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, Lesbian, Young Adult, Comics, Contemporary

320 pages, Hardcover

First published February 24, 2026

Reviews

[Jessie Mannhaupt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alysa liu come get your check

[evie · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[haley ⊹ · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Joce (squibblesreads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[Riza Hawkeye · Rating 4 out of 5]

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) · Rating 5 out of 5]

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!

[gray (my.rainbow.bookshelf) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love figure skating

[jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Young lesbian heated rivalry in the making 💯 very cutie

[Pou · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[sun · Rating 3 out of 5]

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

[alina · Rating 3 out of 5]

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

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

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!!!

[alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

…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

[Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Ayeley 𐙚 ·˚ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75!! This was so cute. My heated rivalry

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE THEM!!!!!

[Gabby Gelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not lying when I say this book made me cry about 5 times when reading it

I am actually at a lost for words for how enjoyable and like emotional reading this book was, especially as an athlete myself. I am not a figure skating by any means (I can't even ice skate normally without having to hold onto the wall first) but omg, the way this book portrays and talks about the pressures of being an athlete and feeling like you have to live up to everyones expectations or else, what else are you? Lydias talk with her mom legit made me start sobbing.

And don't even get me startteedd on Lydias and Elaine's relationship cause OMG. This is probably the best rivals to lovers wlw I had ever read, like, I'm being so fr. THE WAY THEY MIRROR EACH OTHER IS SO. BEAUTIFUL. At the end of the book when Elaine gives her final performance and Lydias acceptance and admiration of how she saw her was sososoos beautiful. AND WHEN THEY HUGGED. AGAIN. I CRIED (maybe I'm just an overly emotional person, idk)

AND NOWWW THE ARRTTTT OMGOMGOMGOMG THE ART IS SOSSOOOOO STUNNING. EVERY PART OF IT I WAS SO CAPTIVATED. I THINK IT PLAYED A FACTOR ON WHY I CRIED SO MUCH 😭😭😭 EVERY PIECE OF SYMBOLISM THAT WAS INTEGRATED INTO THE ART WAS SO SMART AND UNIQUE, I WAS LEGIT JUST STARING AT THE ART FOR A GOOD TWO MINUTES TAKING IN EVERY DETAIL BECAUSE OF HOW GOOD IT WAS.

OVERALL, LIKE 6/5, I LOVED EVERY PIECE OF THIS BOOK AHHHH TY ADELINE KON FOR GIVING US THIS MASTERPIECE!!!

[Sar4h · Rating 4 out of 5]

I became kinda obsessed with figure skating after last week’s Olympics, so a wlw graphic novel written by a lesbian who became obsessed with figure skating following the (2018) Olympics and subsequently started writing about it was exactly what I needed. The art on display here is stunning, as Adeline Kon manages to perfectly convey the fluidity that makes skating performances so wonderful to watch. Lydia is also just a great protagonist; I really like that she’s allowed to have flaws and be messy. On the more negative side, I would’ve wished for a slightly longer ending. The conclusion here ties up all the loose ends but since the story generally takes its time, it does seem a bit abrupt. I had also hoped that there would be slightly more focus on Yee competing for Malaysia, and whether she as a queer woman feels conflicted about winning medals for a country that criminalizes homosexuality. Still, these are minor complaints, and I fully recommend Just Between Us to anyone interested in figure skating. It’s really wonderful that a work like this exists in the first place. Someone please send a copy to Amber Glenn ASAP!










Also not sure where to put this but I think it’s so fucking funny that the American protagonist has a rivalry with a rude and arrogant Russian. Such an 80s movie trope made even funnier by the fact that Russia isn’t even participating in the Olympics anymore.

[Tam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't quite put into words how much I loved this! The art just flows through the pages so effortlessly. To draw these complex jumps on the page must be so difficult but Kon managed to convey it so well. You can truly tell that they are a big figure skating fan through-and-through (see the tweets and blogs post spread early on) and you can feel that care and detail in the story. As for the story, I have to truly applaud the ability to make me so invested in the characters of Lydia in Elaine in such a short span! I giggled, smiled, and cried. Can you ask for more?

Congratulations to Adeline on their debut, it's truly something to be proud of!

[aarushi · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Izzys_Internet_Bookshelf · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

Loved this graphic novels art style, but for me the plot in the beginning was really slow, which was odd to me. I really enjoyed the way the artist drew the skating. The characters I felt were really interesting because of the conflict that the characters faced. With the recent Olympics I really enjoyed how this book helped fill my need for figure skating books with a romance I have been wanting in this genre

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is adorable! I love the art and the story. It’s the perfect little ice skating romance, but there’s just a little something missing to make it a full five star read for me. Would highly recommend though! 4.5/5 stars

[harper☆ · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh my god i loved this so so so much. the story was magnetic, the romance was thrilling and fiery, and the art is just so so sooo gorgeous. i too fell in love with ice skating after watching yuzuru hanyu and wakaba higuchi and i love the notes the author left about what inspired this book. an amazing, warm read. reminds me to find the love for my art form after spending so much time thinking about profitability.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yuri on ice!! For real!!

Super heartwarming and makes you root for Lydia and Elaine's happiness. The way Kon draws movement and musicality on the ice is gorgeous - the art evokes the wow-factor of the girls' performances incredibly well. YA heals, truly.

Thank you to Susanna for the rec! Could not have come at a better time, I was in desperate need of a happy book :D

[ania · Rating 4 out of 5]

after the milan winter olympics i got really into figure skating, and this comic book just happened to come out so i ordered it quite literally the second i heard about it. i tried to pace myself, but i still finished it within 2 days; i kept thinking of the story and wanting to get back to it. "just between us" is about rivals, one a young prodigy who's lost her love for skating and another a prolific skater who adores what she does but doesn't always have the technique necessary to outpace the others. they're both motivated by each other's greatness; kon understands that there's no one else you'd rather impress than someone you're pitted against. i was personally dazzled by the art style and how the artist created themes in the narrative through visual storytelling. their understanding of body and form was phenomenal, the admiration for ice skating shining through. i was especially impressed by the panels where kon seemed to invent new ways of linear storytelling; the back of a character's head moved me just as much as detailed passages of jumps. the panels never felt restricting or repetitive. i tried to stay as long as i could on each page to savor as much of it as possible. while the story itself could feel lacking in certain elements, it's still very visibly a great body of work and in the end i only wished there was more of it to read.

[Frey Frey · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow, this was just so lovely! stumbled upon this on IG back in december and pre-ordered right away, so obviously had to read it as soon as I got it.
The story was so heartfelt and the art was just beautiful!! an incredible debut for Adeline Kon!

[Gretal · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Bethany · Rating 2 out of 5]

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