ARC Review: Flirty Dancing

Flirty Dancing by Jenny McLachlan
Series: Ladybirds #1
Published by Bloomsbury
Format Reviewed: Paperback
Publication Date: 23rd July 2014
Genre: YA Contemporary
Pages: 300
Reviewed by: Eugenia
My Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Buy It

Bea Hogg is shy but fiery inside. When national dance competition Starwars comes to her school looking for talent, she wants to sign up. It's just a shame her best friend agreed to enter with school super-cow Pearl Harris. Bea will fight back! But when school hottie, Ollie Matthews, who also happens to be Pearl’s boyfriend, decides to enter the competition with Bea, she will have more than a fight on her hands. 

This warm, nuanced, hilarious story about friendship, fortitude . . . and dancing is impossible not to fall in love with. Jenny’s voice is fresh and convincing, and she handles both darker and lighter elements of the story with equal panache

Thank you to Bloomsbury Australia for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

With a really enjoyable storyline filled with the highs and lows of friendship, importance of family and having a confident sense-of-self, I found Flirty Dancing to be a genuinely lovely read which delivered on every front. Cute, funny and with some more meaningful messages at its core, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who's ever felt insecure at school because of their shape, or wanted to fit in with the 'popular group' who actually aren't so nice after all.

What I loved about this novel was how it incorporated all the 'flirty dancing' going on with exploring Bea's family life and friendship issues. Sure, there may have been Pearl, the stereotypical mean girl playing her role, but nonetheless, people like that do unfortunately exist in real life, and seeing Bea deal with that and develop into a character who 'found her groove' (so to speak) was great. Her family was quirky and interesting to read about, especially her little sister Emma who is definitely one of the most unique and bubbly siblings anyone could ask for. Aside from that, her relationship with her Nan was also a sweet addition, and she was the one who influenced Bea to compete in Starwars, in full fifties fashion with the jive in the first place.

The dancing itself and competition was what made this book exciting and I have to admit that at some points even I was waiting with bated breath to see who was going to make it through to the 'Starwars' finals and beyond. Ollie came in as not just the good-looking and quintessentially popular guy who Bea secretly has a crush on, but a well-developed and nice person. He was the perfect gentleman, and their bond which developed gradually through the dancing felt real. Hearing a bit about all those different dance moves and lifts added that extra dimension to the story to make it pop. All in all, it was fantastic to see Bea to gain her confidence, stand up to the person who was trying to get her down and ultimately feel comfortable in her own skin.

CONCLUSION

In essence, Flirty Dancing was a fabulously enjoyable and quick read which really satisfies. With a simple, yet sweet plot and well-rounded characters, this is a book which I'm sure many younger teens could relate to.