With lots of engrossing gymnastics details that made the setting come to life, Head Over Heels was the engrossing, light fiction book I needed.
Here's the premise of Hannah Orenstein's latest book: nineteen-year-old Avery Abrams was set to be the next big gymnastics Olympic champion. She had the training, the talent, and the drive. But during the Olympic Trials, she sustained a career-ending injury. For the next few years she dabbled in college, she partied, she drifted, she dated a professional football player, but she didn't find peace and wasn't able to truly come to terms with her new reality.
When she hits a version of rock bottom and moves home, Avery's former teammate and crush Ryan (who did become an Olympic champion) talks her into helping him coach Hallie, a young phenom at the gym where Avery spent much of her youth.
Avery has to figure out quickly if she can come to terms with her potential new role in the gymnastics world as a coach and create a new path for her future. She'd like to be kind where her own coach was cruel and still lead Hallie to the success she's capable of achieving. As a scandal breaks and multiple revelations of abuse within the gymnastics community are made public, what can Avery do for the girls who've been harmed, for her former best friend, and for herself?
With lots of gymnastics details that made the setting come to life, Head Over Heels was, as I'd hoped, the engrossing, light fiction book I needed. Orenstein didn't hit any false notes for me and kept me satisfyingly wrapped up in the elite gymnastics world of the story.
Any Bossy thoughts on this book?
Orenstein has published two prior books, Love at First Like and Playing with Matches, neither of which I've read.
I mentioned this book (along with the epic science fiction/fantasy To Sleep in a Sea of Stars and a young adult historical fiction story set during the Gold Rush, How Much of These Hills Is Gold) in the Greedy Reading List Three Books I'm Reading Now, 11/3/20 Edition.