

A gorgeous story that approaches sensitive and important topics in an original way. Much like the characters, I felt so immersed in the story that it was hard to see which way was up. Reents is incredibly talented.

Emotional, relevant, and such a powerful look into the ways women try to justify the world around them while growing up and trying to figure themselves out at the same time. Really loved the way running was woven into themes that felt so relatable. A tough but great read I would definitely recommend.

A well-written story overly complicated by a confusing narrative structure. I sincerity enjoyed Reents' commentary on toxic collegiate running culture, body dysmorphia, and eating disorders but found it hard to follow amid the constant POV switches. While I can recognize this as a strategy to help homogenize (and then latter individuate) the girls along the course of their journey, it made things really hard to follow for the first half. I can also see this being a super triggering book for individuals struggling with weight-related concerns, especially those with an athletic focus. Read with caution.

I quite enjoyed this. I think the author clearly knew her stuff and was writing from experience -- this was obvious and heartfelt. I think non-athletes might have a difficult time relating to what a collegiate student-athlete can go through, and runners have an especially unique training and social regimen.

I really felt this, and it rang totally true to me. I was a little nonplussed about the variation of the narrators, and the liberal use of "we" when the narrator was not identified. But really, not a major matter.

Highly recommended, and I certainly could see a Netflix limited series in the novel's future.

Will I read more from the author? Absolutely.

I received a complimentary copy of the novel from the publisher and NetGalley, and my review is being left freely.

We Loved to Run, by Stephanie Reents, is not just a running story. It is a story of six young women in college who are dealing with trauma as they come of age. The novel mainly centers around Kristin and Danielle, with the other four popping in and out throughout the novel. All the young women are on the college’s cross country team, and all of them are dealing with something hard such as drinking problems, unhealthy relationships with food, sexual assault and dating trauma and more. The novel becomes a little discombobulated as it swerves between these dark, deep subjects and then talking about running a race. I wish I had learned more about some of the other characters, while some was a run on. It took me a while to work through as I didn’t expect such heavy topics going into the novel. Important, yes, but could have used some editing. 2.5/5 stars from me.

The book was well written. It provided changing POVs, and made it seem like the team of female cross-country runners was a cohesive perspective. Still, I was confused if the main character was the team and the point was to show the ebbs and flows of running as a team or if the main characters were the individual women runners. If so, none of the women stood out and I didn’t find any of them compelling or likable.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Every high school girl needs to read this novel. It's a common experience for most young women, and the fact that these exceptional young athletes faced the same traumas is heartbreaking yet motivating.

We Loved to Run was a glimpse into how women can hold each other together, tear each other down, and how we hold on to things we blame ourselves for, even when we are not at fault. The themes in this book play out through the lives of a group of college runners.

I received a copy for review. All opinions are my own. It was very interesting to learn about each girls individual life struggles and see how they all would have to come together at the end. The character development was really great and helped make the book easy to follow. I love that it takes place in the 90s because it made me feel a bit nostalgic and as a runner myself I was really excited to read this novel. Definitely a good weekend read!

A strong 3, middle of the road book for me. There were a lot of characters, and the shifting POV made it hard to learn them all. There were elements of the prose that were not in a style I personally enjoy reading, but ultimately I think it was a well-told story. Strong trigger warning, and if discussions of sexual assault are upsetting to you, definitely steer clear. Because I could see where the story was going, I read a lot of the book with unease.

I had a hard time getting into this book. However about halfway through, I finally understood the plot. Young women in a cross country team, dealing with sexual assault and how society treats them. Some good writing but I found it hard to engage.

We Loved to Run explores coming of age through the lives of six collegiate runners. The issues that the girls face are very realistic and dealt with in a way that felt very accurate to the early 1990s timeline. Much of it made me feel nostalgic but also sad remembering the pain of navigating those spaces. The story is told in vignettes from the six girls but there is a bit of imbalance as some carry more weight than others. Overall I enjoyed it, but parts of it were a little slow. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

We loved to run captured me in the first sentence. It brought me into the cross country team that this book follows and I felt like I was running beside them, Stephanie Reents captures perfectly captures the experience of women athletes. Reent takes us into the heads of each of these women as they navigate all the mind boggling messaging of society- we see the importance of team of sports (and the friendships they foster). Reents does a great job of showing and never telling- This novel is important and is a must read. I loved and look forward to more books by Stephanie Reents.

We Loved to Run by Stephanie Reents was a quick, though not light, read. The book follows the six fastest members of the women's cross country team of a fictional New England college (Frost) throughout their season. The narrative switches each chapter to a different narrator though each reads as if they are omniscient, and they each spend a lot of time thinking about and speculating or observing what the other women in that core six are doing during the chapter's events as well. As the weeks pass, the team continues to excel in workouts and in races in what could potentially be their best season as a team yet. The novel asks whether they will be hold it together, keeping their injuries, their anxieties, and their insecurities at bay to make it to the national competition. We Loved to Run captured the nuance and intricacies of female friendships and the love-hate relationship that many competitive athletes have with their sport and their bodies as a consequence.

As a former women's cross country team runner, I was excited to see a novel centered on a women's cross country team. There are not many! And I thought Reents delivered on some of these elements I remember most fondly: cross country season in the crisp New England fall, the weird relationship between the men's and women's cross country team, the love hate relationship to running that every runner has, and the nuance of female friendships. The book also does not shy away from some of the darker elements of competitive running like running through injury and pain and the rampant disordered eating culture, the latter perpetuated in We Love to Run by pretty much every member of the team as well as the coaching staff. Despite the heaviness, I felt Reents wrote about these details in a compassionate and realistic way that resonated with me. I loved the way she characterized and noted a lot of these small details.

Some of the other details were a little harder for me to follow. I did not feel like I knew any of the six girls well, as each is mainly characterized almost entirely by her compulsions and what place she landed each week in the workout. As a runner, these details were meaningful and interesting to me but I foresee the book losing a lot of readers because there is little detail about the runners outside of their relationship to running. Additionally, the women were also really kind of mean to each other. I've run competitively and I have never harbored some of these types of thoughts about my teammates. I don't remember these kinds of fights breaking out amongst my teammates. Though the plot is building up to their most important meet of the season, I would say it is mainly a character driven novel and I did not care a ton about any of the characters because I did not felt like I knew them outside of running and they were kind of mean! The narration style compounded this, sometimes as a singular we, other times in the voice of a single character which further blurred the lines. I think the intended function of this was to show they moved and thought as a group, and were constantly in tune with what was going on with one another, which resonated with me as a former athlete. However, their actions were very much at odds with their inner thoughts.

Other reviews have made mention that this book made them remember 'exactly why they did not get involved in competitive sports'. This makes me sad, because I feel like the very fact that Reents is still reflecting on her time as a collegiate athlete is /because/ she remembers it, her teammates, and the love they shared, so fondly. But I feel like the other reviewers' negative sentiment speaks to the fact that the meanness at times outweighs the kindheartedness in the book, and that although the characters come together by the end in a genuinely touching scene, it is hard to overlook all the cruelty along the way.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, Hogarth Books, and Stephanie Reents for an honest review in exchange for a free e-ARC.

Reents does a great job of capturing the feelings of anxiety and excitement that comes from a cross country workout.
I ultimately decided not to finish the book at the 20% mark. I was unsure where the story was going and wasn’t connected to any of the characters to care enough to find out.

We Loved to Run is about a college track team. The Poets, at Frost liberal arts college in New England, is comprised of a group of fast women. These women share the highs and lows, alternately loving and competing against each other.

The story is mostly told in the “we,” which took a little getting used to. There are some chapters that focus more on a single woman, and those are told in the third person. In those in between chapters, the reader learns more about Kristin and Danielle. We get bits and pieces about all of them, but we know Kristin and Danielle best.

Fortunately, I think a lot has changed in track and field and most colleges don’t treat their female athletes this way anymore. At Frost, we hear about the weigh-ins, the body fat percentage measurements, the starvation, and the brutal workouts with not enough recovery in between. We read about running with a stress fracture. Running hung over. Running angry and fiercely, and still… how much these young women love running.

We Loved to Run goes deep on eating disorders and sexual assault. This book is heavy reading, but beautifully written. I thought Stephanie Reents described the human condition so well, particularly that of young women who hate their bodies and, at times, themselves.

If you love running, there’s a lot to connect to in this book. And if care about young women, there’s a lot to be sad about in this book. Overall, I really enjoyed it. Recommended. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Some favorite passages:
“We spent so much time trying not to think about our bodies that we were always thinking about them. Thinking about how they were not hungry or not injured or not fatter or weaker than the body of some other girl.“

“We shared tampons, the treats our moms sent us, clean socks, joy and shame and deodorant. We were friends like that.”

“We all rolled our eyes internally, and yet when we got going like this, it was a landslide, one girl’s self-criticism setting off another’s, a foot of unstable ground becoming two, then five, then fourteen, rushing down the slope, burying everything beautiful and living in its path. Suddenly, everyone was sucking in their stomachs, eyeing their thighs. Too much here. And here. Not enough there. Oh my god, it was disgusting. Squeezing whatever we could. Pinching. Breasts, bellies, buttocks. If there had been a mirror, it would have been worse. In this mood, it was traumatic to see yourself. It was like looking through the wrong end of binoculars.”

“While Eli was trying out something he actually might want to do someday, she was earning $3.25 an hour as a barista at Boise’s first espresso shop. This is one of the differences between being raised in a fully staffed family versus a single- mom situation.”

“Anyway, it wasn’t her body, per se, that she was so afraid of him seeing, but rather her relationship to her body, which he would see emblazoned across her face.”

“This is the thing that novice runners fail to appreciate: something is always hurting. If Danielle let discomfort—or, worse, real pain—stop her, then she would never run a step. The trick is knowing when you have crossed an invisible line between uncomfortable and serious, between something-to-be-tolerated and something-which-requires-professional-care and worse: rest.”

This is a highly relatable book, especially for young women who are figuring out how to compete in the world. Reents focuses on a small, elite, collegiate team of runners, who are eager to prove themselves -- as a team and as individuals. Their sport requires an intense focus on their weight and leads these competitors to concerns about body image. Each runner is constantly pursuing the competitive edge -- socially and while running. They compare themselves to their peers and struggle to maintain friendships and team cohesion as they seek individual success. A good read!

I didn't actually finish this book. I stopped about 20% in. For me, it was way too. much information about running and not enough character development. I wanted to see more of the girls' lives outside of running. I may pick it back up in the hopes that eventually it gets better.. Thank you very much to NetGalley for the advanced copy.