Take the Lead

Two things before I get into my thoughts on this book. First I want to thank St Martin's Griffin and the author for providing me with a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This was originally released in 2017 and it was the authors debut novel. They did a rerelease of it that includes a new cover, updated text and bonus material. This was my first time ever reading it so I can't comment on the differences between them, all I can comment on is how I enjoyed this version.

Being a fan of Dancing with the Stars when I read the synopsis for this book I was immediately interested. I was curious about how a dance show would be brought to life on page. I think the author did a great job of making a reality tv show come to life in book form but there were also aspects that didn't work for me. Even though I watch Dancing with the Stars I am not well versed in all the different dance styles so I couldn't really visualize each of the dances and I feel like talking about pretty much every dance was a little bit much for a book. It made the book drag a little for me. Also I know reality TV isn't all it's cracked up to be and I am sure that a lot of what the author does in this book actually happens in real life but it felt like every horrible thing/person was thrown in just for the dramatics. It would have been nice if there were some good things (besides the romance) included as well. If you've read this then you know what I am talking about. 

What really hooked me was the romance. Gina and Stone had amazing chemistry from the very beginning and I loved watching that develop more throughout the book. Gina is a woman of color in a brutal industry and I understand why she had all of her rules but I wish she could have been a little more confident in herself and not cared so much about what everybody else thought of her. I loved seeing Stone grow in confidence throughout the book as well. The romance between these 2 is what I was invested in. I didn't really care about the reality show side and plus it was pretty obvious how that was going to end anyways. Each of the characters made very obvious stupid decisions but I loved them.