Book Blurb:
PERFECT CHEMISTRY meets SAVE THE LAST DANCE in this story of tragedy and hope, anger and forgiveness.
Last year, seventeen-year-old Natalya Pushkaya was attending the School of Performing Arts in New York City. Last year, she was well on her way to becoming a professional ballerina. Last year, her father was still alive.
But a car crash changed all that—and Natalya can’t stop blaming herself. Now, she goes to a regular high school in New Jersey; lives with her onetime prima ballerina, now alcoholic mother; and has no hope of a dance career.
At her new school, however, sexy soccer player Antonio sees a brighter future for Natalya, or at least a more pleasant present. Keeping him an arabesque away proves to be a challenge for Natalya and his patient charms eventually draw her out of her shell. When upsetting secrets come to light and Tonio’s own problems draw her in, Natalya shuts down again, this time turning to alcohol herself.
Can Natalya learn to trust Antonio before she loses him—and destroys herself?
My Review:
3 Out Of 5 Stars
Genre: Teen--
Natalya was in a car accident which resulted in her father's death and destroyed her legs, ending her career as a dancer. In the aftermath, she and her mother move to her parent's home town to try and make a new life. But unfortunately, Nata is alone. Her mother's alcoholism has taken a turn for the worse and Nata spends her time isolated from her best friend while hiding her mother's issue and mourning the death of her father and her dancing. Nata needs helps in the worst way but refuses to ask for it, until a new boy forces his way past her defenses.
I love myself some dance stories! I grew up watching dirty dancing and Center Stage obsessively and I absolutely eat up any movie or book I can get about dancers. I was excited to get the chance to read this story about a ballerina who has to overcome a physical injury to dance again. I will admit that that was what I was looking forward to the most, the rest was just suppose to be icing on the cake. I was a little sad that dancing and her recovery took a back seat to the drama that was Nata's family life as well as the drama that was Tonio. The dancing was a background idea while Nata had to deal with the trauma of real life issues, which probably made the book more realistic in the long run but just a tad of a let down for me. I did like how the author would relate things to dancing, as if Nata could only comprehend things based on her experiences as a dancer, such as an emotion or action. I really liked Nata (even though she made some epic stupid choices) but I did not like the romance of the book.
Nata had some tough things thrown at her. After the accident that broke both her legs, she had to go through the loss of her father alone since her mother was completely useless due to her drinking. Not only that, but she had to do physical therapy to be able to walk again and her dancing career was just a far off idea at this time. I really liked watching her learn to trust people and tear down the walls she built around herself. My absolute favorite part of the story was the relationship between Becca and Nata, and even after the ups and downs and distance (be it real or enforced) they were still there for each other. What I did not like was the reckless choices Nata made when she learned things about her past. She had been so dilligent and smart for her to throw it a way in a moment of anger was stupid. Also, the daily drinking was terrible, I understand her motivation to escape, but to get trashed at school on a regular basis when she knew the after effects first hand made me want to shake her. It was probably realistic though, since children of addicts are more likely to become users themselves. My other dislike in the book was Tonio and their relationship. There is something I can't quite put my finger on, but I was not a fan of him at all. He admitted to his mistakes, sure, but then he did them again anyway. Put the drug dealer and the daughter of an addict together and what do you get? A mess, that's what. I wanted her to have a nice straight forward boy but she picked the person with even more baggage than herself.
Overall this was an interesting book that dealt with the demons living inside of a dysfunctional family and how they learned to overcome them. I wanted dancing and got something much more realistic and not going to lie, kind of sad. This was my first book by this author and I would like to read more by her in the future.
I received this title from the author in exchange for my honest review.
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