Today’s book review is for Variation by Rebecca Yarros, a second chance summer romance novel between an elite ballerina and a Coast Guard rescue swimmer that is brimming with family drama and secrets.
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Book Synopsis
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Fourth Wing comes a new contemporary romance about the summer a celebrated dancer returns home and unearths years of family secrets with the Coast Guard rescue swimmer she never forgot.
Elite ballerina Allie Rousseau is no stranger to pressure. With her mother’s eyes always watching, perfection was expected, no matter the cost. But when an injury jeopardizes all she’s sacrificed for, Allie returns to her summer home to heal and recover. But the memories she’s tried to forget rush in and threaten to take her under.
As a Coast Guard rescue swimmer, Hudson Ellis knows that hesitation can mean the difference between life and death. He’s always prided himself on being in the right place at the right time, especially when it came to Allie Rousseau…until the night he left for basic. After the biggest regret of his life, the secrets he keeps mean he can never be with the one woman he wants more than his next breath.
When Hudson’s niece shows up on Allie’s doorstep, desperate to find her birth mother, Allie finds herself in an unimaginable position. Allie and Hudson’s past and present might be endlessly complicated. The thread that tied them to each other all those years ago may have unraveled, but the truth could pull them back together, or drive them apart forever. From Goodreads.
“By the end of that summer, she was my best friend. By the end of next, she hated me.”
The Basics
Category: Romance
Tags: Romance, contemporary romance, fiction, sports, military, adult, chick-lit
Author: Rebecca Yarros
Publisher: Montlake, November 2024
Where to Find: Amazon
Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
So here’s the thing… I stumbled upon this book because it was on Kindle Unlimited, and it had a 4.26 rating (out of 5) on Goodreads. I have mixed feelings on Rebecca Yarros. I read In the Likely Event (link review) and wasn’t a fan, but like many, I loved Fourth Wing. With that being said, I found her second book in the Empyrean Series, Iron Flame, lacking – it felt extremely rushed and haphazardly written to me. As a result I was left in an odd spot – prepared to read Variation with an open mind, but not without lingering concern that it would feel similarly hectic and unfinished. Especially given that this book was released in November 2024 and Onyx Storm, the 3rd book in the Empyrean series, has a highly anticipated release scheduled for late January 2025. With two large books coming out within months of each other I couldn’t help but wonder about how much time and effort was dedicated to Variation.
**Spoilers Ahead**
Allie is an elite ballerina performing in the Metropolitan Ballerina Company in New York City when her entire world comes crashing down after suffering a ruptured Achilles during a performance. Following the surgery to repair her Achilles, she decides to move in with her sister Anne at their family’s summer beach house in Cape Cod. There she could rehabilitate her injury without any distractions, especially the constant judgement and competitive nature of the ballerina troupe. Having already suffered a similar Achilles injury in a car accident 10 years ago, Allie is distraught that this one could end her career forever. Struggling not to sink into a deep depression, she’s suddenly blindsided when her best friend and crush from 11 summers ago arrives on her doorstep with his niece in tow.
“In unconsciousness, there were no ankle injuries, no rehabs, no decisions to be made about how hard to push myself and when. There were endless possibilities and zero consequences.”
So Let’s Get Into it…
The book begins 11 years ago in a small beach town in Cape Cod – the summer Allie and Hudson first met. Hudson is out in the Atlantic Ocean practicing open water swimming, when he spots two girls frantically scooping water out of a diminutive sized boat. As he approaches the boat to help, the boat capsizes. Hudson springs into action and rescues both girls, Allie and her sister Eva, from drowning. A fast friendship between Hudson and Allie formed at that moment – but after parting ways at the end of summer the following year, they never spoke again. We the readers are left piecing together events and clues to determine what happened – why did Hudson leave for basic training without saying goodbye to his best friend? And more importantly, why haven’t they spoken since?
“When you don’t give your body time to heal, it will take the time from you.”
The book jumps to present day, and we learn that Hudson is stationed back in his hometown of Cape Cod and helping his sister Caroline raise his 10-year-old niece, Juniper. In Cape Cod ballet is a big deal, and at the end of every summer the local studios compete in a competition that awards scholarships to the top dancers. Caroline is firmly against ballet and won’t allow Juniper to join any of the local dance studios. After begging her uncle Hudson, he agrees to take Juniper over to meet the only elite ballerina he knows – who coincidentally just came back to recover from an injury. After ten years Allie and Hudson finally see each other again – only for Juniper to drop a bombshell. Juniper declares that she is Allie’s daughter and wants Allie to take a paternity test to prove it.
Readers know that while Juniper was adopted as a baby, Allie is not Juniper’s mother, but the uncanny resemblance they share is undeniable. Allie takes the paternity test which proves she isn’t Juniper’s mother – but she is her aunt. This means the only possible person who could be Juniper’s biological mother is Allie’s sister, Lina – who tragically passed away in the same car accident Allie was in 10 years ago.
After Allie reveals to Hudson that Juniper is her biological niece, the three of them and Anne (Allie’s sister) hatch a secret ploy: Allie and Hudson will pretend to date. It’s the conveniently perfect plan – Allie and Anne get to spend time with their newly discovered niece, Hudson (secretly still in love with Allie) can try to win back her affection, and Juniper believes Allie can convince her mother to let her take ballet lessons.
“The only person telling me what I couldn’t do was me.”
Now forced into close proximity due to their dating charade, Allie struggles to deny that the chemistry and feelings shared 10 years ago are still very much present. Bit by bit, Hudson earns back the trust he lost and Allie slowly allows her walls to come down. Allie finds a balance between her social life and ballet, and her relationship with Hudson is no longer a facade. But her sense of comfort is shattered when she’s betrayed by her younger sister Eva, also a professional ballerina – and once again Allie withdraws inwardly, behind the very walls she’d just managed to let down.
This is basically the theme of the story. Hudson is attentive, caring, considerate, and supportive – but at the first sign of any minor conflict, Allie pulls away. Allie is never forthcoming with her emotions, as she still harbors negative feelings towards Hudson for leaving for basic training and never contacting her again. The day of the car accident that took her sister’s life and ruptured her Achilles the first time was the worst day of Allie’s life – and Hudson never once came to the hospital to check on her. Allie never confronted him afterwards or in the time since, meaning she can’t fully trust him in the present – and because of this wants their fake-turned-real relationship to only last the summer. Allie insists to Hudson that their lives are simply too different to stay together – but in reality she’s doing what she thinks is best to safeguard her heart.
“Allie had given me the summer, and I was going to use it to bring her back to life.”
While this is a somewhat stereotypical romance plot, a story with emotional depth and well developed characters can overcome the cliché. In Variation however, the bulk of the story consists of Allie calling the shots while Hudson follows her around like a golden retriever, tail wagging and tongue hanging out.
Naturally their escapades are discovered by Caroline. Upon discovering that Allie, Hudson, Anne, Juniper, and now Eva all know about Lina, Caroline reveals the real reason why she forbade Juniper from taking ballet lessons. Following that we finally find out the big “secret” that Hudson kept involving the night of the deadly car accident. While the secret was a “twist” that I didn’t see coming, the reveal was ultimately underwhelming. It’s enough to fully free Allie of her inhibitions about Hudson, but to me it didn’t feel strong enough to warrant isolating himself from her for over a decade.
“Like she’d said, waves came in sets. She was happy here, and I had no choice but to match her energy. I was a dreamer who’d fallen in love with a dreamer, and it was time to stop dreaming and act.”
Despite the drawn-out and mostly predictable story, the book had some shining moments:
Pros:
· Hudson’s family dynamic with his parents and siblings is heartwarming.
· The sisterly bond between Allie, Anne, and Eva – despite arguing throughout the book, they always supported each other when it mattered most.
· Ballet – I love ballet! Every Christmas you’ll find my husband and I at the Delaware Dance Company’s Nutcracker performance.
It also had some not-so-great moments…
Cons:
· Caroline – Hudson’s sister Caroline was insufferable and rude to the point where her character wasn’t believable. Her dialogue was so outlandish that I struggled to imagine an adult saying those things in real life.
· Character communication, specifically Allie – she was seriously hard to root for. Her justifications for keeping Hudson in the dark never felt strong enough f0r me. Just tell him how you feel already!
· Seconds (the book’s version of TikTok) – it just annoys me to no end when authors make up a social media – just say it’s TikTok or Reels or whatever. Whenever I read “Seconds” it gave me the ick.
In the end, Allie and Hudson get their happily ever after and everyone is one big, happy family…yawn.
“This wasn’t chemistry. This was combustion. And I was here for it.”
So Bookmark or Bin it?
Conclusion: Bin it
If I could describe Variation in one word it would be “underwhelming”. Reading it validated the concerns I had before I began reading the book – it felt rushed and unfinished. And the bummer is this book had so much potential! However it ultimately fell short for me due to the exhausting and repetitive family drama, the lack of chemistry between the main characters, an unlikeable main character (Allie I’m looking at you), and minimal character context/background information. Being a second chance romance story, I was expecting more details and storytelling about Allie and Hudson’s first two summers spent together (better setting the stage for chemistry between the two later on), but most of the story is told in the present tense, with very little information given about the main characters’ past.
Fun Extra Tidbit
Rescue swimmers for the Coast Guard have to undergo grueling training to become one, with the Academy having an 80% attrition rate. Currently there are only about 350 active duty rescue swimmers.
Ballerinas similarly require extensive training at various levels. In this book, Allie has the title of Principal Dancer (top in her company). The top ballerinas in the world are given the title Prima Ballerina Assoluta, and this title has only been given to 11 ballerinas in history.
Thanks so much for reading my book review for Variation by Rebecca Yarros! Now it’s your turn! Have you read this novel or any others by Yarros and if so, what are your thoughts? Please feel free to share in the comments below!
Happy reading 😊
