Reviewed: “Every Reason We Shouldn’t” by Sara Fujimura

I received an early copy of this book from Tor Teen and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

Gonna start with this…

Dear Sara Fujimura & Tor Teen,

I am not a teen but if & when there is a sequel to Every Reason We Shouldn’t, I would be more than happy to read it, host a part of a blog tour, write a review… all the things. This book was so freakin’ cute and I love it!

Now back to the regularly scheduled review…

I used to be the biggest figure skating fan. I slept, breathed, and ate figure skating, figuratively speaking. I annoyed family and friends by talking about incessantly. But it’s been awhile since I was deep in the throes of my passion (I took six weeks of lessons too! And flunked my CLOWN level test, i.e. I was 12 and the other kids were 5! So a couch-based fan, I was.)

So I requested an ARC of this book because it sounded cute and there were skates on the cover and I hadn’t tried a book like this yet (with the drawn cover and clear young adult romantic intentions).

It was an excellent decision.

Olivia is the daughter of an Olympic champion pairs team. Jonah is a rising star in the short track speedskating world. They will, not a spoiler since it’s on the cover, be involved in romantic shenanigans.

But there is so much more to this story!

Olivia’s parents own a rink that is failing and Olivia is fighting to save it, and she rediscovers her passion for skating along the way. Her best friend is a college age, teen mom who works at the rink and is both an excellent surrogate mom, big sister, and best friend. And Olivia and Jonah end up with a firm circle of friends as they try to be ‘normal’ in high school.

I always worry these sorts of books won’t have more than the romance, but this one has so much more.

It’s funny, it’s sweet, it’s heartbreaking, it’s deep, it’s fluffy, it’s sad, it’s hopeful…

I’m probably not going to be a figure skating mega fan again, but I am 10/10 a fan of this book!