The Favorites
A Novel
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4.3 • 107 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating, starring a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice
“Part Wuthering Heights and part Daisy Jones & The Six, this novel is as brilliantly choreographed as a gold medal performance and will keep you guessing until its last page.”—Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of By Any Other Name
She might not have a famous name, funding, or her family’s support, but Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating—and each other—to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating the world with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style, and roller-coaster relationship.
Until a shocking incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to a sudden end.
As the ten-year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha, claiming to uncover the “real story” through interviews with their closest friends and fiercest rivals. Kat wants nothing to do with the documentary, but she can’t stand the thought of someone else defining her legacy. So, after a decade of silence, she’s telling her story: from the childhood tragedies that created her all-consuming bond with Heath to the clash of desires that tore them apart. Sensational rumors have haunted their every step for years, but the truth may be even more shocking than the headlines.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This drama-soaked romance between Olympic skaters makes the Tonya Harding–Nancy Kerrigan scandal seem like a bedtime story. Katarina and Heath have gone from being orphaned kids to teenage sweethearts to a championship skating duo. We follow their rise to fame as their story eventually becomes tabloid fodder, with all manner of drama occurring both on and off the ice—it literally gets bloody. Especially when the pair’s arch rivals, rich twins Garrett and Bella, are involved. Author Layne Fargo gives the story a fresh feel by interspersing the real-time events with transcriptions of a documentary made 10 years after Katarina and Heath’s career ended in catastrophe at the 2014 Olympics. Throughout the story, Fargo finds the ideal balance of intense passion, subtle character development, and dashes of tongue-in-cheek humor, making the whole thing feel like a binge-worthy TV miniseries. You bring the popcorn and The Favorites will keep the thrills coming hard and heavy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Thriller writer Fargo (They Never Learn) tries her hand at women's fiction in this melodramatic story of two ice dancers' obsessive love affair and their long-held dreams to make it to the Olympics. Kat Shaw and Heath Rocha are children when they begin skating together in 1990s Lake Forest, Ill., fueled by Kat's "gnawing ache of ambition" to follow in the footsteps of gold medalist Sheila Lin. In 2000, Kat and Heath travel to Cleveland to compete against Sheila's twins, Bella and Garrett. Though Kat and Heath come in sixth, Sheila invites them to join her training facility in California. There, Kat's drive outruns her loyalty, and she breaks it off with Heath, claiming he's holding her back. What follows over the next 14 years are a series of betrayals between Kat and Heath, as well as feuds pitting them against the Lins, a retired skater turned blogger, and others. After many thwarted attempts at making the Olympic team, Kat and Heath get one last chance to compete in the 2014 Sochi games. The overly long story is sunk by the repetitive interpersonal drama, and by a foggy attempt to parallel the themes of Wuthering Heights (Heath/Heathcliff, Shaw/Earnshaw). Like the characters' lives, it's a bit of a mess.
