Head Over Heels

2.25/5 starsThis is a hard one to rate, because while the romance in this book was absolutely dog shit, one of the most lackluster and chemistry-lacking romances I've ever read, the rest of the book was interesting. It tried to create a discussion on the culture of elite gymnastics and the abuse that has surrounded it. However, thinking back on it, I don't ever felt like it really dived into the brutality of elite gymnastics and mental health. The representation was kinda superficial? It could have opened that door a bit more, even if it's a hard topic to approach. But instead, I felt like I was told about the issues instead of being shown. They didn't affect the main character, but the side character (Hallie, the best part of this book), but we never get to see how Hallie deals with this other then a few scenes of Hallie obviously needing a therapist but no one really doing anything other than giving her a pep talk. And these issues were based off real events. We all know what happened, but if you need a reminder, the US gymnastics team doctor (who's name I won't mention, because I don't want to give that disgusting excuse for a human any more attention then he deserves) sexual assault over 100 athletes. For years. This is not something that something that should be written about and fictionalized to be a subplot for a romance novel. It wasn't handled poorly in this book, but it could have been much, much more impactful and tasteful. The book [b:Break the Fall 45993634 Break the Fall Jennifer Iacopelli https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1563188107l/45993634.SY75.jpg 68996280] may be a YA book, but I still think the same topics were less sugar-coated then they were in this book.