Head Over Heels

by Hannah Orenstein

[marciemarie]

I really tried to like this, and there were definitely parts I did like! I appreciated the importance of telling stories like Avery's of girls who are successful young, put under immense pressure, and are left floundering in adulthood. And exploring the darker side of women's gymnastics, something I think we have become much more aware of culturally in the past couple years, was excellent. But this book failed to deliver a compelling romance that I could root for. Ryan, our love interest, is sweet but boring, with very little that stands out about him other than being an Olympic athlete. He's also annoyingly blind to the abuse the women around him are facing, so much so that by the end of the book I genuinely didn't want them to end up together. I think I would have enjoyed this more if it weren't trying to fit into the contemporary romance chick-lit box and had just let it be about Avery's journey and growth.