Audiobook Review: The Favorites by Layne Fargo

If you’re in the mood for something intense, addictive, and just the right amount of messy, The Favorites should be at the top of your list. Layne Fargo delivers a razor-sharp look at the world of competitive ice dancing, where ambition, obsession, and desire blur together in dangerous ways. It’s fierce, emotional, and completely unputdownable. This might be one of my favorite reads of the year. Check out my full (and very enthusiastic) review below!

TY to Libro.fm for the audio ARC!

The Favorites

by Layne Fargo
Published by: Penguin Random House
on January 14, 2025
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance
Bookshop, Audiobook through LibroFM
Goodreads

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

An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating about a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice

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 rollercoaster 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 either. 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.

Inspired by the powerful love and hate that fuel Emily Bronte’s classic, Wuthering Heights, The Favorites is an exhilarating dance between passion, ambition, and what it truly means to win.

Review

If you love a story that feels like a mix of Olympic-level tension, messy ambition, and romance that burns more than it soothes, The Favorites is going to wreck you in the best way.

Told through interviews, journal entries, transcripts, and snippets that feel like you’re watching a high-budget sports documentary, this novel pulls you into the world of competitive ice dancing and never lets go. It’s sharp, chaotic, and addictive, like I, Tonya meets Daisy Jones but with blades on ice and even sharper emotional stakes.

At the center of it all are Kat and Heath, ice dancing partners whose connection is undeniable, but also complicated, intense, and honestly kind of toxic. If you’ve ever been into rivals-to-lovers, or “we might destroy each other but we’re still going to skate like our lives depend on it,” this is for you.

What really makes this book stand out is the way the format deepens the story. You’re not just watching events unfold; you’re piecing them together from biased voices, fragmented memories, and emotional fallout. The result is something that feels voyeuristic in the best way: intimate, uncomfortable, and impossible to look away from.

The audiobook deserves its own shoutout. With a full cast and perfectly timed narration, it delivers the tension, heartbreak, and high-stakes energy of the story so well. I kept having to remind myself to breathe.

The Favorites isn’t just about sports or romance. It’s about the costs of ambition, the blur between love and competition, and what it means to want something so badly you might ruin yourself for it.

Unpauseable, indeed.