Friday Reads | Dance With Me

DanceWithMe For today’s post, I’ve re-read Dance With Me by Heidi Cullinan. I read it the first time many years ago. I went to check my GR profile and it says 2014, but that’s only because I added it then, I read it long before that, and when the second addition came a few years ago I got that too. Didn’t read it, but hey, pretty cover – don’t judge! – so I have two copies.

I’ve read about half of Ms Cullinan’s books and liked most of them. I most often have a funny thing going on when reading her stories, though. She often puts in a character that’s just too much for me. Apparently, I’m fine with gory violence, dub-con, non-con etc etc, but as soon as there is someone who, say, tries to persuade someone into having a foursome I skim the pages until I’m safely back with just the two characters I want to read about LOL.

This is a lovely story. Laurie is a dancer, all grace and talent. Ed is a former football player who got injured and can’t play anymore. Both men have lost their way and their drive, both are fighting apathy, both are telling everyone they’re fine – they’re not, but together they can be.

Laurie has the most terrible family and the creepiest godfather in the world (though if you aren’t as great a fan of monogamy as I am you might find him hot…maybe. I wish I can unread him LOL)

I love this story despite icy mothers and pervy men, I loved it last time I read it and I loved it now. I wonder if I’m up for Special Delivery again…or maybe Nowhere Ranch (that I also got a second copy of – the cover, people, the cover! LOL).

What are your favourite dancer stories??

books2read.com/DanceWithHeidi *

Sometimes life requires a partner.

Ed Maurer has bounced back, more or less, from the neck injury that permanently benched his semipro football career. He hates his soul-killing office job, but he loves volunteering at a local community center. The only fly in his ointment is the dance instructor, Laurie Parker, who can’t seem to stay out of his way.

Laurie was once one of the most celebrated ballet dancers in the world, but now he volunteers at Halcyon Center to avoid his society mother’s machinations. It would be a perfect escape, except for the oaf of a football player cutting him glares from across the room.

When Laurie has a ballroom dancing emergency and Ed stands in as his partner, their perceptions of each other turn upside down. Dancing leads to friendship, being friends leads to becoming lovers, but most important of all, their partnership shows them how to heal the pain of their pasts. Because with every turn across the floor, Ed and Laurie realize the only escape from their personal demons is to keep dancing—together.