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The Favorites: A Novel
The Favorites: A Novel
The Favorites: A Novel
Audiobook14 hours

The Favorites: A Novel

Written by Layne Fargo

Narrated by Layne Fargo, Christine Lakin, Louisa Zhu and

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

To the world, they were a scandal. To each other, an obsession.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating, starring a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice—now with bonus material including two never-before-seen chapters!


“Part Wuthering Heights and part Daisy Jones & The Six, this novel is as brilliantly choreographed as a gold medal performance and will keep you guessing until its last page.”—Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Wish You Were Here

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.

This audiobook includes a downloadable PDF which contains the discussion questions, Meet the Ice Dancers, The Favorites playlist, and Ice Dancing: Rules and Fun Facts from the book.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherPenguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Release dateJan 14, 2025
ISBN9780593946442
Author

Layne Fargo

Layne Fargo is the author of the thrillers Temper and They Never Learn. She’s a Pitch Wars mentor, Vice President of the Chicagoland chapter of Sisters in Crime, and the cocreator of the podcast Unlikeable Female Characters. Layne lives in Chicago with her partner and their pets.

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Reviews for The Favorites

Rating: 4.168639050887574 out of 5 stars
4/5

338 ratings13 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5

    Sep 23, 2025

    So good and well written it had me believing this was real. I had to look up the characters. Such a great story even if you’re like me and know nothing about ice skating let alone ice dancing!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5

    Aug 13, 2025

    WOW WOW WOW. SUCH A GREAT BOOK. so much emotion and drama and love and heartache.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5

    Jun 12, 2025

    Fantastic story! I enjoyed the audio version of this novel.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5

    May 31, 2025

    I do not regret listening and I did not enjoy as much as others did
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5

    Mar 23, 2025

    This is an informative and eye opening book about the sport of ice dancing, the intense training, the victories and defeat, and the politics of the sport. The author has used this setting as a reimagining of Wuthering Heights following the complex,passionate, and turbulent relationship of Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha. You don’t have to be an ice dancing fan to enjoy this story of friendship, love, family, fame, revenge, and scandal. It is written in a documentary style with important people in the life of Kat and Heath offer opinions on a blog, an effective way to tell this story.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5

    Mar 9, 2025

    This book was a good read. I do think it could have been shorter. At times I felt we were going in circles.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5

    Feb 25, 2025

    Oh I liked the beginning and then it progressively kept making me more and more annoyed
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5

    May 31, 2025

    This novella looks at the inner life of a disabled person, rather than just the outer life. Shaka lives in a care home, using an electric wheelchair and ventilator due to a congenital condition--just as the author does. Shaka takes online classes through a distance learning program, writes erotic stories for publication, and enjoys being a bit of an online troll. Her life does not revolve around what she can't do but rather what she can do--she is smart and creative. She does wish for a real-life lover and "normal" life experiences--because, after all, her mind is that of a "normal" person.

    Shaka is an interesting character--she has spent her life making the most of her abilities, something her parents had encouraged in their setting her up as the owner of the care home. She is not afraid to go after what she wants.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5

    Jul 17, 2025

    An interesting look at the world of elite athletes, and what they will do to win. Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha have been together since they were children, bonding at the ice rink. Heath is a foster child, and Kat and Heath form a deep friendship. They begin skating together and are an ice dancing pair. Kat has wanted to be an Olympic champion since she saw her idol, Sheila Lin, win the gold. Kat and Heath are chosen to attend the Lin training school and hone their skills. They give up everything to train. Now, 10 years after their Olympic Games, a documentary is being written to tell the story of them. It is an emotional story of striving for a dream, while overcoming many obstacles. I really enjoyed the book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5

    Mar 5, 2025

    Daisy Jones meets Tanya Harding in this Wuthering Heights retelling. We're hearing the story of ice dancers who become famous in interview snippets after the fact. Heath and Katarina have a toxic relationship and anyone who has read Wuthering Heights won't be surprised to hear that. It's incredibly entertaining on audio, but also exhausting as the characters are just horrible to each other.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5

    Mar 3, 2025

    I liked the documentary type set-up of this book. Katarina and Heath start skating together and do well enough to get into an exclusive skating school run by a former Olympic winner. Her twins are also excellent skaters and believe that skating against Kat and Heath will make them better. Although, it's a very long book, it certainly held my interest.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5

    Feb 20, 2025

    Very enjoyable book with many surprises, great if exaggerated characters set in the background of ice dancing competition. The style of the book - a documentary of the lives of skaters was a bit weird initially but then it worked. Nice epilogue without everything being tired up.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5

    Jan 30, 2025

    This one was billed as Wuthering Heights meets The Cutting Edge and I don't know how anyone can resist that, certainly not me. In reality, while this book does use the characters from Wuthering Heights as a kind of beginning point, and it is set in the world of athletes competing in ice dancing competitions and hoping to make it to the Olympics, the similarities to either the book or the movie end there.

    Heath is an orphan who joins Katarina in learning figure skating. She has the goal of making it to the Olympics and becoming a star like her hero, an ice dancing legend. Their relationship is very close, even closer once Katarina's father adopts Heath. As they move to LA to train at an exclusive figure skating school, their relationship grows ever more tempestuous as Katarina's drive and Heath's stubbornness clash. As the years go by, they work with other partners, but they keep returning to each other.

    So it wasn't good, by any stretch, but there was plenty of drama and angst and emotion, which made it a quick and fun read. I will note that the cover was created with the help of AI, and I would not have read this book if I had known that before reading the book, this is published by Random House, which is able to pay for human work.