ringofkeyz's Reviews (147)

“I never thought I’d feel heartache like this. I’d read in books about heartache, and never understood it. I thought it was just words on paper that the poets wrote. But now I well understand this feeling. It’s physical pain, sharp pangs that I got every time I remembered things I should have told Sergei, but didn’t. Things I could have done to show him that I loved him but didn’t.”

———
This book is definitely a book for figure skating fans. It’s not a memoir that you could just pick up and understand the meaning behind - the history that Katia and Sergei made and the impact they had on pairs skating. I really enjoyed getting the chance to learn about their career on a more personal level and  how they overcame the challenges they faced both growing up and competing in Russia, before and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. 

While I know that the grammar/prose would’ve been better if I read the original text rather than the English translation (though that wouldn’t have been possible as I don’t understand Russian), I still loved the story as it was told; slightly stilted in language, but emotional, inspiring, and beautifully told in it’s own right.

the plot didn’t kick in until like 3/4 of the book and i didn’t like a lot of the characters.

it’s still a cute read and i love that there was a nonbinary main character who was also a love interest.

this isn’t a 5 star read because i had trouble getting into the pacing of the book and didn’t always love the writing style.

but i fell in love with the world building, the characters, and the mythos woven into the story and will definitely read the second book of the duology  when i have the chance!

something about single parent sapphic romance just hits imo :’)

the main reason i'm subtracting points is because there's a 15 year age gap between the two main characters and age gaps that large in novels kinda creep me out a little bit. HOWEVER, this was still a really cute novel: fairly well written, a non-binary secondary character (which YES!), multiple queer characters and queer relationships outside of the main relationship.

and if tropes are your thing, look no further: fake relationship, doctor/nurse, "there's only one bed," ice queen/enemies to lovers (though enemies is a bit much? just strong dislike). and all of them are executed naturally, so it doesn't feel too cheesy. 

lesbian enemies to lovers >>>

sweet and definitely gets better the more you read, but i understand why it’s not the work that casey mcquiston is known for.

you know ocean vuong is a poet because his prose is unparalleled. this book made me cry. a lot. 

super cute and very heartwarming! the author played with tropes really well and in a way that felt genuine to both of the main characters’ personalities, so it didn’t feel as if tropes were used solely to appeal to readers - rather, they actually made sense to the plot.

the lower rating is just because of the writing at various points in the novel. sometimes word choices took me out of the story, because i just couldn’t imagine a thirty year old woman using words like “her chocolate orbs” or “her left titty” to describe the body of her fiancée.

still, a tooth achingly sweet book - cute, light-hearted read!