Just Between Us: A Graphic Novel

by Adeline Kon

In this gorgeous debut graphic novel, Lydia tries to fall back in love with figure skating without falling for her competition

Lydia Chen knows how good she is on the ice. Technically perfect, she’s been the one to beat since her debut years ago.

Except now, something is missing in her performances—a spark that’s been gone for a while. Between the constant training, appealing to sponsors to fund her, and the pressure to perform, Lydia’s passion for skating has disappeared.  

When her rival Elaine Yee starts training at the same rink, Lydia’s struck by the emotion in Elaine’s routines and unwillingly finds herself getting closer to her as they compete for a spot in the Olympics. 

As the tension between them comes to a head, Lydia’s about to find out how a competitor can become an ally and figure out how to feel alive on the ice again.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Romance, LGBT, Young Adult, Queer, Lesbian, Sports

320 pages, Hardcover

First published February 24, 2026

Reviews

[Jessie Mannhaupt]

Alysa liu come get your check

[evie]

I love figure skating I love yuri I love the inherent romanticism of being athletic rivals. This book packaged a tender romance and deep characters with such a beautiful entertaining art style, and the author is clearly a huge figure skating fan herself which comes through so well in Elaine and Lydia's characters. I don't want to call this the 'lesbian heated rivalry' because this book stands fantastically on its own HOWEVER heated rivaly fans come get your juice.

[Leora Aileen]

this was so good I want to start rereading it immediately 🖤 such dynamic art, beautifully written, love the way figure skating moves were worked into the art style and composition. And the love story!! I need a tv show and 5 more books right NOW

[sun]

it kind of seems like the author wrote disconnected pieces of tragically romantic dialogue bit by bit in their notes app and then had a hard time piecing them together into a story. the two main characters randomly drop lines that belong in oc animatics with little emotional payoff because idk who these ppl truly are or why i should care. the repetition made it feel longer than it is

[Joce (squibblesreads)]

FINE leave it to a sapphic asian enemies to lovers figure skating graphic novel to drag my ass out of my reading slump

[Maia]

Lydia Chen has dominated the women's singles in figure skating since she was a teen, but as her first Olympics approach, she is struggling. She seems to have lost her love of skating, and when an injury takes her out of practice for months, Lydia wonders if it's worth the effort it will take to get back into competition form. Even more distractingly, Elaine Yee, one of Lydia's main rivals (always one or two podium spots below Lydia, for years) transfers to Lydia's coach and training rink to work on her own Olympics routine. Elaine doesn't have Lydia's technical scores or jump power, but she has something else: a lightness, a grace, a joy in skating that Lydia envies and covets. Are those the only feelings Elaine is stirring in her? Lydia refuses to self-examine. This is a beautifully drawn ode to the sport and art of figure skating, especially fun to read with Alysa Liu's recent gold so fresh in my mind.

[Steph]

a poetic and introspective sapphic graphic novel about two young figure skaters training to compete together in the olympics. sporty romcoms are typically not for me, but skating is so cool!

the art is moody and striking, with some dreamy skating montages and gorgeously dramatic illustrations. the fluidity of the art really evokes the floatiness of skating. at first i wasn't a fan of the character designs, but they grew on me.

our protagonists are two women who are fiercely dedicated to their sport, but also magnetically attracted to one another. i love their soft rivalry and the focus on passion and perseverance.

the story feels anticlimactic, with so much anticipation leading up to the olympics - i wanted to feel more of the tension and excitement of the competition! but it's still a sweet slow burn.

[haley ⊹]

cute! loved the art style and the main characters were both very interesting

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile]]

I'm a sucker for sports romances, and add sapphic romance and figure skating?? YES PLEASE.

Lydia Chen is the current #1 figure skater in the world. Known for her precision, extreme athleticism and technique, but not so much for her artistic expression...and also well known for being an ice queen on and off the ice. When her greatest rival, Elaine Yee, comes to her rink to train with the same coach, it throws the two women into turmoil.

I love a driven, emotionally shut-off FMC. I adored Lydia. Yeah, she was a jerk, but there was a reason for it. I loved her character ARC and growth, even if the final moment seemed a bit too sudden.

Anywho, the stakes were through the roof, with the Olympics and injury and homophobia and some racial microaggressions thrown in, and I was thoroughly invested for every second of it.

[alina]

Using the surname of a real Russian figure skater and making this character homophobic was definitely a choice…

[Bethany]

I wanted to like this more but the love interests were so needlessly rough with each other? Like why are we grabbing people by the wrist and holding them by the shirt and slapping them?? And apparently the slap is justified and the right thing to do??? Idk man it left a bad taste in my mouth but the art was really good lol

[Riza Hawkeye]

I’m a sucker for certain troupes and my fav is Yuri with girl who is good at blank paired with girl who has passion for blank and then girl B helps girl A fall back in love with it. This book does it really well and I love to see it

[Kristen ⭐️ (beansbooktrove)]

yeah it was great, if you like yuri on ice you will love this and if you love this then you should WATCH YURI ON ICE

(i’m looking at you anne and spencer)

but yeah, i think competitive ice skating is one of the BEST backdrops for an intense rivalry to love story pipeline! it’s hard not to love!

[jill]

Young lesbian heated rivalry in the making 💯 very cutie

[gray (my.rainbow.bookshelf)]

I love figure skating

[ren ౨ৎ (in a tiny slump)]

the REAL yuri on ice. 🧡🤍🩷

[alex]

…did the love affair maim you too?

i love figure skating, i love sapphics, i love graphic novels. i’ve been anticipating this book for MONTHS and i was super happy when i got first grabs on the libby ebook…hope the people in line behind me are ready to scream.

this was so beautiful! love the art style, love the high stakes environment, and of course i love a good rivals to lovers story. lydia was such a complex and flawed character which made her very realistic and much more interesting to follow. she screwed up, like, a lot, but i was rooting for her the whole way through. her and elaine have such a fun dynamic, and they made each other better both on and off the ice.

i selfishly wanted to see a bit more of them actually in a relationship, but the ending was very sweet.

tl;dr: *actual* yuri on ice

💌 2026 popsugar reading challenge: a sapphic comic

[Pou]

Beautiful art, loveable characters and the real Yuri on Ice.
The greatest thing about this is that it teaches you to love what you do and that your support group is there even when you don't want them to be.
Loved everything.

[Tiffany]

This is probably gonna be graphic novel of the year for me. Basically Heated R*valry if it was actually good. I haven't seen a story on skating this incredible since Yuri on Ice and this is quite literally YURI on ice!!!

[Gretal]

This was cute, but I just wanted to feel the rivalry more, and also it bothered me that Lydia was said to be in first after the short program at the Olympics but she didn't skate last in the free program.

[Shannon]

I loved this Sapphic rivals to lovers YA coming of age graphic novel about two aspiring Olympic figure skaters fighting to beat one another to win top spot on the podium. While I did wish it was full color illustrations, the story itself was just too good not to cheer for Elaine and Lydia. It was the perfect read after seeing Alysa Lui win gold at the 2026 Olympics and a great read for AAPI Month this May!

[jess the ninth]

¿Arte creativo? ¿Diálogos bien escritos? ¿Personajes interesantes? ¿Un buen arco de personaje? Eso casi siempre escasea en las novelas gráficas que he estado leyendo este año... Just between us es posiblemente la mejor novela gráfica que he leído este año.

[Sara]

Perfect wholesome sapphic teen romance

[Spencer]

Yes, I am still obsessed with figure skating. This was also my first graphic novel and I absolutely adored it! The way the showcased the skating and the jumps was so beautiful, I couldn’t have imagined it being done in a better way.

[aarushi]

this book is so so beautiful and almost made me tear up because it resonated so hard with me right now!
i feel like i haven't read anything in forever (a month) because i've been so busy with college, but 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘶𝘴 was the perfect read to get out of that slump. i've always loved sports stories, whether they're intense or lighthearted, so the fact that the author's love for figure skating really came through in this story was perfect for me.

each character is so well-developed and well-drawn (the figure skating was gorgeous to look at) but of course my favorite is the one and only lydia chen!!! my baby girl i love her so much... she is me and i am her... i loved the depiction of lydia's passion for winning and disillusionment with the sport that she's been fighting to be the best at for her whole life. it made her dynamic with elaine (and her relationships with her mom, coach, and best friend, helen) so much more compelling. love love love my figure skating girl!! i'm so glad that i just read this book.

[Ayeley 𐙚 ·˚(editing reviews)]

3.75!! This was so cute. My heated rivalry

[Iris]

Qué preciosas quedaron las partes de patinaje y el uso puntual del color.

[Danielle]

I LOVE THEM!!!!!

[Janessa Paun]

I was eating up this lesbian figure skating heated rivalry so much that it was even changing my opinion on black and white graphic novels, until that ending. The ending dropped my opinion of this story immensely. One of my biggest pet peeves is when one of the characters is doing absolutely incredible in their field, and then they lose to another character. And then that loss shows that they learned how much more to life there is than winning. Usually, a key component of their personality (and this holds true in this novel as well) is how much they value winning. It's just so dumb. Like I love romance, and I get the thinking behind love being the center of the story and having it overtake other things about these characters, but why does it have to trample other characteristics? I was also annoyed when Yee kept trying to act like Lydia had such a trouble-free life when that isn't the case at all. Like, girl you don't know her! Don't talk to my girl like that.. I did enjoy the skating and loved the beginning of the novel, I just wish it had ended in the same vein that it had started, because then it could have become a five-star read. A final note: I will defend Lydia to my death, I just love that queen.

Favorite quotes:
"If Yee skates like a princess... You could say I'm a bit more like a king."

"Maybe figure skating is my gilded cage. Even so, I'd do whatever it takes to keep going. Until ever bone in my body is broken.
You must really love it.
Don't you?
You and I are different. What I really love is to win."

"You said that Elaine would skating even if she was the worst at it. But I think the difference between the two of you is... she would love it even if she was the best skater in the world."

"I want to keep competing against you. I like having you chase after me. Even if I have to keep you beneath me. You have passion without remorse. I'm jealous. I'm so jealous. I want to swallow up your brilliance. It would make me less lonely."

[Liralen]

As a skater, Lydia is at the top of her game—her technical prowess is unmatched, and she's confident that she can win any competition she sets her sights on. Her attitude, though...that leaves something to be desired. Enter Elaine, against whom Lydia has competed for years; Elaine does not have quite the consistency or skills that Lydia does, but she still finds joy when she steps onto the rink.

Now, I cannot relate to either of these characters on a skating level: I can just about keep my balance on the ice, and that's where my skill starts and ends. But skating is fun to watch and fun to read about, and the illustrations here do a great job at capturing the athleticism and grace required to be competitive at skating.

The characters I didn't love. Or rather: Elaine's character felt a bit indistinct. She's pretty close to unfailingly kind, a golden girl who gets along with just about everyone and is highly respected in her sport to boot. She's also hiding a thing or two about her personal life. But...not a lot beyond that. Lydia, meanwhile, has isolated herself from just about everyone around her; her response to kindness or rudeness or praise or concern is to snap at the person in question and, if they too are a skater, to remind them that her ranking is higher than theirs (or if they aren't a skater, to tell them that they don't understand the pressures of being on top). Part of Lydia's journey throughout the book is of course to let her walls down a bit and be...a bit kinder to people...but until she gets to that point there's quite a lot of bitterness and ego, and after that point there's quite a bit of teenage angst. Had its moments, but by the end I was ready to move on to something else.