We Danced

Title:
Author: Jeff Erno
Cover Artist: Justin James
Publisher: s
Buy Link:   We Danced
Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance
Length: 210 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

A Guest Review by Andrea

Review Summary: A sweet, feel good romance which came close to wandering onto the path of an unbelievably villainous drama, but managed to pull back just in time maintain it’s course as a HEA romance.

Blurb: For six years, Rex Payton has focused on two things: keeping his late father’s small-town Kentucky bar afloat and raising his nephew, Tyler. After the tragic loss of his parents and sister, Rex has no interest in romance. He’s respected in his community and regarded as one of Carlisle’s most eligible bachelors, but he’s accepted that his life isn’t conducive to a romantic relationship, especially as a closeted gay man.

Enter Josh Billings, a veterinary student who’s serving an internship in town. Josh’s deepest passion is helping animals. Romance is the furthest thing from his mind… until the night he meets taciturn, handsome Rex Payton. Chance and an after-hours dance conspire to forge an intimate connection neither man looked for—one neither man can ignore after the dance leads to a kiss.

Suddenly romance isn’t so insignificant, but it’s also not without complications. For this relationship to work, Josh has to decide if he can cope with dating a single dad, Rex has to open his heart, and Ty has to learn to share his dad’s affection.

Review:

Josh and Rex are an interesting combination for a romance book. They both know and accept that they’re gay, but have never seen the need to proclaim it to the world. They’ve been working with such single minded focus toward their goals that they haven’t even entertained the possibility of a romantic relationship. Their responsibilities take precedence in their lives and romance isn’t even on their radar. When they suddenly meet, neither one of them understood how they could end up dancing and sharing a kiss with a total stranger. The whole encounter between them was odd. The characters were taken aback and so was I. It was a wonderful introduction and a great set up for their story.

We Danced is a book I would describe as comfortable. It feels familiar and is fairly predictable but sometimes that’s exactly what I’m looking for. The characters were easy to relate to and I quickly fell into their rhythm and started to care about them. I even liked Rex’s nephew, Tyler. So many authors include children that feel more like miniature adults, but this author didn’t fall into that trap. Tyler had the vocabulary, exuberance and immaturity I would expect in a six year old boy. I have one of my own, so I’m pretty confident in saying that the author got it right Back to the adults, the chemistry, romance and passion between Josh and Rex was good. It wasn’t deeply moving, but I was definitely enjoying it. Although, in the back of my mind I had an overwhelming feeling that something bad was coming for them.

I had been right, something bad was on its way. When it hit, the level of hate and intolerance was almost too much. I wish I had experienced an emotional reaction and felt the horror the situation called for. Instead, I was surprised by the actions of hateful people that felt overly villainous rather than genuine. Thankfully, that part of the story was short lived and didn’t have the chance to pull me too far out of the story.

We Danced is a good book with good characters and a sweet romance. It did go a bit over the top during the crisis but the author managed to pull it back together at the end. This isn’t the type of book I normally go for, but it left me feeling happy and content which was exactly what I was looking for.