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A review by clairetrellahill
Pas de Don't by Chloe Angyal
4.0
Heather Hays is a ballerina in the New York Ballet who finds out her fiancé, the other star of the show, is cheating on her. To get distance from the turmoil and gossip, she chooses to take a month’s residency all the way across the world at the Australian Ballet. There she meets Marcus, who is recovering from an injury. Marcus is enlisted to show her around the town, and as sparks fly, they grow closer, though the ballet company has a rule against dating co-stars: pas de don’t.
I enjoyed this book a lot! Seeing into the world of ballet as well as the setting of Sydney was great! A big theme for the book was moving past wounds, both literally and metaphorically. Seeing Heather heal from her pretty emotionally abusive ex was great, and Marcus also recovered from a physical injury but also some of the trauma it gave him plus his father’s recent death. (These things are mentioned up front in the author’s content warning).
The romance was good. I worried we would have a ton of drama surrounding sneaking around, but the story does not play out the way I thought it would. I found it very honest in its portrayal of policies that are well meaning but can still miss the mark and cause harm. All in all this is a great fiction debut and I will be looking for more of the author’s work in future. 4 stars!
Heat level: 4
I enjoyed this book a lot! Seeing into the world of ballet as well as the setting of Sydney was great! A big theme for the book was moving past wounds, both literally and metaphorically. Seeing Heather heal from her pretty emotionally abusive ex was great, and Marcus also recovered from a physical injury but also some of the trauma it gave him plus his father’s recent death. (These things are mentioned up front in the author’s content warning).
The romance was good. I worried we would have a ton of drama surrounding sneaking around, but the story does not play out the way I thought it would. I found it very honest in its portrayal of policies that are well meaning but can still miss the mark and cause harm. All in all this is a great fiction debut and I will be looking for more of the author’s work in future. 4 stars!
Heat level: 4