FIVE STARS! So Much Fun!
By Netgalley.com on January 13, 2017 05:01
When I heard about this book, one thing that excited me the most is that it’s a sports f/f book, and also that it’s falling-for-your-competition trope. And I definitely enjoyed both of these aspects in the book. It was simple and yet still thrilling. The details and research the author put into the sports itself and the description of skiing/ski jumping was one of the things that made the characters very relatable, simply because they seemed passionate about it.
Ellie was great to read about. She’s determined and fierce and her sarcasm was always spot on. I think my favorite was Kate though, I absolutely loved her sass and she was just so much fun. The romance sort of hangs on the opposites of these two characters, not only in personality wise, but their competition as well. It made it seem intense, but it was really cute. Sports and women? it’s a yes from me…
Reviewed by Leenah ElKordy
FIVE STARS! Overall Great Read!
by Netgalley.com on Dec 19, 2016 10:12
This was a great read….The characters were well written and I loved reading about the sport of ski jumping. There was enough of the sport for me. I enjoyed reading about the characters’ escapades and the character development was solid. Overall great read!! So glad I was granted permission to read.
Reviewed by Jenna Faller
FOUR STARS! I am looking forward to more books from this author.
by Netgalley.com on Dec 3, 2016 10:12
Quick Summary: Ellie has been learning how to ski jump her whole life. Now she is on the brink of being able to try out for the Olympic when she meets Kate. Kate has never ski jumped professionally but she has on the necessary skills to be great. Ellie is interested in being with Kate, so to get close to her she decides to teach her, which may backfire both with her relationship goals as well as her Olympic dreams.
I thought the two characters were well written, with both of them having their own personalities. The author also did a really great job in describing the sport of ski jumping. She really did her research so I could get in to the sport with the characters…
…I am looking forward to more books by this author, as she has a writing style that I enjoyed.
Reviewed by Tayah Geist
FIVE STARS! A great read for anyone who wants to read about girls in love with girls and sports.
by Netgalley.com on Nov 1, 2016 02:11
“This is a story about a girl who found the courage to jump, to fly, and- for a brief, precious time- to be free.
But here’s the thing.
All flights come to an end.
Ask any ski jumper and they’ll tell you that’s another truth that never airs on ESPN.
For better. For worse. Gravity always wins.”I was expecting something completely different coming from this book, but I was still pleasantly surprised by the end.
Gravity tells the story of Ellie, a girl abandoned by her mother and cheated by her ex. She is also a ski jumper who wants to have a chance in the Olympics. I loved the writing in this book and the descriptions the author makes about the jump and the high of the sport. Reading about girls who are into sports is always so interesting to me.
The romance in this book is so good. Ellie and Kate meet right away and have a hot night together. It was so funny and adorable to see Ellie talking about girls. She isn’t scared of her sexuality and embraces it all. So good to read girls being open about this. The story here is refreshing and doesn’t put the blame on just one person in the mess of it all.
A great book for anyone who wants to read about girls in love with girls and sports. And so important when it comes to bring attention to ski jumping and how women have been finding their way to participate in it.
From the author’s notes:
“Though the Olympics barrier had been breached, the struggle to find equal footing continues. Currently women ski jumpers are allowed to compete in one event while their male counterparts compete in three.”
It’s upsetting to see that we still have so much to fight for women to have the right to even compete in what they love. I hope we can see more change happening in the future.Reviewed by M. Hollis
FIVE STARS! Such a fun read!
by Netgalley.com on Nov 1, 2016 12:11
Gravity was such a fun read. I loved the ski jumping aspect, I had never read a book about ski jumping and it was like you were watching it clear in front of you. I know the author asked a former ski jumping athlete for things and accuracy. I loved the winter-y feeling of the book, of course, and it made me want to watch the Winter Olympics already!
The characters, Ellie and Kate, were so great to meet and get to know. Ellie wants to go to the 2018 Olympics and all she has done is train, train train. Then she meets Kate one cold day in the snow and they hit it off. Soon enough they find themselves as competitors in the next competition. I adored Kate, she’s so fierce and sassy as heck. She is a cute ball of sunshine and her smile could light up the world to be honest.
This is for the ones who have always wanted an f/f ski jumping YA novel.
Reviewed by Silvana Reyes
FOUR STARS! Approachable.
by Netgalley.com on Oct 20, 2016 06:10
While the target audience for this volume was a younger set, I was particularly intrigued by the synoptic description of two adolescents competing in such a difficult sport, who develop affection for each other. The writing was approachable, the romance innocent but capturing and the insight that was offered into the grueling experience of engaging in such athletic training was useful….
Reviewed by Adrian Amador
FIVE STARS! What a great YA story!
by Netgalley.com on Oct 20, 2016 05:10
What a great YA story.
This book manages to be many things at once and does it so in quite a concise and accomplished way. It’s short, sweet and intense. Is a coming of age story. It’s a romance. Of a sorts. Because it’s also a thrilling story about 2 young women who are also in love with a sport.
Now, my favorite thing about this book was the characters. Such rich, well-developed, believable characters.
Ellie is a great protagonist. She’s this smart, talented, dedicated and funny (on the sarcastic spectrum of humor) girl who is at a point of her young life where she is standing on that strange territory of trying to find the sweet spot between where being cool ends and where being a selfish dick starts.
Yet, to me she is very relatable and endearing because, by being in her head, we know she is actually a sweet kid, even if most of her actions, throughout the novel, shows us how absolutely confused she is about most things that are happening to her. She is overwhelmed by life. Which is actually a very realistic depiction of the state of mind of most teenagers out there. Her heart seems to be in the right place, but most of her actions seems to be guided by a strange and combustible combination of hormones and lack of life experience. She is trying though. Trying as best as she can to figure herself out with as minimum colateral damage as possible to the people around her. Not that she’s doing very well on that department… but then again, most teenagers fail at that too.
Then there is Kate. It’s interesting to me how well balanced I felt Ellie and Kate were as characters, and even though I really liked Ellie, every time Kate showed up in the book she immediately seemed to become the center of the story, even if she actually wasn’t. Their relationship might be the center of the story, sure, but only because their relationship actually ends up being the beginning as well as the end of Ellie’s journey.
And as much as Ellie is reserved, Kate is unguarded. As readers we don’t seem to need much time to figure her out. Kate is Kate. There is not much subtext to her personality, yet that is precisely what makes her so interesting as a character. In terms of emotional maturity, at the beginning of the book, she seems to be in a place that Ellie is not even aware yet she will also eventually need to be in order to grow up.
Yet, their personality contrast is what makes their interactions and their whole relationship dynamic so interesting to me.
I actually could go on and on talking about the all the other supporting characters as well. There aren’t that many, but what is there is incredibly well done, specially Kate’s mom, Maggie. I really loved Maggie.
And the backdrop to Ellie and Kate story is many other quite meaningful subplots that adds a lot of substance to the story itself. There is the delicate relationship (or lack thereof) between Ellie and her mother or Kate and her father, as well as the consequences of that relationship with the parents that remained with them. There is also their passion for a sport and their dreams of competing in that sport.
Just trust me when I say there is a lot going on this story. And most of it, is really, really good. One of the major complains I have about this book though is that it’s just too short for what is trying to accomplish. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great as it is, but I think that with a bit extra room to further develop all those other subplots could have made it even better.
I also loved how unlike many other books out there, there isn’t really a ‘villain’ in this story. Much like in real life, there are just perceptions of who the ‘bad guy’ might actually be, but only because reading the story from the perspective of an unreliable narrator, you only get to see her own, very limited and biased, point of view.
And that’s about it. I really did enjoy this book, will be looking for other books from this author and will definitely keep an eye on her future releases.
Reviewed by Ne Rerev
Juliann Rich 