Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Tumbling Dreams
AUTHOR: Kaje Harper
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 80 pages
RELEASE DATE: February 15, 2026
BLURB:
Tyler Bannichek has spent his whole life training for this moment, his shot at the US Olympic team and gymnastics gold. He’s worked past the injuries and the blocks, focused every moment of every day on improving his skills. Now, at the peak of his talent, just in time for the world’s biggest stage, he should be thrilled. Instead, long-suppressed fear is rising like ice water in his veins.
Eli Nelson has roomed with Tyler for two years, cheered him on through every obstacle. But now, watching Tyler in the trials, Eli is also afraid. When does friendship mean letting someone take their own risks? When does it mean speaking out to save them? And how can he pretend to be just a friend when he’s falling in love with Tyler?
Tumbling Dreams is a 21,000-word stand-alone novella featuring two young men weighing goals, risks, fear, and love, in the crucible of Olympic sports. This story originally appeared in the “Going for Gold” anthology.
Author’s Note:
This 21,000-word novella was originally written for Going for Gold, an anthology from MLR Press centered around the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. In re-releasing my story, Tumbling Dreams, I made a few minor edits, but decided not to update to a more recent Games. The work, struggles, and choices athletes go through are universal, as they put their hopes and dreams, bodies and skills, on the line to showcase the very best in sports. This is dedicated to athletes the world over, and to the people who love and stand behind them, even when that’s a really hard place to be.
REVIEW:
This book kinda broke my heart. To be that close to everything you had fought so hard for and struggled for your entire life and then have to stop and ask “Is it too much? Am I done?” when you are so close just shattered me. It’s the most unfair question for a premier athlete to have to ask themselves.
I had tears running down my face during the meeting Tyler had with his coach and then especially during that news conference. It was that devastating. And I don’t believe that this is that severe of a reaction.
These premier athletes, at the top of their game and in their most prime, push themselves to the brink of what a human body can endure. They do it through constant pain and reoccurring injury. You see it all the time. The sports tape all over them. Playing with braces on their bodies. The phrase “No Pain, No Gain!” is their mantra. But sometimes the human body just has to say “enough is enough”! And it lets you know it in a way that can’t be ignored. We have seen it most recently in skiers qualifying for the upcoming Olympics. Having to be Medivac off the ski slopes. It brutal and it’s heartbreaking. Watching an end to something that was a given. And knowing the catastrophic loss the athlete just incurred. My heart goes out for those athletes and their loss. Not only in winning a metal but their dreams. It’s not just a metal at the Olympics. It’s what they have worked for all of their lives to have crushed. Author Kaje Harper captured that pain and loss so perfectly.
The same can be said for their loved ones. The ones that stand beside you and cheer you on. And it’s the ones that love you the most…sometimes they have to say the really hard words to you. Because they love you no matter if you are a superstar athlete or the roommate that they fell in love with and can’t watch the train wreck any more in slow motion. Eli telling Tyler “he’s out” had to be the hardest thing Eli could ever say. He loved Tyler. He was in love with Tyler though he never uttered those words. But he just couldn’t watch Tyler destroy his life.
This book really hits you hard in the feels. It may just be a short novella but it packed more punch in those few pages that 400 page books have. You can’t not feel with this one. It’s just too real and hard.
Tumbling Dreams is of the very best sports stories I have ever read and will be coming back to again and again.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
She always writes good books. She’s an autobuy for me. I’m reading something else at the moment, but this novella is next in line!