Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First and foremost: if this is your first SEP book, stop and don't read this one. It is not at all representative of her awesomeness. Start with It Had to Be You or Ain't She Sweet or almost any other one. This one, Dance Away with Me, will make you never try her again and that would be tragic. SEP is a great author, I've loved almost all her books but this one is a great big fail and so unlike her that I have to wonder if she actually wrote it. It is lacking in SEP's usual charm, humor and chemistry. The whole plot is so implausible (can't even tell you how many legalities and real-world issues are overlooked in the whole Wren situation) that the only way one could overlook that is if the characters are compelling: they are not. The heroine is an odiously self-righteous preachy person I truly did not like, the Hero is fine but the whole "I can't love" thing was just incongruous and immature for a character who otherwise acts like an adult. I could even overlook the annoying heroine but there was no chemistry at all. And I was surprised to find her thinking that she loved the Hero: how had that happened? They have nothing in common and don't even seem to have lust -- though we are TOLD there is lust, I did not feel it. The townspeople are almost all of them quite unpleasant, humorless and downright nasty with no redeeming qualities. I didn't enjoy reading about this little town and kept wondering why the heroine would want to stay there. SEP usually has a second plot/thread that runs simultaneously with the main story. Not in this book. Or, rather, I should say that the secondary thread in this book is so thin as to be embarrassing. Seriously, it is just meh and adds NOTHING to the main plot. Finally, no matter what your politics and beliefs are about what social policy should be, it is is always jarring to find the author's views playing a major role in the story. Even if you agree with the point of view being expressed. It sounded preachy and self-righteous and just annoyed me. Part of the reason I read romance novels is to get away from exactly this. It was so so disappointing to find almost every page drenched in views about sex ed. Not to mention the heroine's refusing to sell cigarettes, etc. Ugh. It felt like being hit repeatedly over the head with a 2x4. This book was a terrible disappointment. I had really hoped it would cheer me up at a time when I had been longing for an escape. I recommend running from this one.