The Favorites
The Favorites ~ Layne Fargo
Katarina (Kat) Shaw and Heath Rocha are childhood sweethearts from the Midwest. Heath is ann orphan, and Kat’s father takes him in. After the father dies, Kat and Heath are left at the hands of her abusive alcoholic brother. Kat dreams of becoming an Olympic ice dancer, and Heath is down for that, because he’s obsessed with Kat and will do whatever she wants. They run off to California to train with a world famous former Olympian, Sheila Lin, and her twin children, Garret and Bella. Things happen, Heath broods, Kat obsesses about skating and winning.
The Favorites goes back and forth between a documentary format discussing their skating career, and a first person telling by Kat. I listened to the audiobook, which was great because of the documentary aspect. Johnny Weir voices a fellow skater turned gossip blogger, and he’s great. I don’t know anything much about ice dancing, but this book was a weird mix of fun gossip, trauma and manipulation, and Wuthering Heights. It kept me engaged the entire time though, so I guess it was a good read / listen.
12 Comments
StephLove
Wuthering Heights with ice dancing. Interesting.
J
It was a fun listen for sure.
K @ TS
I felt this book was a little too much drama, but I couldn’t put it down! I think in the end it was a fun read and it was entertaining, and really what more can you ask for?!
J
It was way too much drama. Like a good soap opera (old school Melrose Place), I found myself saying, “WHAT?”. Loved that about it.
NGS
I LOVED this book. Such a soap opera. I gave it 5/5 stars and refuse to listen to any criticism about it.
J
Total soap opera. TOTAL.
Lisa's Yarns
I liked this book, but it felt way too long! I think it was too oversold to me before I read it! But it was a fun read!
J
I think being oversold can affect things for sure. I barely remembered anything about it, and since I don’t know or care about ice dancing, my expectations were pretty low.
Stephany
I really liked this book, but I’m just now learning that Johnny Weir voiced one of the roles??? AHHH. Maybe I need to reread this as an audiobook!
J
He was fun!
Michelle G.
I also enjoyed the audiobook – all the different voices, especially Johnny Weir, made it such a fun listen! Yes – so much drama, but so entertaining!
J
Such a soap opera!