Book Review: The Favorites by Layne Fargo
“You can always be better, but don’t let that stop you from carrying yourself like a champion. If you don’t believe you’re the best, no one else will either.”
The Favorites by Layne Fargo
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ — 5 /5 Stars
Genre: Sports romance, contemporary fiction.
Publication Date: 2025
Number of Pages: 448
Let’s start with a plot summary! The Favorites tells the story of Kat and Heath, an ice skating duo who have been attached at the hip essentially since the day they met and have had a fiery, on-again, off-again relationship ever since that also swerved in and out of being romantic. The novel tells their story as they fight tooth and nail to skate their way to being Olympic medalists. The chapters alternate between Kat’s point of view and documentary-style dialogue giving added insight into Kat and Heath’s relationship both on and off the ice.
Why I chose this book
I saw this book featured in a TikTok video and the plot drew me in. The reviews were also great, so I decided to give it a try. I’ve always thought ice skating was a beautiful, but difficult sport, and competing in the Olympics adds another layer to that difficulty. I did come to find out that this novel focuses on ice dancing rather than figure skating. Ice dancing is a discipline within figure skating that relies more on style and footwork than jumps, so that was interesting to learn a bit more about! But either way, both are sports that I find beautiful and impressive.
Even though this book was fictional, I was interested to see what the competitive nature of the Olympics, and Kat’s drive to be on top would do to her and Heath’s relationship and there was definitely no shortage of drama. The book was on the longer side, but for the not part, moved quickly, despite a few areas where there were lulls.
I also didn’t mind the documentary style chapters. They were short and didn’t distract from the story for me. They actually were similar to Daisy Jones and the Six, which was another great read.
Overall Thoughts
I found the story captivating, and the characters were pretty real. Kat’s competitiveness was irritating at times, but that’s part of what makes her feel real, and we see some growth from her by the end of the novel. I did feel that Heath was a bit lacking at times and seemed to be overshadowed by Kat, but I felt that shifted a bit as the novel went on as well.
It’s a book that I would consider revisiting at some point—especially considering there’s an upcoming Netflix adaptation in the works! I just might have to make a book-to-movie comparison post!