It's all in how you fall /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A contemporary young adult romance about moving on, finding your place, and recovering after life falls apart.

Gymnast Caroline Kepler has three state balance beam titles, a new trick even most elites can't do--and chronic, undeniable back pain. While she might never be an Olympian, she has dreams of leveling up to elite, making Nationals, and competing in college. But when one epic face-plant changes all that and Caroline's back pain goes from chronic to career-ending, her dreams are shattered and her life is flipped upside down.

Enter Alex Zavala, a three-sport athlete who's both incredibly cute and incredibly off-limits. He offers to give Caroline a crash course in all the sports she's missed, and she has an offer for him in return: For every sport Alex teaches her, she'll play matchmaker for him. Deal done, Caroline "dates" new sports with Alex for the rest of the summer, which is loads more fun than wallowing in despair. Just as Caroline starts to see herself as more than her past athletic successes, she picks up something she didn't bargain for: a big fat crush on Alex.

Turns out life was way easier when it was just layout-fulls and beam burns....

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Fifteen-year-old Kansas native Caroline Kepler is on her way to becoming a member of an elite gymnastics team when a bad fall off the balance beam worsens her already compromised back, forcing her to quit. Devastated, Caro withdraws emotionally, believing she has no identity without gymnastics until her older brother's best friend, tennis star and all-around athlete Alex Zavala, offers to coach her in a different sport every week during the summer until she finds a new niche. Suddenly, Caro's free time is filled with learning the rudiments of volleyball, running, and golf, until she eventually settles on tennis. As thanks for Alex's coaching, Caro intends to set him up with his longtime crush Sunny Chavez, Caro's former gymnastics teammate. But when Caro realizes that she has feelings for Alex, she must maneuver her own vacillating self-worth, her brother's disapproval of the duo's potential relationship, and nerves surrounding an impending tennis tournament. Former sports journalist and gymnast Henning (The Queen Will Betray You) writes with experience and compassion, never underplaying Caro's grief over the future she believes she's lost. Supportive and bighearted characters populate this optimistic novel. Most characters cue as white; Sunny reads as Latinx. Ages 12--up. Agent: Whitney Ross, Irene Goodman Agency. (May)

Booklist Review

Fifteen-year-old Caroline "Caro" Kepler is an award-winning gymnast whose promising career abruptly ends after her chronic back pain worsens and she takes a serious fall. Her life's passion disintegrates into an unfillable void until her brother's best friend and teammate, Alex Zavala, offers to introduce her to other sports she might enjoy. In return, Caroline successfully plays matchmaker between Alex and her friend Sunny Chavez. As Caro finds joy in new sports, she begins to realize she is much more than her past glories. However, she didn't count on also developing a massive crush on Alex, which makes her feel like a modern-day Emma Woodhouse. Caroline is an endearing narrator whose struggles to regain purpose are genuine, making her story extremely cheer-worthy. Henning, a former sportswriter, bases the book on her own experiences as a former competitive gymnast who had to change sports. She infuses the narrative with her own passion and the hot-button topics of perfectionism in athletics and the destructiveness of sports injuries. Readers need not be sports-minded to join Team Caro.

Kirkus Book Review

A former competitive gymnast tries to reimagine her life. When a diagnosis of spinal stenosis forces 15-year-old Caroline to quit gymnastics, the Kansas state beam champion doesn't know what to do next. Her best friends, Sunny Chavez and Peregrine Liu, still practice seven hours a day. But Caro's older brother's best friend, rising senior and tennis star Alex Zavala, offers to spend the rest of the summer coaching her in other sports she might enjoy. When Caro discovers that Alex has a crush on Sunny, she and Peregrine spend a long time plotting to get them together only for Caro to discover that she herself has a crush on Alex. Fortunately, Alex reciprocates--just when Caro also falls in love with tennis and it's time for the big tournament at the local country club. Henning was herself a high-level gymnast, and it shows: The brief scenes of Caro in the gym attempting high-level maneuvers crackle with authenticity and tension. The rest is a fairly standard teen rom-com with lots of descriptions of food and clothes, lots of who-drives-whom-where, and plenty of snarky conversation. Caro's being forced to give up her dream offers scope for real emotional complexity, but Henning doesn't dig for it; the novel stays on the surface, easy enough to read but not particularly compelling. Caro and Alex read as White; Sunny and Peregrine are cued as having Latinx and East Asian heritage, respectively. A light read with room to delve deeper. (Fiction. 12-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Sarah Henning is a former sports journalist who has worked for The Palm Beach Post , Kansas City Star , and Associated Press , among others. When not writing, she runs ultramarathons, hits the playground with her two kids, and hangs out with her husband. Sarah lives in Lawrence, Kansas, hometown of Langston Hughes, William S. Burroughs, and a really good basketball team. She is the author of Sea Witch , The Princess Will Save You , and Throw Like a Girl , and invites you to visit her online at sarahhenningwrites.com.