Variation - Rebecca Yarros

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Fourth Wing comes a new contemporary romance about the summer a celebrated dancer returns home and unearths years of family secrets and deep regrets with the Coast Guard rescue swimmer she never forgot.

Elite ballerina Allie Rousseau is no stranger to pressure. With her mother’s eyes always watching, perfection was expected, no matter the cost. But when an injury jeopardizes all she’s sacrificed for, Allie returns to her summer home to heal and recover. But the memories she’s tried to forget rush in and threaten to take her under.

As a Coast Guard rescue swimmer, Hudson Ellis knows that hesitation can mean the difference between life and death. He’s always prided himself on being in the right place at the right time, especially when it came to Allie Rousseau…until the night he left for basic. After the biggest regret of his life, the secrets he keeps mean he can never be with the one woman he wants more than his next breath.

When Hudson’s niece shows up on Allie’s doorstep, desperate to find her birth mother, Allie finds herself in an unimaginable position. Allie and Hudson’s past and present might be endlessly complicated. The thread that tied them to each other all those years ago may have unraveled, but the truth could pull them back together, or drive them apart forever.

 

What did I think?

I would have had to be living under a rock to have never heard of Rebecca Yarros but it's her contemporary romance rather than her fantasy novels that became my first Rebecca Yarros book.  Variation is a romance that is filled with family drama and a will they/won't they pair of main characters whose hearts tell them that they are destined to be together but their heads say the opposite.

Allie and Hudson are meant to be together and even though the tide may take them away from each other it always seems to bring them back to shore.  There are lots of reasons why ballerina Allie and rescue swimmer Hudson can't be together and most of that is geography but some of it is a deeply buried secret that if it comes out could tear them apart forever.

I absolutely adored the gorgeous love story that had me rooting for Allie and Hudson from the start.  There are a few steamy scenes to increase the reader's heartrate but I found Hudson's audible stamping of ownership on Allie to be a little annoying. 

At the heart of the story is a dysfunctional family of four sisters: Lina who died, Anne who became a lawyer and Allie and Eva who are following in their mother's footsteps as ballet dancers.  Lina is painted as the perfect sister, Allie is the guilty one who holds herself responsible for Lina's death,  Anne is the disappointment who didn't become a dancer and Eva is the spoilt envious one; it's like a series of Dallas or Dynasty set in the world of ballet.

Filled with cliffhangers, and told from different points of view, Variation is a veritable page turner as I couldn't read fast enough to continue where each character left off.   It felt so finely balanced as to whether they could ever become more than a fling and you will just have to read it to find out what happens in the end.  

I received a gifted copy to read as part of the Tandem Collective readalong and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

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A Different Kind of Lovely - Petra March

"A man with a damaged soul fell in love with a ballerina with a broken body."

When Neal Medwin glimpses Mina Automne for the first time, he's a man whose soul is darkened with memories of a painful past, whereas Mina is a vibrant, strong, young woman. She's a determined ballerina who's carefully planning and painting her life.

Neal steps into her existence and threatens to shatter Mina's plans with an impossible request.

Mina can't help the fragile man who's invading her home, even though their parents used to be close friends and she knows of Neal's hurtful background. She allows him to linger within her lovely and artistic world, however, hoping he might find some peace and solace.

Slowly, their conflict turns into friendship, and eventually into love, until a terrible discovery ruins Mina's projects and forces her to let go of all her dreams, and of her sweet, damaged man.

Neal is unable to fight for Mina and for the unripe love they share, because he's not ready to leave his past behind. He's not strong enough - not yet.

What did I think?

Petra March has such a dreamlike quality to her writing that it's the perfect escapism from our dark and dismal lives (I speak for myself, of course).  I was honoured to try my hand at editing and read an early draft of A Different Kind of Lovely but it was clear that the quality of Petra March's writing shone through every single page.

Neal and Mina are broken in different ways, so it is natural that they would be drawn to one another.  I loved how Neal referred to Mina as his butterfly, both may appear fragile and beautiful on the outside but they are tougher than you think underneath.  What Mina didn't realise at first is how Neal managed to enter her life.  It wasn't an accident that he was in that place at the time he met her, although it was a tragic accident that ultimately brought them together.  I'm being deliberately vague as to get the most out of these books, you should really read them all in order.  The characters are linked in such a way that it's so breathtaking to behold the hand of fate at work.

I was delighted to see some of our favourite characters from the early books and it's like they have grown up in front of our eyes.  I welcomed them as I would an old friend and felt as if I was hovering on the outskirts of their midst seeing events unfold.

Heartbreaking, ethereal and dreamlike, A Different Kind of Lovely will awaken your senses and encourage you to hold on to your dreams.  The strength shown by Mina's character was both uplifting and courageous and it just shows that a person can appear fragile and breakable on the outside but be so very strong and vigorous underneath, and vice versa of course.

Do read these books in consecutive order to get the most out of them, it will really make a world of difference to understand the characters' history and see their development.  Pure escapism with a dreamlike quality, open your heart to Petra March's ethereal writing and her exquisite characters.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

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