The Favorites

The Favorites (2025) by Layne Fargo follows the fictional story of the ice-dancing pair Katarina “Kat” Shaw and Heath Rocha, whose careers are characterized by obsession and scandal. Ten years after their final skate, an unauthorized documentary promises to uncover the truth behind their lives and careers, and Kat finally decides to share her side of the story for the very first time. As the story unfolds, the novel explores themes including The Cost of Ambition, The Complexity of Relationships Formed Under Pressure, and The Gap Between Public Perception and Private Lives. Fargo is the best-selling author of a number of books, including They Never Learn (2020) and the Young Rich Widows series (2022), which she co-authored.

This guide refers to the 2025 Penguin Random House UK Kindle edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, illness, emotional abuse, physical abuse, addiction, and substance use.

Plot Summary

The story is told in two alternating narratives: Katarina “Kat” Shaw’s account of her ice-dancing career and documentary-style interviews with numerous personalities from the sport and her life that complement her narration.

Sixteen-year-old Kat and her ice-dancing partner, Heath Rocha, leave home in Illinois to participate in their first US Figure Skating National Championships in Cleveland, Ohio. Kat’s only surviving family is her older brother, Lee; her father passed away a short while ago, and her mother died when she was young. For Heath, who grew up in foster care, Kat is his only family, especially after her father became his legal guardian when they started skating together as children.

At the competition, Kat and Heath run into the skating team of Isabella “Bella” Lin and Garrett Lin, the twin children of Kat’s ice-dancing idol, Sheila Lin. Kat and Bella accidentally collide during a warm-up session. An injured Kat skates through the pain, but she and Heath are given low scores as a result. However, Kat is thrilled when Sheila invites them to train at her academy in Los Angeles, California, over the summer. Despite Heath’s reservations, Kat convinces him to accept Sheila’s offer.

At the academy, Kat thrives in the strenuous training program; Heath, however, grows increasingly resentful. Kat and Bella overcome their initial dislike of each other, and the latter invites Kat and Heath to become her and Garrett’s full-time training partners. Kat dismisses Heath’s concerns and convinces him to accept the offer.

Kat, Heath, Bella, and Garret train exclusively under Sheila, competing and medaling in multiple competitions. Kat, Bella, and Garrett grow closer, and this makes Heath increasingly insecure and jealous.

Kat and Heath argue, and it negatively impacts one of their competitive performances. Bella urges Kat to consider skating with Garrett instead. Heath overhears Kat tell another skater, Ellis Dean, that Heath is holding her back. He storms off and disappears, leaving a distraught Kat to return home from the competition alone. After not hearing from him for days, Kat decides to partner with Garrett.

Kat and Garrett are an exceptionally talented team, but Bella and her new partner don’t fare as well. Three years later, Bella tracks Heath down and convinces him to become her partner. Everyone is shocked at his reappearance. Heath’s technique has drastically improved, but he refuses to say with whom he has trained.

Heath and Bella prove to be a good team, occasionally even beating Kat and Garrett in competitions. Kat is rattled by the rumors of a romance between Heath and Bella, and when she inadvertently discovers that Garett is gay, Heath’s past insecurities about them as a couple are proven unfounded. Kate uses her anger toward Heath to motivate her.

At the 2006 Nationals, after which the US Olympic teams will be announced, Bella collides with Kat during a practice session. Kat has a mild concussion but insists on skating. However, she is shaky and unstable and takes a bad fall. To everyone’s surprise and Bella’s dismay, Heath refuses to leave her side for the entirety of her hospital stay. As a result of Kat’s accident and Heath and Bella’s non-performance, neither pair gets named to the Olympics team.

Heath and Kate go home to Illinois so that she can recuperate. They find Kat’s childhood home empty, as Lee is in jail for selling drugs. The Lin twins arrive weeks later, and Bella convinces Kat to return to the sport, but alongside Heath. Kat and Heath start winning again, and their performances are hyped up by the media. Following Sheila’s disapproval of their behavior, Kat decides to part ways with Sheila’s academy.

Kat and Heath become ice dancing’s most popular pair, with media fervor over both their performances and their relationship; they even get named to the Olympic team. After one notable win, Heath proposes to Kat on the ice. Despite a public proposal, however, Kat and Heath’s relationship grows distant in private. Heath also still refuses to talk about his three years away.

Just before they are set to perform at the Olympics, Bella shows Kat a news article claiming that Heath trained with Sheila’s archrival, Veronika Volkova, in Russia during his years away. Stunned by this revelation, Kat delivers a subpar performance, and they place third.

Afterward, Kat and Heath fight bitterly—she is furious at his secrecy and blames him for their loss. She throws away her engagement ring, and in retaliation, Heath sleeps with Bella. Later, Kat discovers that Sheila sent Heath to Veronika to separate the two of them and leaked the story just before the Olympics. Kat disappears from the world of ice dancing.

After years out of the limelight, Kat resurfaces at Sheila’s funeral, where she discovers that Garrett quit the sport after an accident and that Heath and Bella have grown close. Bella visits Kat and convinces her to return for one final Olympic bid alongside Heath. She agrees and, despite the lingering attraction between them, decides to keep things professional.

At the Nationals, Bella collapses and is revealed to be pregnant with Heath’s child. Kat and Heath forfeit the competition; despite this, they are still named to the Olympic team and travel to Russia for the games. However, they are repeatedly sabotaged by an another competitor, Francesca Gaskell, one of the other US pair. Francesca’s final betrayal is to swap out Heath’s competition-approved painkillers with a banned designer drug. Just after Kat and Heath deliver a gold-medal-worthy final performance, he coughs up blood and suffers a cardiac arrest.

Heath survives, but a disciplinary hearing about the banned substance strips Kat and Heath of their gold medals and their winning scores. Kat, however, finally realizes that she does not need medals to feel like a champion and decides not to appeal. In the end, Kat and Heath reunite and move to Illinois, where they live alongside Bella and her and Heath’s daughter, Mei. Bella runs a skating school where Kat is an instructor. She reflects that the true meaning of winning is spending every day doing what she loves, surrounded by the people she loves.