Reviewed by Vicki
TITLE: Dance Off 
AUTHOR: Ariel Tachna and Nessa L. Warin
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 230 pages
BLURB:
On the reality show Dance Off, pro rugby player Olivier Gautier and Olympic swimmer JC Webster each have one goal in mind: to stay on the show as long as possible to earn his charity of choice maximum exposure and a larger donation. As the competition heats up, their goals expand to catching each other’s interest, but Olivier is firmly in the closet and plans to stay there. JC is willing to be discreet, but not to hide forever.
Starting a romance with another man is challenge enough for any celebrity, but doing it under the microscope of reality TV—and one majorly intolerant costar—is even harder. Add in meddling dance pros, JC’s overbearing family, and the need to play up chemistry with dance partners to win America’s hearts, and JC and Olivier’s time together is looking more and more like a recipe for disaster.
As the pressure to stay in the competition mounts, JC and Olivier must face their inevitable separation at the end of the show as well as decide whether a relationship as complicated as theirs can survive in the real world, outside the bubble of the set and practice studios.
REVIEW:
What a fun story! I am a fan of Dancing with the Stars, and this book is set around a very similar show, with a romance added in.
JC Webster, Olympic swimmer, has accepted a position as a “star” on Dance off, a dance competition show on TV. He’s very athletic, but not a dancer so he’s excited to meet his partner and get started dancing. What he doesn’t expect is to find himself attracted to fellow competitor Olivier Gautier, a French rugby player. JC is open about his bisexuality, but Olivier is not, rugby not being a safe sport for a gay man. Both try to be cool about their attraction to the other, knowing that this is not he time and place to start anything. Not only are cameras on them a whole lot of the time, but they don’t want to cause any issues among the other competitors. JC is supported by his large Hispanic family, staying at his Abuela’s house instead of the competitors house, which makes it easier for him to ignore the lure of Olivier, but it gets harder for him to handle the commute to and from the house and the studio. As JC and Olivier make their way through the competition and grow closer, Olivier convinces JC to stay in the house and things get interesting…
So I enjoyed this story, but it was a focused more on the competition than the romance. I got tired of reading the scores and comments after the performances. It was fun for a bit, then it got old. I liked the competition as a background to the romance, I just wished there had been a little more romance. I didn’t feel the emotional connection between JC and Olivier as much as I would have liked. There were a couple of very nice sex scenes between them, and some sexy dancing, but I wish there had been more time with just the two of them. I think if they had spent some time getting to know each other I would have felt it more. There are a lot of other characters in the book, all of the other competitors, and we get lots about them. Almost a little too much at times. It distracted me from the romance between JC and Olivier. The same with JC family, lots about his mother and grandmother, and visits by his siblings. It was cute for a while, but also got old. Being a fan of Dancing with the Stars, I could see personality traits in the judges in the book that paralleled the judges on the show, that was fun to read.
Now I sound like I didn’t like the book, and I really did like it! It was cute and fun, a bit of fluffiness in contrast to darker stories I have read recently. I liked the writing, I liked the characters, especially JC and Olivier, I liked the setting of the dance competition, and I liked the ending.
Overall it was an enjoyable book! If you are looking for a light read, this is a good one. If you are a fan of reality television, and dance shows in particular, you’ll probably like this one.
RATING: 
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