best served gold

Unlike her previous Games, internationally acclaimed gold medal gymnast Sylvia Medina’s second Olympics ended in a disaster of epic proportions. Not only does Sylvia return home empty-handed with her legacy destroyed, but her best friend and teammate, Charlotte, is critically injured. What the world doesn’t know is that Sylvia is responsible for Charlotte’s accident—a shameful secret she plans to take to her grave.

 

Now, three years later and estranged, Charlotte is a quadriplegic, and Sylvia is an out-of-shape, disgraced, 26-year-old who's too stubborn to quit. Though she's never forgiven herself for the part she played in Charlotte’s accident, Sylvia unintentionally announces a comeback on the same day Charlotte dies from complications of pneumonia. She was already unpopular, but now? Pariah.

 

The day after Charlotte's funeral, Sylvia is confronted by her former best friend's ghost—it turns out Sylvia isn't the only one with unfinished business. Charlotte demands Sylvia capitalize on her renewed fame and team up one last time to work on Charlotte’s unfinished memoir posthumously. Sylvia is terrified of completing the story that will out her as the cause of Charlotte's injury but guiltily agrees, hoping this final act will make amends once and for all.

 

As Sylvia claws closer to a third Olympic berth and the women repair the cracks in their friendship, the shocking details of Charlotte's memoir reveal the man responsible for both Charlotte and Sylvia’s success may have been more villain than hero. Sylvia realizes by exposing years of coercion and abuse, she risks crumbling the foundation of the sport she’s fallen back in love with, jeopardizing her pursuit of another Olympic Games. Sylvia must decide if she is brave enough to risk it all to go public with the truth or if another gold medal tarnished by lies is even worth pursuing.

“they say living well is the best revenge. But I’m already dead.”

  • They can't make us go away just because they are done with us.

    -Taylor Jenkins Reid, CARRIE SOTO IS BACK

  • The same thing that’s true in gymnastics is also true in life: You can’t go back. The best you can do is forgive yourself, take a deep breath, and get to work on the next challenge.

    Simone Biles, COURAGE TO SOAR

  • No one is just a victim or a victor. Everyone is somewhere in between. People who go around casting themselves as one or the other are not only kidding themselves, but they’re also painfully unoriginal.

    Taylor Jenkins Reid, THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO

  • That was what a best friend did: hold up a mirror and show you your heart.

    Kristin Hannah, FIREFLY LANE