Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: On Dancer
AUTHOR: Annabeth Albert
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 246 pages
RELEASE DATE: December 4, 2025
BLURB:
Can holiday magic transform this crush into a happily ever after?
Rudy:
I’ve had a crush on Alexander Dasher, the legendary ballet star, since I was fifteen years old. A decade of pining from a distance.
This holiday season, I’m assisting my mother with our small-town production of The Nutcracker, and guess who’s agreed to take the leading role?
Alexander is rehabbing a knee injury and looking for distraction. I teach him my favorite nerdy game, and soon, we’re talking and playing late into the evening.
One kiss is all it takes to nearly derail our growing friendship. Alexander is reluctant to step into the starring role for my first time. Even if our time together is short, I’m ready to turn my crush into reality if Alexander will give us a chance.
Alexander:
I’ve returned to my hometown after traveling the globe and establishing my reputation among the very best in the world of ballet.
My recent injury threatens all I’ve worked for, but I’m not ready to retire, even as the clock ticks louder.
Gaming with Rudy is the perfect diversion. With him, I’m seen as more than simply Alexander the famous dancer. Developing feelings for Rudy is all too easy, but he deserves far more than a holiday fling.
Our connection burns brighter than a yule log, but I worry we’ll both end up with broken hearts. The whole town, including our mothers, is rooting for us, but a future seems impossible. Can we pirouette our way into a happy ending?
On Dancer is an Annabeth Albert (author of The Geek Who Saved Christmas) holiday romance that will have you cracking nuts and humming along as an aging, grumpy ballet dancer encounters a sunny, younger production assistant determined to save their small hometown ballet company. On Dancer offers heaping servings of meddling mothers, quirky secondary characters, an age-gap, first times, and all the vibes of your favorite holiday romance movies.
REVIEW:
Rudy has returned home after finishing college and is helping his mother run the “family business” – a local ballet school. She is in remission from a cancer diagnosis. Rudy is the youngest in his family and always considered himself sort of the outsider. He feels like his siblings are more successful, etc. Still he has a very positive outlook and he’s got lots of ideas to help his mother’s school- including having Alexander Dasher, a principal dancer with a Seattle ballet company, dance in their Nutcracker. What Alexander doesn’t know is that Rudy has had a crush on him for years. He also doesn’t recognize Rudy at first and makes assumptions about both Rudy’s behavior and his motives.
Alexander Dasher is a professional ballet dancer rehabbing an injury back in his small home town. He owes a lot to this town and to Rudy’s mother who was his first teacher. So he agrees. He’s very prickly around Rudy and despite that, Rudy is still nice to him and supportive and helpful. He really does not have any ulterior motives. He wants to make sure Alexander is doing he what he needs to do for his recovery and rehab and also do what he can to help the school attract more students and funding.
As they work together, a friendship is established. Rudy is convinced that Alexander would never be interested in him in any other way. But it turns out, he’s not very good at seeing himself through any other lens than his somewhat skewed one 😉 It seems that maybe these tow have way more in common than they imagined as they work through the ballet world and away from it.
This is a sweet and spicy holiday romance with a lot of cute callouts. First the names. LOVE them – Alexander Dasher and Rudy Cole. Could they BE more Christmasy? Then there is the Nutcracker – a beloved Holiday tradition. There is the sort of opposites attract vibe as well the grumpy/sunshiny trope. Alexander has reasons for being grumpy but Rudy really is a ray of sunshine and positivity, despite the many challenges he’s faced. There are a LOT of secondary characters here – family and students etc. I enjoyed the way this story played out again this holiday background.
If you’re in the mood for a lovely holiday HEA between two quite different characters with some heat and heart, then you will definitely enjoy this one!
RATING: 
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