The Favorites: A Novel
4.2 | 15,584 ratings
Price: 12.99
Last update: 12-28-2025
Product details
- ASIN : B0D1QKJLYT
- Publisher : Random House
- Accessibility :
- Publication date : January 14, 2025
- Language : English
- File size : 6.5 MB
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 475 pages
- ISBN-13 : 978-0593732052
- Page Flip : Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank:#54 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Sports Fiction (Books)
- Coming of Age Fiction (Kindle Store)
- Contemporary Women's Fiction
- Customer Reviews:4.24.2 out of 5 stars(15,584)
Top reviews from the United States
- kcjphotoLoved it!Oofta! This one was messy & filled with drama, obsession, unlikable characters, romance, betrayal, heartbreak, & a little bit of mystery! Couldn't put it down!
Stepping into the world of competitive ice skating, where Katarina & Heath begin their journey as childhood friends with dreams of becoming world champions while navigating the fine line between ambition & love. Just how far are they willing to go?!
I enjoyed the documentary style interviews that were sprinkled throughout the book, as well as the twists & turns. I ran through just about all the emotions as I read this book!
It's not even about the twists or anticipating the ending; it's the way the story is told. You can't stop because you need to see where they end up, but you have to pause just to catch your breath. The emotional rollercoaster was so consuming.
The characters were deeply flawed (& a bit on the toxic side!), but I couldn't help but being drawn to them & needing to know how things were going to play out.
And holy good lord I had no idea just how cutthroat, dangerous, & intense the figure skating world is!
For fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid books, this one's for you! - louvejitaGood storyKatarina Shaw has wanted to be an Olympic champion skater since she first saw the sport on TV at the age of 4, but she’s struggling to make ends meet and her only chance is for her and her partner to be noticed at a major competition. Then she gets her wish in the form of an invitation for the summer program at a prestigious skating academy and their lives will change dramatically.
This book is definitely inspired by Bronte’s work, but the blurb is sadly misleading when it comes to the documentary. Still, it’s a very good story about the tortuous climb to the top of an unlikely heroine, one who doesn’t hesitate to take the hardest steps to sate her ambition and the boy who’s loved her since they were children and who’d do anything for her.
I enjoyed reading this book and it sometimes felt more like watching a movie, the author’s descriptions are that good. I feel the translation of Wuthering Heights into the world of elite ice skating is on point and the portraying of the characters was very realistic. This book has it all: love, passion, treason and revenge and, at the end of her road, Katarina truly learns what’s important in life.
4 stars - SarahA compelling premise with mixed executionThe Favorites by Layne Fargo offers an intriguing blend of high-stakes ambition, toxic romance, and the intense world of elite figure skating. Inspired by Wuthering Heights, the novel follows Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha, two fiercely talented and deeply entwined ice dancers whose love-hate relationship dominates both their careers and their personal lives. The story unfolds in two timelines—past and present—as an unauthorized documentary threatens to expose the truth behind their dramatic breakup.
Fargo excels at crafting tension and capturing the cutthroat atmosphere of competitive skating. The chemistry between Kat and Heath is electric, and their complicated dynamic keeps the pages turning. However, while the novel thrives on passion and drama, it sometimes leans too heavily into melodrama. The intensity of their relationship, while compelling, can feel repetitive, and some plot twists are more predictable than shocking.
Additionally, while the Wuthering Heights inspiration adds depth, it also makes the characters difficult to fully connect with—they are flawed to the point of being frustrating at times. Still, for readers who love messy, obsessive love stories and behind-the-scenes sports drama, this book delivers. - Temi OmotayoARC Review5⭐️
You ever read a book and instantly know it gonna be a favorite? This was that book for me! It made me feel all the emotions and sucked me into the book having me anxiously turning each page. This book is scandalous, thrilling, and ADDICTING to read. This was so much more than a sports romance. This highlights how far people can/will go to win, power dynamics, manipulations, sacrificing everything for a goal, and more all in the lens of the competitive ice skating world.
From the moment we meet Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha, we instantly feel for them due to both of their individual dire home situations. They escape into each other and skating as a reprieve from their situations and a way to make a life for themselves. They are childhood sweethearts who run away from home to begin their journey to become Olympic ice skaters. Their relationship over the years is manipulative, toxic, dysfunctional, passionate, and FILLED with so much damn love. They truly are each other's’ home from the very beginning.
Kat and Heath get a chance to train with the Lin twins, children of legendary Olympic skater Sheila Lin, and everything changes from that moment. I absolutely adored Grant and Bella as the main side characters for what they brought to the story and how they challenged Kat and Heath. From their first meeting, these four become intertwined into roller coaster relationships and moments that truly had my heart breaking at times. After an incident happens, their four lives are changed forever.
Flash forward 10 years later, a documentary is being made about that fateful incident and the aftermath of consequences in caused. I love how the story uses the documentary interviews to show the reader Kat and Heath’s story of escaping their hometime, their true relationships with the Lin twins, and their journey to the Olympics. In these interviews, we get more perspectives from other characters essential to the story including past coaches, rivals, and Ellis Dean, gossip blogger/friend. Through the documentary, we learn what truly happened 10 years prior during the incident, if Kat and Heath had a successful comeback, and where their love story ends years later.
I freaking adored this book and it is one of my favorite (no pun intended) reads of the year!! These characters reminded me of the characters in Magnolia Parks at times were you want to slap some sense into them but you can’t help but love them endlessly because they are being unapologetically themselves. Katarina makes you hate her at times for her blind focus on winning the gold medal despite other people’s feelings but you respect her drive and passion. Heath, MY SWEET BOY. Heath is loyal to a fault at times because he let others treat him like crap and never defended himself. Bella was reckless in her actions to achieving her goals but was also the first person to be honest with Kat and call her out on her shit. Finally, Garret was the peacemaker between the four and truly the most supportive friend in the whole book. I connected to every single character in one way or another and went on the widest range of emotions with them.
The Favorites is one of the books that you can perfectly picture in your mind as a movie. It is drama filled, packed with tension, thrilling, and passionate. It had me gasping at thrilling parts and sobbing at the truly heartbreaking parts. The ending (or dare I saw the true beginning) of this book was absolutely perfect. I could not have thought of a better end for all of the characters. This is the first Layne Fargo book I’ve read but she has made a HUGE fan out of me! I will now be reading her backlist and everything she releases in the future!