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A review by solaceinprose
Strictly Come Dating by Kathryn Freeman
3.0
Thank you to NetGalley and One More Chapter/Harper Collins for the ARC for an honest review.
Strictly Come Dating is about Maggie Peterson, doctor, mom, divorcee, and Strictly Come Dancing fan. She and her friends all get together every Saturday to watch this show. One Saturday, said friends bring their prodigal brother over, Seb, to introduce him to the lot. He is immediately fascinated by Maggie and she's at first just curious and experiencing an attraction to him. Catch is, he's 27 and she's 37.
Maggie is very much type A, likes structure and making plans and sticking to said plans. She's very organized and methodical. Seb is carefree, easy going, lives by the seat of his pants. He just came in from Australia to help with his dad who suffered a heart attack. The likelihood of these two actually getting along and finding any kind of romance is hard to believe at first, but as you keep reading you realize that it just works. They compliment each other very well. Maggie suffers from lack of confidence due to the emotional crap her ex-husband put her through, and while getting closer to Seb and through dance classes, she finds that confidence that she has been lacking. Nothing really strokes the ego than being a 37 year old woman being found attractive by a 27 year old dude who looks like he belongs on Baywatch.
What I wish this book had more of was dancing. Maggie starts a dance class to which Seb joins to "save her" from men who are "boob height", and because of this, he's inspired to come up with a dancing competition as a fundraiser for the youth center he volunteers at. So they begin to dance in earnest and practice all the time. But the dancing is hardly ever described and you really have to use your imagination to see how they move in your head. I'd suggest watching a rumba video and just think about that. Perhaps Freeman didn't want to get too bogged down by the dancing, but that was the main focal point of this book. The dancing, the dancing show, and the dancing competition are pivotal aspects to the plot and we're told about things more than shown. Like we're told that Seb and Maggie looked hot and steamy on stage, but we're never actually shown it.
Besides that minor gripe, this book makes an excellent summer read, despite it being set in the fall/winter. You don't see novels where the main woman is older, by 10 years, than the main guy, and I really enjoyed that. There was barely any conflict and when there was, it resolved in a mature manner. Despite the age difference, this relationship was healthy and positive, and I couldn't help but root for them as a couple.
I would have given this 4 stars, but the author spelled lasagna as 'lasagne' and I can't forgive her for that. It's lasagna. This isn't like adding the letter 'u' to the British spelling of words, this is an actual dish with an actual name. British spelling be damned.
Strictly Come Dating is about Maggie Peterson, doctor, mom, divorcee, and Strictly Come Dancing fan. She and her friends all get together every Saturday to watch this show. One Saturday, said friends bring their prodigal brother over, Seb, to introduce him to the lot. He is immediately fascinated by Maggie and she's at first just curious and experiencing an attraction to him. Catch is, he's 27 and she's 37.
Maggie is very much type A, likes structure and making plans and sticking to said plans. She's very organized and methodical. Seb is carefree, easy going, lives by the seat of his pants. He just came in from Australia to help with his dad who suffered a heart attack. The likelihood of these two actually getting along and finding any kind of romance is hard to believe at first, but as you keep reading you realize that it just works. They compliment each other very well. Maggie suffers from lack of confidence due to the emotional crap her ex-husband put her through, and while getting closer to Seb and through dance classes, she finds that confidence that she has been lacking. Nothing really strokes the ego than being a 37 year old woman being found attractive by a 27 year old dude who looks like he belongs on Baywatch.
What I wish this book had more of was dancing. Maggie starts a dance class to which Seb joins to "save her" from men who are "boob height", and because of this, he's inspired to come up with a dancing competition as a fundraiser for the youth center he volunteers at. So they begin to dance in earnest and practice all the time. But the dancing is hardly ever described and you really have to use your imagination to see how they move in your head. I'd suggest watching a rumba video and just think about that. Perhaps Freeman didn't want to get too bogged down by the dancing, but that was the main focal point of this book. The dancing, the dancing show, and the dancing competition are pivotal aspects to the plot and we're told about things more than shown. Like we're told that Seb and Maggie looked hot and steamy on stage, but we're never actually shown it.
Besides that minor gripe, this book makes an excellent summer read, despite it being set in the fall/winter. You don't see novels where the main woman is older, by 10 years, than the main guy, and I really enjoyed that. There was barely any conflict and when there was, it resolved in a mature manner. Despite the age difference, this relationship was healthy and positive, and I couldn't help but root for them as a couple.
I would have given this 4 stars, but the author spelled lasagna as 'lasagne' and I can't forgive her for that. It's lasagna. This isn't like adding the letter 'u' to the British spelling of words, this is an actual dish with an actual name. British spelling be damned.