Review: Great Debut from a promising new author!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 27, 2012
I'm very excited to share with you a brand new author! It's always a pleasure to discover someone new and who shows a lot of promise in her writing. Dance With Me is the debut novella by Hayden Braeburn. Remember her name because you'll want to find her on Facebook and visit her website to sign up for her newsletter. Hayden is a self published author and as I've found with many self published authors, you'll want to be notified when they have something new out so you don't miss a thing.A suspenseful romance with a champion ballroom dance for a heroine...yep, as soon as I read the synopsis for this book, I was sold. Now, I'll admit I was a tad (only a tad) disappointed there weren't more scenes that involved ballroom dancing BUT this was a very good story so I got over it quickly.Katerina Nemecek is a champion ballroom dancer, she owns a failing dance studio, her mother is in prison for embezzlement and fraud, her father is MIA, and she thinks her ex-lover is ashamed of her and that's just one of the reason's she broke up with him.Mason Everett comes from one of the richest families in town. His family recently sold their bank to a conglomerate who now intends to foreclose on Kat's studio. He's the oldest of four, dedicated to his job and his family, and desperately in love with Kat.Sounds easy, doesn't it? Mason just has to convince Kat he loves her and all is right with the world. Only, that's far from the truth. Mason's high school girlfriend has been carrying a torch for 16 years, years that she's spent waiting for him and running off every girlfriend he's every had including poisoning the last one. To top it off, Mason's sister is friends with the ex-girlfriend and has "issues" with Kat. The rest of his family is fairly welcoming and puts her at ease. Soon though, Kat finds herself framed for a crime she doesn't commit and things really start to get interesting.For being a short story, this book has a fairly complicated plot and there are a lot of characters introduced. I absolutely adore Mason's family; all of them even his sister Cassidy (friend to the psycho ex-girlfriend). Others were members of a security team, a couple of attorneys, and several law enforcement people from various cities and counties. I actually got a little frustrated at times because they were all introduced very quickly and it was kind of hard to keep them straight. There was mention of cases that went nowhere and a few other things that had me confused, but in reality it didn't really change the outcome of the story so I let it go.Overall, this is a very good first effort from Hayden. It was entertaining, suspenseful, and had enough of a love story to keep it interesting. I have no doubt you'll enjoy this new author as much as I have. I'm excited about her next release because I already feel connected to the characters and am looking forward to how their relationship plays out. Once you've read Dance With Me, come back and tell me what you think of this bright and shiny new author!!