Flirty Dancing (Ladybirds, #1) (Flirty Dancing)

by Jenny McLachlan

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.

• ISBN10: 1408876205
• ISBN13: 9781408876206
• Publish Date: 7 January 2016 (first published 3 July 2014)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 23 November 2023
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
• Imprint: Bloomsbury Childrens Books
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 256
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leah]

This was such a cute read! Geek Girl fans will devour this, and rightly so. Bea was such a wonderful character, bless her, and I wanted nothing more than her to tell Pearl exactly where to get off, because Pearl was awful (how she's going to redeem herself in two books before we get to her book I'll never know because she seems irredeemable). But Bea and Ollie were so cute. Sigh. It just made me so happy to see the pair of them dancing and having fun, and to see Bea come out of her shell and be a bit more fierce was amazing. I can't wait to read the other books, but like I said, Pearl's got a heck of a job on to become more likeable, but Betty and Kat's stories sound AMAZING.

[Kelly]

4½ Stars
http://www.divabooknerd.com/2014/06/flirty-dancing-by-jenny-mclachlan.html
When I discovered the synopsis for this one, I had assumed it was another light and fluffy teen romance, but it was so much more. Not since [b:The Year Nick McGowan Came to Stay|2490879|The Year Nick McGowan Came to Stay|Rebecca Sparrow|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320415269s/2490879.jpg|2498184], have I laughed so much. Snorting, unbridled and unattractive laughing, it was brilliant. Bea is the shy girl who has so much to say but lacks the confidence to speak out. I absolutely adored Bea, her inner thoughts and narrative were delivered with composure and a comedic timing that most authors would struggle to maintain, all from a debut author in Jenny McLachlan.

Flirty Dancing was incredibly engaging and entertaining, but also deals with intimidation, a first love, self confidence, and celebrates the unique, the quirky and the outrageously entertaining. It allows readers to experience a sense of family and belonging, while taking a lighthearted and heartwarming approach. I'm thrilled that this will be part of a series, following each one of the original Ladybirds. From the mock dance troupe The Panty Liners, to Bea's grandmother in what is clearly a pimp coat and cowboy hat, to adding 'arse' onto the end of nouns. Flirty Dancing was flirty, fabulous fun and I'm an instant fan of the fabulous Jenny McLachlan.