Opposites attract and sparks fly as a passionate dancer and a ladies’ man who's given up on love fall for each other—one tango at a time—in this charming debut romance perfect for fans of Talia Hibbert and Blair Fell. Nick Freeman works hard as the star of the weekly karaoke night at his bar, hoping his singing talent, quick wit, and winning smile will distract from his cerebral palsy. But one night at the bar, watching a professional dancer light up the dance floor with her boyfriend, he realizes that entertaining strangers will never give him a fraction of the joy he sees in this woman’s eyes. When Hayley Burke notices Nick’s reaction to her dancing, she urges him to acknowledge his passion and try a few moves himself—only to be mortified when she realizes Nick can only walk with the aid of a metal walker. As Nick and Hayley fumble through misunderstanding into friendship, Hayley begins to enjoy Nick’s company more than that of her self-centered boyfriend. Nick tries to fight his attraction to Hayley, believing she deserves a dance partner who can move like her boyfriend does—but as Hayley and Nick continue to find their rhythm together, she shows him that “dancing” is about so much more than moving your feet. In this fresh-voiced and utterly charming debut novel, Jason B. Dutton takes readers on a swoon-filled journey as two lost souls learn that neither physical disability nor emotional scars disqualify us from finding beauty, validation, and love amidst the chaos of being human.
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Individually a lot of elements worked, Nick was smart and quick-witted and how he was written to deal with both his walker and interacting with others, how he somewhat had to handle their reactions to and interactions with him, this disability representation was very interesting to read, especially from an able-bodied perspective.
That being said, Nick's masking and putting on a front with everyone was both relatable and annoying. Also if Nick realizes towards the end how angry he is, with many of the situations he's going through and with various people in his life. This anger was something I could feel burning in him throughout the book, and it was not a quality that endeared him to me. In fact it made me wary of him and I leaned away from liking him.
Haley was likable enough, though I never felt like I knew why she wanted to leave her last job to come to Ohio? And I also struggled to see what her personal individual baggage was too. It seemed like dance was her primary personality trait.
Haley was flirty with Nick during her relationship with Kevin, in my opinion there was emotional infidelity happening for sure, even if there was nothing physical happening.
The side characters felt underdone as well, Kevin was a cardboard cutout which was no big deal, but Nick's friends had more potential that felt missed to me. Though it is hard to pack in 15 plus years of friendship into a background of a book.
The relationship between our two main characters was weird / not fun to me? They are constantly saying the wrong thing to each other and then needing to apologize-- yay for communication, but boo for connection.
The writing overall felt polished to me, there was conversation between people in a way that felt authentic at times. HOWEVER, there were multiple times when there would be an interaction and then at the end of that scene, the character would say this is how I feel or this is what happened and I often felt like I had missed some important subtext? There were multiple conversations we're at the end a character was having feelings and I would be confused as to why they were feeling that way.
Overall, I just didn't love these two together. They seemed to not be ready for a relationship yet-- it was near the start of one, but neither should have felt in love.
One reviewer points out that it was very repetitive that Nick struggled with accepting love, help, or any advice or support and that the author was somewhat self-inserting here, which I agree with.
Another reviewer complained that the two main characters essentially break up / separate at the third act drama and each go to learn a lesson from a parent or a friend in order to individually grow. But that individual growth at the time of coming back together would not automatically fix a relationship, and we did not get to see enough of these two hash things out.
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