The Favorites by Layne Fargo

Sarah from Sarah's Bookshelves recommended The Favorites by Layne Fargo. It was marketed as a sports romance about Olympic ice dancers. I am hit and miss on sports books (and romances at this point in my life, I guess - do we remember the days when any old romance novel was okay in world?), but ice dancing! That sounded perfect. 

This cover is misleading. It is clear what the cover is in this photo, but my library cover just looks like a Impressionist painting of a human woman. 

AND IT WAS PERFECT. This is not going to win a Pulitzer or anything, but I was riveted by every soap opera plot point. The secret pregnancy. The abusive parents. The closeted athlete. I wanted every juicy morsel. There was not too much sporting, which is a complaint I have about a lot of sports books. It was ice dancing and that's sort of important, but it could have been any sport with a male/female partnership, I guess. 

I found myself saying "that is such a red flag, girl" and "stop taking those pills" OUT LOUD when I was reading it and, honestly, that's good enough for me. I loved how there were occasional pages of an oral history about these people - that was really fun. I like an oral history, to be fair, so if that's not your jam, you should know that most of the book is told in a traditional narrative format. 

Things are NOT GREAT in my world right now, but my reading game is WONDERFUL. This is the third book in a row that I am going to say 5/5 stars. 

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Lines of note:

People talk about Great Lakes winters as though they're hell frozen over from Thanksgiving to Easter, but it's February that you've got to look out for. After weeks of bitter temperatures, several feet of snow fell overnight, and even in the Midwest, they have to cancel school for that. (page 139)

You know what? Things don't get bad until December usually. February/March is my low weather point. I love it when authors talk about Midwestern weather, although your mileage will vary on that. 

In the Midwest, we call the first warm spell of the year "Fool's Spring," because we know from bitter experience the lovely weather can't last. Another cold snap lurks right around the corner, ready to lunge as soon as we shed our winter coats. (page 230)

More weather talk! I'm all in. Also, I call it "False Spring," but there's no need to be pedantic about it. This is why I don't put away most winter gear until Memorial Day. 

Hat mentions (why hats?): 

My hat had come off somewhere in the struggle...(page 140)

Fischer and Chan did a country-western line dance, complete with cowboy hats and bedazzled gingham. (page 299)