* I got this book for review from the publisher*

I really loved the concept of this novel and loved learning more about climbing mount everest. I really loved how this was focused on the adventure to get to the top. I really did like the Duel POV. This book did handle harder topics like anxiety and depression and had some nail bitting moments. I really loved rose has a characters and sometimes struggled to be in tate head. I struggled a bit with the focus on the romance in the first half of the novel but really loved how this book wrapped up! Def check out this book this fall! ( )

* I got this book for review from the publisher*

I really loved the concept of this novel and loved learning more about climbing mount everest. I really loved how this was focused on the adventure to get to the top. I really did like the Duel POV. This book did handle harder topics like anxiety and depression and had some nail bitting moments. I really loved rose has a characters and sometimes struggled to be in tate head. I struggled a bit with the focus on the romance in the first half of the novel but really loved how this book wrapped up! Def check out this book this fall! ( )

Above All Else focuses on goals, family, determination, friendship, loss, and love. What an adventure! ( )

Rose and Tate have been friends their entire lives. Climbing is part of what they do together. Now, they are heading out to the biggest challenge that they can face: climbing Mount Everest.

Each of these young people is dealing with a few things that are distracting them from the task at hand. Rose’s mother, Miami usually climbs with them but she is dealing with a serious illness. Someone who has always been solid and excited about climbing is now going to be waiting for text messages and videos updating her.

Tate has a challenging relationship with his father. His father is one of those people who has been successful at most things that he does... maybe an over achiever. Tate is a more gentle soul and struggles with letting his father down.

I have read a lot of climbing books, it’s one of my favourite topics. I found that the switching back and forth in time took away some of the emotion and excitement of climbing. The pacing of the novel was a bit slow fore me. Arguably, the author may have chosen a slower pace because it reflects the slow nature of a climb. Climbing is for the slow and methodical.

I think that some young adults will appreciate a book that is about climbing! ( )

Tate and Rose have known each other forever and have been mountain climbing, along with Tate’s father, Jordan, and Rose’s mother, Mami, for 10 years. Now they are facing the ultimate test—scaling Mt. Everest. Tate and Rose are skipping most of their second semester senior year in high school for the climb. However, bad news precedes their trip; Mami is diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and will be unable to go. What Rose and Jordan do not know is that a serious fall while climbing Mt. Ranier four months earlier has freaked Tate and he is not sure whether he wants this climb; something they have all been dreaming of and training for for years. Can Rose climb without the rock solid (no pun intended) support of her mother and will Tate find the courage to climb?

Scaling Mt. Everest takes a back seat to the icy father-son relationship between Jordan and Tate. Jordan constantly belittles Tate and his lack of focus on school, climbing, the future. It also tests the limits of Tate and Rose’s relationship both romantically and as it pertains to mountain climbing. While the author does touch upon the hardships of the climb, focusing on climbers passing frozen dead bodies along the way and on the toll such a climb takes on the human body, it is ancillary to the story. Neither true romance nor true adventure story, Above All Else falls in a nether world and as such will appeal to a limited audience. ( )