Head over Heels

A Novel

By: Hannah Orenstein

Narrated by: Joy Osmanski

Length: 10 hrs

Publisher's summary

Named a best beach/summer read by O, The Oprah Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Parade, PopSugar, Marie Claire, Bustle, and more!

From the author of the Love at First Like and Playing with Matches, an electrifying rom-com set in the high-stakes world of competitive gymnastics, full of Hannah Orenstein’s signature "charm, whimsy, and giddy romantic tension" (BuzzFeed).

The past seven years have been hard on Avery Abrams: After training her entire life to make the Olympic gymnastics team, a disastrous performance ended her athletic career for good. Her best friend and teammate, Jasmine, went on to become an Olympic champion, then committed the ultimate betrayal by marrying their emotionally abusive coach, Dimitri.

Now, reeling from a breakup with her football-star boyfriend, Avery returns to her Massachusetts hometown, where new coach Ryan asks her to help him train a promising young gymnast with Olympic aspirations. Despite her misgivings and worries about the memories it will evoke, Avery agrees. Back in the gym, she's surprised to find sparks flying with Ryan. But when a shocking scandal in the gymnastics world breaks, it has shattering effects not only for the sport, but also for Avery and her old friend Jasmine.

Perfect for fans of Emily Giffin and Jasmine Guillory, Head over Heels proves that no one "writes about modern relationships with more humor or insight than Hannah Orenstein" (Dana Schwartz, author of Choose Your Own Disaster).

©2020 Hannah Orenstein. All rights reserved. (P)2020 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

This was slow to start, but enjoyable.

This was slow to start, but enjoyable. For the most part it’s a very cute read. I loved the premise.

There’s an overall theme of why I stopped enjoying this in the middle to later half of the book that I can’t really talk about without totally spoiling it. It revolves around Ryan / Dimitri and how anything to do with Dimitri is handled. I had major icks all the way almost until the end.

I’m happy with the conclusion, but it definitely left me wanting more. I expected different scenarios that never came. Then it was just.. over.

Really enjoyed it

Overall loved this one. The narration was OK. I thought the storyline and the main characters were strong and well-developed. Loved the insight I to elite gymnastics too.

First Summer Read

It was a nice book to listen to and the narrator, Joy Osmanski did a great job. I like the story overall. It get a little weird since it was set in 2019 - 2020 and I’m not like it’s a pandemic lol. Gymnastics is one of my favorite sports to watch during the Olympics and this story had a great setting. Looking forward to more reads like this.

Ended short

I would have enjoyed knowing what happened at the olympics. The ending seemed rushed and just seemed to not stick the landing.

Eh

I felt like the whole time I was waiting for something bigger to happen. Was interesting to hear the dynamics of elite gymnastics but I often tuned in and out. Narrator isn’t bad, but I wish she was more distinctive during dialogue.

Sweet but...

This is a sweet story, easy to listen to but predictable. If you are really “in” to gymnastics you would love this book. There is a great deal of detail about competitions, etc. it is definitely a “light” read.

Needs more of the heroine's Jewish background

This was on a list of Jewish romances, so I got the audio version. It was well-written with a gymnastics background. I don't know anything about gymnastics, so it was nice to learn more about that. I liked the hero and heroine, and I loved Hallie.
I didn't like the cussing, and what was really missing for me was the heroine's Jewish background. In every Jewish romance I've read, there's always scenes set during the Jewish holidays with the main characters' family around, and lots of fun and/or emotion. If I hadn't read the synopsis, I wouldn't have known the heroine was Jewish.

Disappointed

Struggled to finish this book. If you're looking for a romance book, I would rate this 1 star. The love interest makes a huge mistake that I could forgive, but would absolutely kill any chance of ever getting back together. 2 stars because the elite gymnastics storyline was actually interesting, but the abuse storylines were straight from the news headlines and felt stolen and not original, like she was literally telling an actual person's story but changing the names. The narrator wasn't generally bad, but wouldn't be my first choice for a young girl's perspective.