TAKE THE LEAD
Dance Off #1
by
Alexis Daria
✮✮✮ 4 STARS ✮✮✮
Gina Morales wants to win. It’s her fifth season on The Dance Off, a top-rated network TV celebrity dance competition, and she’s never even made it to the finals. When she meets her latest partner, she sees her chance. He’s handsome, rippling with muscles, and he stars on the popular Alaskan wilderness reality show Living Wild. With his sexy physique and name recognition, she thinks he’s her ticket to the finals—until she realizes they're being set up.
Stone Nielson hates Los Angeles, he hates reality TV, and he hates that fact that he had to join the cast of the The Dance Off because of family obligations. He can’t wait to get back to Alaska, but he also can’t deny his growing attraction to his bubbly Puerto Rican dance partner. Neither of them are looking for romantic entanglements, and Stone can’t risk revealing his secrets, but as they heat up the dance floor, it’s only a matter of time until he feels an overwhelming urge to take the lead.
When the tabloids catch on to their developing romance, the spotlight threatens to ruin not just their relationship, but their careers and their shot at the trophy. Gina and Stone will have to decide if their priorities lie with fame, fortune, or the chance at a future together.
In
the UK we call it Strictly Come Dancing, across the pond it’s Dancing With the
Stars, but whatever name it goes by, if there’s glitter, sequins, fleckerls,
foxtrots and fake tan involved I. AM. THERE. So the chance to read a book along the same lines? Try and stop me.
No
stranger to reality TV, gorgeous 6’7 bearded Alaskan wilderness star, Stone
Nielson is more at home chopping wood than shimmying his hips. But when he’s
partnered with LA based pro dancer, Gina Morales on The Dance Off, it’s
not long before she coaxes out the moves hiding beneath the muscle and the
man-bun.
I had dreams of a gold-medal-winning figure skater, who already knew how to dance…”I loved Stone. Quiet, contemplative and brooding, he’s a gentle giant and I enjoyed seeing how his confidence grew as the competition progressed. Gina was a fabulous female lead and her bright and vivacious personality complimented Stone’s perfectly. And whilst both refuse to be cornered into a showmance to boost their popularity and show ratings, their attraction to one another is undeniable.
“Instead you got a wild man with no dance training and terrible social skills.”
The intensive nature of the training and filming schedule forced an intimacy that was unlike anything in the real world."
Naturally
it’s only a matter of time before Stone and Gina’s tango becomes that of a
horizontal variety and trust me, all the build-up and tension towards it is
seriously worth it. But what really struck me were the real and poignant nods
to Gina’s personal plight and her battle against stereotype with her being
Puerto Rican and a performing artist, which played an important and valuable
part to the story.
The worst would be playing into the ‘sexy Latina’ stereotype, setting a bad example for my nieces, and losing out on future jobs because they think I’m unprofessional."
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