Author: Layne Fargo
Year published: 2025
Category: Adult fiction (sports)
Pages: 448 pages
Rating: 4 out of 5
Location: (my 2025 Google Reading map): USA (CA, IL, OH), Canada, France, Japan, Russia, Italy
Summary: 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.
Review: The Olympics, Olympians, ice skating, and relationship issues? Sounds like a good one to me! And, by coincidence, I began this book the day of the awful American Airlines/Black Hawk helicopter crash into the Potomac River. About a third of the passengers who died were American and Russian figure skaters, their parents, and coaches.
I liked how the book alternated Kat's version of what happened with excerpts from interviews and newsreels; it worked on reading about the personal and the public side by side. There is a lot of detail (costumes, scores, rivalries, footage, etc) and I think it could have been trimmed down a bit.
This story confirms what I've heard about the ice skating/dancing world: what happens off the ice matters a lot. I remember competitors who tried to do amazing tricks like back flips and were shunned and didn't win medals, personalities who didn't conform and so didn't do as well as fans thought they would. These ideas and the misogynist images of "perfect girls and women" is definitely at play in this story, which makes it seem real.
By the time I was done, I had enjoyed my time with the characters. There are lots of twists and turns that kept me turning the pages and I am glad I read this novel.
Challenges for which this counts:
- Cover Lovers--Sports equipment (ice skate)
- Diversity--characters who are Latino and Asian
- Literary Escapes--Canada, France, Russia, and Italy
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