Synopsis from Book
The past seven years have been hard on Avery Abrams: After training her entire life to make the Olympic gymnastics team, a disastrous performance ended her athletic career for good. Her best friend and teammate, Jasmine, went on to become an Olympic champion, then committed the ultimate betrayal by marrying their coach, Dimitri.
Now, reeling from a breakup with her football-star boyfriend, Avery returns to her Massachusetts hometown, where her old acquaintance Ryan, now a coach, asks her to help him train Hallie, a promising young gymnast with Olympic aspirations. Back in the gym for the first time in years, she's surprised not only by Hallie's talent but also by the sparks flying with Ryan. But when a shocking scandal in the gymnastics world breaks, it has shattering consequences for the sport. Avery isn't sure her burgeoning romance can survive it.
Thoughts Before Reading
Since I got this book I thought it was about ice skating which I'm a sucker for but now that I'm actually reading it I see that it's about gymnastics! Which is also a guilty pleasure. I loved all of the Bring it On movies (yes I know its cheerleading), Stick It was one of my all-time favorite movies for a really long time, I love any of the movies that come on TV that I can watch. I just find it so fascinating. I think this is going to be an interesting book and I really want to read it. I've been in such a reading slump though so I'm curious how this is going to go. I've already the first chapter and I was hooked so let's see how this goes.
After Thoughts
Now that I finished the book and have had some time to think about it I agree with my rating. I gave it a 3-star overall. I really got annoyed with it. I feel like it kept repeating itself and I was just getting really annoyed with it. I think my biggest complaint with this book is that everything between her and Ryan just felt so off. I wasn't pulled into their relationship. The way things went down at I think trials between Avery and Ryan I wanted them to just be done because their relationship felt messy to me like it just didn't make sense. This could've been fixed in my eyes IF they would've worked through their issues. In the synopsis, it sounded like they were going to have a big fight over something Avery did in her past but what we get in the book wasn't that. Their fight boils down to a job offer and ultimately destroys there relationship and then it's fixed because he finally realized that what she was telling him was true but they never talk it out. I just wanted more context there. Another place I wanted more story would've been Avery's coach Dimitri. I know that they had a very bad relationship but no one talked about it and when Avery talked about it she could've gone more into her story kind of like a flashback or something but that didn't happen and she just like implied how abusive he was and expected everyone to just know what she went through. This kind of thing happened all throughout this book so I feel like I need to go back and change my rating on Goodreads now that I've had the time to digest this book. I read it so fast because it is an easy read and I liked what could've happened with it but overall it fell really flat. I like how the book pulled in real-life events into the story such as the big scandal with the doctor that happened a couple years ago but even though I loved this aspect of the book I think it could've been done better such as Hallie's involvement with it. Hallie is effected by everything going on with it to the point that it is messing with her performance and I don't necessarily want or needed her to be one of the victims but I feel like it was sort of implied that she was but she never spoke up. I think that would've been an interesting angle to use that would've been really gripping to read. I loved how Avery and Jasmine were able to reconnect, I think that is one of the things this book did really well and was able to discuss where they fell apart and work through it.
I think the book should've started with Avery training for her Olympic trials that way we would've seen her, Jasmine, and Dimitri training and their interactions together. We would've gotten to experience the abuse Dimitri did, Jasmine and Avery's friendship, and her gymnastics. Then after her accident, we could've cut to today's time and see her in college being this party girl, her relationship with Tyler that pulled her out of that life, to her coming back to her town where the whole story took place. I think this would've helped the story so much and make it where you wouldn't have had to change the story much we could've left all of the implications but evolve her and Ryan's relationship a little bit. This version may have been a little bit longer but I think it would've made it so much better. So the book in my eyes as it is, is a 2-star read and I just updated my ratings on Goodreads.
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