Join YWIN's national book club as we're joined by author Hannah Orenstein to discuss her new book, Head Over Heels. The novel was named a best book of the season by O, the Oprah Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Bustle, and more. On their list of The Best Jewish Books of 5780, Hey Alma described Head Over Heels as "very loosely based on Aly Raisman’s life, if she hadn’t made the 2012 Olympic team and if she had dated a football player much more successful than Colton Underwood.
The protagonist is Avery, a Jewish gymnast who gets injured during the Olympic trials and sees all her dreams spiral away from her. She ends up in L.A., fails out of college, and starts partying hard — until she meets Tyler, a back-up quarterback for the L.A. Rams. Fast forward (that was all in the first few chapters) and Tyler and Avery have broken up, with Avery moving back home to a Boston suburb with her parents. She has no purpose, no goals, until she’s offered an assistant coaching position for a local girl who is an Olympic hopeful. It doesn’t hurt that her head coach is ridiculously cute.
Why is this the best Jewish romance of the year? Head Over Heels doesn’t focus solely on the romantic plot line; it dives into questions of abusive coaches and doctors in gymnastics, what it means for these young girls to push their bodies to the limits, and what you do when your dreams of athletic glory disappear in an instant."
NOTE: You do NOT have to read the book in order to participate in this event!
The book is available at libraries across the country in hardcopy, ebook format, and audiobook format.
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JWI welcomes, embraces, affirms, and invests in women of every race, culture, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
Hannah Orenstein is the senior dating editor at Elite Daily and the author of three novels.
Head Over Heels (Atria Books, 2020) is a rom-com set in the high-stakes world of Olympic gymnastics. It was named a best book of the season by O, the Oprah Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, the Palm Beach Post, Bustle, and more. Goodreads named it a best book of June 2020.
Love at First Like (Atria Books, 2019) is a rom-com about a jewelry store owner who accidentally leads her 100,000 Instagram followers to believe she is engaged… and then has to find a fake fiancé to play the part. It was named a best book of the season by Glamour and BuzzFeed; the Washington Post called it “powerful.”
Playing with Matches (Touchstone Books, 2018) is rom-com about a young matchmaker at a top dating service, inspired by Hannah’s experience as exactly that. It was named a best book of the season by Refinery29, PopSugar, and Bustle.
She has written for the Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Refinery29, BuzzFeed, and Bustle. Her work has been featured in the Boston Globe, the New York Post, The Cut, Us Weekly, and many more.
She’s a speaker and panelist, appearing on BuzzFeed’s AM2DM, Cheddar, HLN, Fox, Bold TV, Sirius XM radio shows You Up w/ Nikki Glaser, At Least You Woke Up with Jill Kargman, The Michelle Collins Show, Her Conference, Jewish Women International, the JCC, and many more.
Previously, Hannah was an editor at Seventeen.com. At 21, she became the youngest matchmaker at a top dating service. She lives in Brooklyn.
