Title: Dancing With the Daffodils
Author: Tarion Keelan
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Novel (170 Pages)
ISBN: 9780992331597
Publisher: Steamy eReads (November 12th, 2013)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥ 4 Hearts
Reviewer: Eric & Eli
Blurb: Val, an English teacher, takes an exchange position in Australia to recover from the death of his lover. He stages Romeo and Juliet at his school, and becomes close friends with Anna, the head teacher. Oliver (who plays Romeo) falls in love with Val, and although the feeling is mutual, because of his position Val cannot allow the relationship to develop.
Val struggles with his feelings, unable to come to terms with Oliver’s youthful seductive ways, and unable to reconcile his heartache over David’s death with his developing affection for Oliver, which he must reject both internally and externally. And at the same time, he must make a life for himself in a country far from his friends and the world he knows. How do you decide between love and duty?
Purchase Link: http://steamereads.com.au/product/dancing-with-the-daffodils/
Eric’s Review: ♥♥♥♥♥ 5 Hearts I found this novel to be fantastic. Facing the loss of one love and pushing the boundaries in order to fall in love with the one that taunts you well. It’s one of my favourite forms of a book. It also makes for one hell of a read.
Eli’s Review: ♥♥♥ 3 Hearts TABOO! That’s the one word I have to describe the story. Taboo! Before this review goes any further, it’s important to discuss the taboo element. The object of Val’s affection is a seventeen year old boy named Oliver. Parents out there are now squirming in their seats. How does one even reconcile such a taboo topic? First there is the age difference between Oliver and Val. Val is a man, Oliver a mere boy. Then layer on the issue that Val is a teacher at Oliver’s school and thus in a position of power and then you are into the whole inappropriate scenario. Parents of teenage boys are NOT going to approve of this story. And if Oliver was Olivia, then the words statutory rape would probably abound. However, before anyone gets up in arms, the age of consent in Australia is sixteen so no laws were broken.
Are we now sufficiently past the elephant in the room so to speak? Good, then let’s proceed.
Discussion of appropriateness of the romance aside, the story itself was an interesting one. Val is a man who has lost his lover after watching him deteriorate after a debilitating illness. He wants to run away from his pain and so he runs to Australia which is where David, his departed partner, was from. He hopes to jumpstart his life and get himself out of his funk. However, he lands in Australia only to find himself enamoured by and with one of the students in his play. It is important to note that Oliver is not taught directly by Val. Like any good teacher, Val fights the attraction and only succumbs when he realizes that he must put a physical separation between him and the temptation that is Oliver. Oliver is also going through his own issues since his story is a YA coming of age one as he embraces being gay and comes out in spectacular fashion as befits any drama student. This is then accompanied by the usual teenage high school issues as well as the attending family drama.
Val’s character is extremely well-developed in the story and he’s a very nice, likable and sympathetic character. His attraction to Oliver is clearly understood since Oliver virtually throws himself at Val and Val is a man who’s in the deep throes of pain at the loss of his life partner. The angst he feels and the ability for this young man to spark something in him is clearly easy to understand. Oliver being attracted to an older man is also quite understandable. He knows he’s gay and a student having a crush on a teacher is nothing new. Oliver doesn’t seem quite so sympathetic until the reader learns more about his background. It is then that the reader begins to feel maybe less antagonistic towards the taboo element in the story.
The story, however, does not wallow in the whole issue of Val and Oliver’s attraction. It is merely the backdrop which informs the whole story. At its core, this is Val’s story and how he emerges from being in mourning to finding a way to start his life again with someone new. And while seventeen is young, Oliver is portrayed as a very mature and together young man whose home situation has made him stronger than the average teen.
The secondary characters of the other teachers and another man with whom Val forms an attachment adds richness and a three-dimensional element to the story. While Val’s best friend back in England. provides Val with a tether to reality. There is also some other attendant drama that allows the reader to not focus solely on the Val/Oliver connection since Val does have a life and life comes with issues.
Of course the author employs the ‘play within a play’ strategy by having Val stage Romeo and Juliet which is a doomed romance which could foreshadow what may be happening between Val and Oliver. Additionally, it is no coincidence that the author also has extensive scenes with Val teaching Oliver how to fight and fence ostensibly for use in the play – it’s a great way to move the reader to an acceptance of how these two men will need to fight for their eventual relationship and how they’ll need to defend each other, their relationship and themselves.
Spoiler Alert: The end of the book does give the reader some respite and alleviates the initial squick factor since all’s well that ends well.
Reviewer’s Recommendation: Put the squick factor aside if you can. Parents of teenage boys – I fully get if you can’t. Read the book with the notion that no laws were broken and that maybe just maybe this could be a love for the ages. The book is well written and the characters nicely developed. From a literary standpoint – A reasonably good read.