Title: Dance with Me
Author: Heidi Cullinan
Genre: LGBT Contemporary
Length: Novel
Publisher: Loose Id
Heat Level: Explicit
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥ 4.5Hearts
Reviewer: Pixie
Blurb: Ed Maurer’s life would be fine if he could just get Laurie Parker off his back. He’s bounced back, more or less, from the neck injury that permanently benched his semi-pro football career, and he volunteers now at a local community center. It’s just that every time he turns around, that damn professional dancer is in his way, hating Ed right back. But when a bargain Ed strikes at the center lands him as an assistant in Laurie’s ballroom dancing class, their perceptions of each other turns upside down. Both Ed and Laurie have heartbreak in their pasts, but somehow dancing together eases their individual pain. For Ed, dancing with Laurie becomes a way to reconnect with his body after losing football. For Laurie, partnering with Ed has erased some of his fear of performing and brought back joy to a sport he wasn’t sure he could ever truly love again.
As Laurie and Ed lose themselves in dance, their lives continue to spin around them: Ed’s injury makes it clear he’s nowhere near recovery, Laurie feels the pressure by friends and family to perform once more, and the community center that has become such an important part of both their worlds threatens to close. Alone, they haven’t had the strength or spirit to face what life has hurled at them. But as the turns of their personal paths lead them into the arms of love, Ed and Laurie begin to think that if they dance this dance together, they might be able to succeed.
Publisher’s Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: exhibitionism/voyeurism, male/male sexual practices.
Review: What can I say about this book? Wow? It’s sweet? It’s romantic and I didn’t want it to end? Ed Maurer is still recovering physically and mentally from an injury that could have seen the end of his life, it did see the end of his semipro football career. Laurie Parker is still hiding after the disaster that was his first professional ballroom dancing competition.
These two men do not get along at all at first, and it is fascinating and a privilege to watch this relationship develop from dislike to love. They each offer the other something that neither of them knew they needed; support, encouragement, strength and love. Watching these two come together in dance is incredible, everything they do together is beautiful, whether it is dance, kisses, lovemaking or even their arguing and making up. Laurie is there for Ed as he faces changes in his life, and Ed is encouraging Laurie as he makes changes in his life.
I will be honest, I could go on for hours about these two but I really don’t want to ruin the book for anyone because anything else I might say would only take away from the experience of reading this book for you. This book is now going in my “read again” list.
So my recommendation is if you are a true romantic than this is the book for you.
antic than this is the book for you.