Sparks fly in this summer romp for fans of Casey McQuiston when dancers at a Catskills resort try to pull off the perfect show, and find happiness and a place where they belong on the way.
Archer Read is 27 and desperate to find his place in life. Five months ago, he quit his soul-destroying accounting job in Ohio and moved to Manhattan with dreams of making it on Broadway. And now he has nothing to show for it but a string of rejections. Even for a ray-of-sunshine like Archer, hope can only go so far. A musical revue at Shady Queens, a queer-friendly resort in the Catskills, is his last chance to break into show biz—otherwise, it’s back to Ohio, broke and hopeless. He arrives ready to dance his heart out, only to find he’ll be working with his teenage celebrity crush, the Broadway star Mateo Dixon.
What is Mateo doing working at Shady Queens? Besides barking orders and glaring at everyone…when he’s not absolutely smoldering at Archer on the dancefloor. As Archer tries to forget his teen crush and get to know the real Mateo, he’s caught up in a romance with his hot, temperamental bunkmate, Caleb. Between Mateo’s baggage and the dance crew’s drama—partying, flirting, breaking up, getting back together, then breaking up again—it’s no surprise when the show starts to fall apart. Archer quickly discovers that when it comes to dance, sometimes you can’t leave all your problems backstage.
Filled with colorful side characters, about a million Broadway references, and enough drama for a high school summer camp, Flirty Dancing is a delightful romantic comedy that shows love, like art, is worth a little sacrifice.
THE FACTS
📕 Lot of gay drama in the Catskills
📘Performers
📙 great supporting characters
THE GOOD BITS
“Flirty Dancing” by Jennifer Moffatt is a light and yet chaotic, gay contemporary romance that is really amusing. This story is very loosely based on the film “Dirty Dancing” and adds a queer twist to it.
Archer is following his dream “later in life” – I mean he’s not OLD! But he’s not a teenage dancer. What he wants though, is the be on Broadway. He wants to sing and dance and … he’s good at it despite his waning belief that he can make it.
Archer finally scores a part in a musical number at Shady Queens. It’s not on Broadway but it’s still performing, and Archer is shocked to discover he will be working with Mateo Dixon. When Archer was young, he had a massive crush on Broadway star, Mateo, and then things took a turn in Mateo’s life, and he seemed to fall off the face of the earth.
Oh my gosh, there’s a lot going on in this book. It reminded me a lot of my days in community theatre which I suppose might been like a queer friendly resort in the Catskills. The drama was real! There are people getting together, messy and dramatic break-ups, show issues, personality clashes and pretty much anything you could imagine
At first, things seem to be going alright with the performing but as tempers flair for a variety of reasons – the show begins to unravel.
This is a low-spice romance but there sure is a lot of chemistry. As soon as Mateo and Archer being dancing the tango… there are sparks flying all over the place. I really enjoyed the blossoming of their friendship.
The main path this novel takes is about reaching for your dreams. Make mistakes, get back up again and keep going.
THE LINKS
🖊 Author
I was provided with an ARC of Flirty Dancing by Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.
Kinzie Things 