Flirty Dancing by Jenny McLachlan
Sep. 28th, 2016 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
”Though she be but little, she is fierce!”
When national dance competition Starwars comes to Bea’s school looking for talent, she wants to sign up. Shame her best friend agreed to enter with uber-cow Pearl Harris. Bea will fight back! But when school hottie, Ollie Matthews, who also happens to be Pearl’s boyfriend, decides to enter the competition with Bea, she will have more than a fight on her hands …
When TV talent show, Starwars, announces that it’s holding dance auditions in Brighton, 14-year-old Bea is excited. She and her best mate, Kat love dancing and although they don’t stand a chance of winning, she it would be fun to have a go. Unfortunately Kat decides to join an urban dance group put together by school bitch Pearl Harris. Bea, Kat and Pearl were all best friends – together with a fourth girl, Betty - when they were 7 but they all drifted apart as they got older and now Pearl uses any excuse she can to bully Bea.
Bea’s upset that she can’t enter but then her Nan decides to help by signing her up to lessons with Lulu and Ray who run a jive dance group. Bea worries that she’ll look lame but she can’t back out and when she turns up, she discovers that the partner Lulu has found for her is school hottie Ollie Matthews, who just happens to be Pearl’s boyfriend. Suddenly the jive doesn’t seem so lame after all even though Pearl is going to pitch a fit when she finds out …
Jenny McLachlan’s debut YA novel (the first in a quartet) is a breezy romantic comedy with a likeable main character and a plot that nods, winks and shimmies at DIRTY DANCING, complete with usual rom-com clichés. It’s easy to identify with Bea – she’s fun, easy going, insecure about her curves and has a loving relationship with her toddler sister, mum and nan. I believed in the way she’s too afraid of losing Kat to confront her about her repeated betrayal (although I still wished that there’d been a bit more of an attempt to indicate that it wasn’t alright) and I also believed in the anxiety she feels at Pearl’s bullying (particularly the calls and texts), although again, I wish that there had been more of a confrontation there. I was less interested in the romance – Ollie doesn’t have that much of a character to be interested in – he’s an all-round hottie there to prove that even curvy girls with boobs can get a hot boyfriend and the relationship ticks all the romance clichés. Nevertheless there are some genuinely laugh-out-loud lines and the story runs along at a pace that kept me entertained enough to want to read the rest of the quartet to see what happens to the girls.
The Verdict:
Jenny McLachlan’s debut YA novel (the first in a quartet) is a breezy romantic comedy with a likeable main character and a plot that nods, winks and shimmies at DIRTY DANCING, complete with usual rom-com clichés. It’s easy to identify with Bea – she’s fun, easy going, insecure about her curves and has a loving relationship with her toddler sister, mum and nan. I believed in the way she’s too afraid of losing Kat to confront her about her repeated betrayal (although I still wished that there’d been a bit more of an attempt to indicate that it wasn’t alright) and I also believed in the anxiety she feels at Pearl’s bullying (particularly the calls and texts), although again, I wish that there had been more of a confrontation there. I was less interested in the romance – Ollie doesn’t have that much of a character to be interested in – he’s an all-round hottie there to prove that even curvy girls with boobs can get a hot boyfriend and the relationship ticks all the romance clichés. Nevertheless there are some genuinely laugh-out-loud lines and the story runs along at a pace that kept me entertained enough to want to read the rest of the quartet to see what happens to the girls.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
When national dance competition Starwars comes to Bea’s school looking for talent, she wants to sign up. Shame her best friend agreed to enter with uber-cow Pearl Harris. Bea will fight back! But when school hottie, Ollie Matthews, who also happens to be Pearl’s boyfriend, decides to enter the competition with Bea, she will have more than a fight on her hands …
When TV talent show, Starwars, announces that it’s holding dance auditions in Brighton, 14-year-old Bea is excited. She and her best mate, Kat love dancing and although they don’t stand a chance of winning, she it would be fun to have a go. Unfortunately Kat decides to join an urban dance group put together by school bitch Pearl Harris. Bea, Kat and Pearl were all best friends – together with a fourth girl, Betty - when they were 7 but they all drifted apart as they got older and now Pearl uses any excuse she can to bully Bea.
Bea’s upset that she can’t enter but then her Nan decides to help by signing her up to lessons with Lulu and Ray who run a jive dance group. Bea worries that she’ll look lame but she can’t back out and when she turns up, she discovers that the partner Lulu has found for her is school hottie Ollie Matthews, who just happens to be Pearl’s boyfriend. Suddenly the jive doesn’t seem so lame after all even though Pearl is going to pitch a fit when she finds out …
Jenny McLachlan’s debut YA novel (the first in a quartet) is a breezy romantic comedy with a likeable main character and a plot that nods, winks and shimmies at DIRTY DANCING, complete with usual rom-com clichés. It’s easy to identify with Bea – she’s fun, easy going, insecure about her curves and has a loving relationship with her toddler sister, mum and nan. I believed in the way she’s too afraid of losing Kat to confront her about her repeated betrayal (although I still wished that there’d been a bit more of an attempt to indicate that it wasn’t alright) and I also believed in the anxiety she feels at Pearl’s bullying (particularly the calls and texts), although again, I wish that there had been more of a confrontation there. I was less interested in the romance – Ollie doesn’t have that much of a character to be interested in – he’s an all-round hottie there to prove that even curvy girls with boobs can get a hot boyfriend and the relationship ticks all the romance clichés. Nevertheless there are some genuinely laugh-out-loud lines and the story runs along at a pace that kept me entertained enough to want to read the rest of the quartet to see what happens to the girls.
The Verdict:
Jenny McLachlan’s debut YA novel (the first in a quartet) is a breezy romantic comedy with a likeable main character and a plot that nods, winks and shimmies at DIRTY DANCING, complete with usual rom-com clichés. It’s easy to identify with Bea – she’s fun, easy going, insecure about her curves and has a loving relationship with her toddler sister, mum and nan. I believed in the way she’s too afraid of losing Kat to confront her about her repeated betrayal (although I still wished that there’d been a bit more of an attempt to indicate that it wasn’t alright) and I also believed in the anxiety she feels at Pearl’s bullying (particularly the calls and texts), although again, I wish that there had been more of a confrontation there. I was less interested in the romance – Ollie doesn’t have that much of a character to be interested in – he’s an all-round hottie there to prove that even curvy girls with boobs can get a hot boyfriend and the relationship ticks all the romance clichés. Nevertheless there are some genuinely laugh-out-loud lines and the story runs along at a pace that kept me entertained enough to want to read the rest of the quartet to see what happens to the girls.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
