HOW TO DANCE

Falling in love exposes the insecurities of a seemingly confident man.

Nick Freeman has good friends, loves his job as a high school math teacher, and is the star of the weekly karaoke night at his favorite bar in Columbus, Ohio. The only thing missing from his life is a romantic partner. One night at the bar, he’s enthralled by the joyful, fluid dancing of Hayley Burke. She and her boyfriend are professional dancers who have just moved to Columbus, hoping to make it big at a local studio. Hayley notices Nick’s interest and encourages him to dance, but she’s mortified and embarrassed when she realizes he uses a walker. Although Nick knows Hayley wasn’t trying to be hurtful, her casual assumptions run headlong into his own painful insecurities. During college, Nick’s long-term girlfriend unexpectedly dumped him, and he believes that she couldn’t see a future with him because of his cerebral palsy. Nick’s experiences in the intervening years have proved to him that women aren’t interested in a lover with a disability. After their initial misunderstanding, Hayley and Nick strike up a friendship and spend time together while her boyfriend is at work. The strength of Dutton’s debut is his portrayal of Nick, a man who longs for love but is afraid of being hurt. Hayley is not a fully realized character, and romance readers will balk at plotting that keeps her in a relationship with her boyfriend for more than half the book. The ensuing romance between Nick and Hayley is rushed and underdeveloped, with both characters stuck in negative patterns of thinking.

One strong, interesting character isn’t enough to save this underdeveloped debut romance.