✨5 stars✨

Wow! This was amazing!

I’d read Wuthering Heights at uni so I was familiar with the characters and plot, but I loved what the author did with her nods to the original whilst also creating a whole new story with the backdrop of skating and the Olympics which creating an intoxicating mix where I couldn’t put the book down!

I also really enjoyed the documentary aspect to the book with interviews with certain characters which added another layer to the story!! If you have read Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid and enjoyed that and the format it was written, then you would enjoy this aspect.

Overall, I would recommend this book to everyone!

I received an ARC from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Thank you PRH/Vintage books for the arc!

Messy, complex, dramatic, intense, spellbinding. A really interesting format that made this read impossible to put down. This was addictive - the characters, the plot, the drama, the SCANDALS.

The Favourites has reminded me why I love reading. It was beyond what I expected the story to be. The format of the documentary style with the real-time experience made it so addicting. This book was a reminder to read outside your comfort zone sometimes!

Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha were an unstoppable force of nature in the world of ice dancing but their partnership was fraught with drama and pain. 10 years ago, an incident at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics ended their career with the ice covered in blood. Now a Netflix documentary seeks to uncover the many tumultuous ups and downs of their career leading up the their dramatic final bow. Alongside interviews from the documentary, Katarina will tell the real story.

This book immediately had me hooked as it moved forward at a fast clip telling Katarina and Heath’s story with plenty of intrigue about what was to come. It was fascinating to watch these characters’ stories unfold and I really enjoyed hypothesising about the details of where the narrative was taking us. I started coming up with all kinds of theories informed by the people who weren’t involved in telling the story through the Netflix documentary. This momentum didn’t really continue for the whole story unfortunately as around the halfway point, it felt as though the threads of Katarina and Heath’s journey was being concluded and I was left wondering what was left to be told. This was despite it clearly being stated at the beginning of the story that their story ended at the Sochi Winter Olympics and by that point in the book we had only reached Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010.
The story seemed to limp along in the second half of the book, largely because Katarina’s world became quite separate from those of the rest of the cast and we essentially had a three year time jump where Katarina…. Did nothing? I think the book could have benefited from reminding the reader explicitly that it was in Sochi where the real drama occurred as opposed to implicitly doing so by having so much of the book left. The writing was still very good in the latter half of the book but the character dynamics felt a little messy and confused. I think that intention was to show the enduring feelings that existed between Katarina and Heath despite the time and the journey they have been on however I just didn’t feel the spark between them; they created magic on the ice but their romance? That felt like something from their past and not their future.
Where I really felt cheated by this book was the conclusion. Fargo knew exactly what she had been doing in the beginning of the story so the reveal felt as though it lacked the bite that I had been expecting. I did start to cry a little however the punches were then pulled and I was left underwhelmed by this being where we had been working towards all along. I suppose the point was to subvert expectations but I just didn’t feel satisfied by the ending; Katarina had realised that there were things more important than winning but why did it feel less like that and more like settling?
I will conclude my review by noting that this book is vaguely a Wuthering Heights retelling. It has been some years since I have read Bronte’s classic so it is hard for me to compare the two but I think the similarities lie more in the broad strokes as opposed to the finer details and that works well for this story as I think sticking to the source material would have made for a messier tale but it is fun to spot the Easter Eggs and I hope that in the future we get a breakdown of all of the links between the two stories - looking at you Ellen “Nelly” Dean who becomes Ellis Dean!

I was really excited to read this and it did not disappoint. At times I felt like I was watching a train crash about to happen and Kath and Heath very much reminded me of the turbulent relationship in Wuthering Heights. I really liked how the book was written and found it quick to read. The ending was nice and not what I was expecting after reading the powerfully emotive previous pages.

I was so into the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics as a 13 year old, that my sister and brother nicknamed me Lillehammer for a time 😅. I couldn’t get enough of it, especially the ice-skating, much of it I’m sure driven at the time by the media scrutiny on Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan, and the return of Torvill and Dean. I also had a crush on French skater Philippe Candeloro who had a penchant for spinning on his shins (a move now banned) - what can I say, it was an exciting time to be alive.

Inspiration for this new mockumentary style-novel The Favourites has been drawn from the period (and indeed from Torvill and Dean’s 1984 Bolero), when a sport know for its propriety and decorum was turned on its head somewhat. Throw in Sochi 2014 and Russian corruption and tada, truth is stranger than fiction.

Kat and Heath (Wuthering Heights anyone?) are skaters from the wrong side of the tracks so to speak, from broken and abusive homes but with a raw talent and passion for skating and each other. They attract the attention of US ice dance legend Sheila Lin, who invites them to skate at her academy to challenge and bring out the best in her own children, twins Garrett and Bella Lin (yes, think Stranz and Fairchild). Will Kat and Heath go on to achieve their Olympic dream or will their wild passionate ways be their downfall?

This was a very enjoyable pageturner, whilst also too long (464 pages, why?) and a bit ridiculous - but ice-skating is a mad world. If you’ve watched I, Tonya or you’re familiar with the sport you’ll already know that.

There’s the inevitable Taylor Jenkins Reid comparison - The Favourites follows the same format at Daisy Jones, and has the same juicy, cinematic, celebrity-tell-all tabloid style (there’s a movie coming too btw). It was missing a bit more tongue-in-cheek humour for me, taking itself a bit too seriously at times, and it is just too long. I didn’t care for the characters by the end as a result, but I still wanted to find out how it ended. An enjoyable romp, nostalgia factor high for me. 4/5⭐️

Many thanks to @vintagebooks for the arc. Honest review as always. Out 16 Jan.

How to delete from my brain all the memories of reading this book so I can experience the pain and the joy all over again?

They say this book is Wuthering Heights x Daisy Jones and this description is so ON POINT, but I feel like it's also Carrie Soto + a toxic romance in another universe. The first time I heard about this release I knew if done well it was going to be a very good one, but I didn't know it would CONSUME ME from beginning to end. Once you get to really know the characters it's impossible to put this book down. You hate them and you love them, and it's a delicious cycle LF puts you through. The competition and the plot twists killed me infinite times, I turned the pages one after the other like crazy to know how everything was going to unfold, I was equally obsessed with the sports and the relationships parts.

The format is so interesting, it's just perfect the way the narrative and the documentary intersect. There's a great balance between the two as well, you never feel like it's too many interviews; in fact it's the opposite, because at some point you just NEED to hear what the main character or the others have to say about this major event. I wish I had listened to the audiobook too, because I'm sure it's going to be a hit with this format and a full cast. A reread it's bound to happen at some point, it's THAT GOOD. (I also need a movie like right now.) You can absolutely see this book was worked on for a long time to get it to where it is now.

Absolutely raced through this book - have spent hours at ice rinks watching my kids and other competitive figure skaters - and I loved the film I Tonya and loved the story so much. I'm also a sucker for an emotional love story and this gave it all! Great characters and fascinating world. Just loved it!

So amazing! 😍 I absolutely loved this, the drama, the characters, just everything about it was amazing 🤩

God this book was a messy whirlwind of emotions!

I am a fiend for a good ice skating story and this definitely delivered, I lost a good nights sleep trying to get to the end.

There’s love, drama, betrayal and tears (some of them mine) all wrapped up in the intensity of competitive ice skating and becoming a world class athlete.
I didn’t realise until after I had finished that it is Wuthering Heights inspired and it definitely shines through.

Ate this up and loved! This would make a great Daisy Jones & The Six vibes tv series and I hope this gets the praise it deserves when it comes out.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher
5 ⭐️

I am a sucker for an ice skating love story.
It was realistic and didn't gloss over the hard work and heartbreak. Both characters had a bad start in life and both poured everything into being their best.
Katrina and Heath were the best and the worst for each other at times.
Life seems easier for the privileged skaters with money in the sports world neither of which they have.
They eventually split under the pressure they have an upsy downsy relationship.
No one knows the real truth of the circumstances of the split except those involved.
Heath needs to be a bit more able to stand up for himself.
Katrina is sometimes annoying in that she doesn't see who she is trampling on to get to the top.
I did love this book you felt you were living their ups and downs and rooting for them hoping there might be a second chance while reading the story.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher.

As a long-time lover of both Wuthering Heights and Daisy Jones & The Six, I fell head-over-heels for Layne Fargo's The Favourites. Excellently written, with a gripping, addictive plot and rich characters, this exhilarating story of toxic love is bound for small (or even big) screen adaptation someday soon. I absolutely loved this book. More than anything, it was an incredibly fun read. I'm excited to see what Layne Fargo does next!

This took me longer than expected to finish.
The pacing was really up and down and I kept expecting the book to finish but then there was more.
Feel like it was a bit longer than needed and expected more about skating and not just love drama, otherwise a good book

I couldn't put it down. The elements were handled superbly to deliver us this toxic love story that compels you to turn to the next page. This will have consumers of reality TV hooked. It is just drama after drama.

It’s the 1st of January 2025. How is anything else meant to top this?

Imagine Wuthering Heights, on ice, told in the same documentary style as Daisy Jones…perfection really.

Fargo really encapsulates the lust, passion-fueled toxicity that has us both hating and understanding the MC’s relationships with each other and themselves. It’s reductive to say they’re toxic, selfish and manipulative because whilst they are, they’re also so much more complex. Every decision made is both for themselves and the different loves they have for each other.

Brimming with drama, betrayal, heartache and a love that spans decades of passion and sabotage, I think Fargo recreated Cathy and Heathcliff perfectly in Katarina and Heath, even down to the Lin’s (Linfords) and the other supporting characters.

I really struggled to put this down. The pacing is good and it matches that of an actual documentary, where each chapter ends on a character sound bite that eludes to a big thing that happened next for dramatic effect. I could easily listen to this as an audio book if they cast multiple narrators to bring it to life. The book is also really well researched in the world of figure skating, it reads and feels like a labour of love from Fargo and I think the effort and the hard work has created something really special in what is a modern retelling of one of literatures most well know, and well appreciated complex couples.

This novel will stay with me for a long time.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm going to open this review with one certainty: you (whoever is reading this review) should read this book. If only to get ahead of what I consider to be an inevitable adaptation for the screen.

According to an article in The Bookseller, this is a sort of adaptation of Wuthering Heights and reader, let me mis-quote another Bronte novel by saying I got 0 inclination that that was what was going on here. Someone who understands WH more than I do can perhaps find the similarities, but for me, it was just a novel set in the competitive world of ice dancing, blending snippets from a documentary with first-person prose from Katarina's perspective. And I can confidently tell you that this book is an incredibly addictive reading experience. When the book was down, I wanted to pick it back up. Things move at a lightning pace so you never have a chance to feel bored. The cast of characters explodes with bitter rivalries, romantic clashes and tension. It's like watching endless episodes of the Real Housewives (both a good and bad thing as I'll elaborate below). The characters are generally unlikeable, but you understand why and they're really fun to read about. Again, I don't see the Cathy and Heathcliff of it all (with the exception perhaps to the names of the lead characters which has literally only just occurred to me). If your book is going to be 'inspired' by a piece of classic literature, maybe include that in the marketing materials??

It's a good book, I had a great time reading it. But I also had some issues with it.

For me, 'The Favourites' was a book written to be turned into a TV show. And I hope they do adapt it. Because 6-8 hours of properly paced television is the best way to explore this narrative as it's written. Nothing ever goes smoothly. No one succeeds. There's always some sort of drama, some sort of chaos, injury, criminal activity, sexual manipulation, bog-standard manipulation, drama - it's happening on every page. Considering how frequently the author needed to tell us that Kat was 'the ice queen' and super focused on her goals, every time something even went minorly wrong before a performance, she would completely fall to pieces. Because of the structural choices in the book, huge chunks of time are summed up in short, unbiased paragraphs from the documentary. I can't help but think had the author chosen to commit fully to the 'Daisy Jones & The Six' multi-media style for this novel, it would have been more successful.

A lot happens in here and by about the halfway point, the book jumps the shark and things start to get so ridiculous, you no longer feel particularly invested in the outcome. Every obstacle that could be thrown at these characters is - everything AND the kitchen sink. It goes full soap opera, including the literary equivalent of the ad break line. For example - 'I turned around - and froze in horror.' or 'I screamed' - chapters cut off and jump to documentary clips in the name of tension that I didn't feel worked very well. The incidents towards the end - I can't say much because of spoilers - should have been better set up as a through line through the novel, which means the ultimate conclusion left me feeling rather unsatisfied. We've spent 400+ pages with these characters and that's the ending we get? After all that? If you're going to conclude with sabotage, then build the sabotage up throughout the entire book not just that last 25%.

Because we only get Katarina's perspective in the prose sections, the other main characters - particularly Heath, Bella, and Garrett - are all held at arms length and left me wanting more development. Rivalries only last for so long before burning out and taking another direction. You've really got a novel of two halves here and I wanted more from the first half to travel over into the second. I felt Katarina was well-written and the journey she went on through the book was really well developed and put together. But she's not the only character here and because so much effort has gone to including this enormous cast, I wanted more from them too.

When the inevitable adaptation comes, I really hope it's for TV. Give this book the space it needs to breathe. Give it the time, much like Daisy Jones & The Six had. A film would condense it all far too much and take away from what could be some incredible visual work. I'm also surprised this book wasn't held back to be released in 2026 to coincide with the winter Olympics, but reading it will certainly get you in the mood for Milan 2026.

Thank you to the UK publisher and Netgalley for an Advanced Readers Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have to say, I requested this expecting a thriller based on what I knew of 'They Never Learn', but I'm so glad it wasn't.

This book was an epic tale. About elite sport. About Rivalry. Pressure. The dark side of fame. And I absolutely loved it.

I can't quite believe Katerina Shaw isn't real. The characterisation in this book was sensational. Not just for Kat but all the characters. And the format incorpating a documentary and 'normal' chapters alongside it to get Kats perspective really worked for me.

A book Taylor Jenkins Reid would have been proud to produce. Props to the author

I was so happy when the Random House UK granted my wish. I loved this book. It’s so gripping and unputdownable. The characters are interesting. Their chemistry is beautiful. Loved reading about the Olympic skaters. Kat and Heath are childhood sweethearts and they go from variance of emotions from growing up, friendship, love, heartbreak to giving each other second chance. The book has it all mystery, romance, secrets, and twists. Get yourself ready to get to know everything about highs and lows and everything in between about Kat and Heath’s life. And I wasn’t expecting that ending. The book kept me on edge and kept getting engaging and mysterious like an emotional ride.

I only read 10.5%. I maybe wasn't getting it. I think it was supposed to be like a script but I just wasn't gripped. Sorry, I always feel bad saying this about people's hard work but it just wasn't for me. I know if I'll like a book bit the first 10% was so hard that I couldn't invest more time in it

So many comparisons to Daisy Jones and the Six, and it's easy to see why. The narrative is predominantly from the point of view of Katarina Shaw, chronicling her determined ascent through the world of international ice dancing, but it's interspersed with commentary from a number of other characters as part of a documentary ten years after... well, a massive event that we as readers know we're hurtling breathlessly towards, one competition and drama and unexpected twist at a time. The sport itself is depicted in vivid detail, and the narrative also deals with the themes of fame in the fledgling Internet era, ingrained misogyny, and the strength and level of sacrifice required in order to succeed. At the centre of it all is Kat and Heath, two gloriously flawed characters locked in a desperately complicated relationship which everyone seems to have an opinion on - but in the way of all good documentaries, the reader is left to draw their own conclusions based on the characters that we directly hear from, and also the ones that we don't. It's well-paced, it's intense, and it completely drew me in.

This was an addictive read which showcased the determination and motivation it takes to be a world
class athlete.

Heath and Katarina have known each other for a long time and she is determined to be the best skater in the world. Ice dancing with Heath and winning is her dream and we watch as their relationship goes through different phases as she stops at nothing to get her dream.

Heath is only in love with her and isn’t as determined as Katarina is and their relationship is fundamental
to him. As the story is told in a documentary style some years later we learn their journey to stardom and the sacrifices they both make.

I enjoyed this one, it’s quite addictive and I enjoyed their never ending pull to each other. A great read.