Dancing in the Rain

by Kelly Jamieson

[chymerra]

I don’t know what it is with the books I have read lately. They have all been surprise tear jerkers. I think I was blindsided because the Dancing in the Rain’s blurb didn’t show much information. I am not complaining and was very pleasantly surprised when I was brought to tears a few times during the book.

I thought the romance aspect of the book was fantastic. Sure there was mind blowing sex (we will get to that a little later in the review) but I loved that Drew and Peyton actually built a relationship, of sorts, before they had sex. It was very refreshing to read because the relationship was established and the sexual chemistry was built up way before they bumped uglies. What I didn’t like was that they thought that they had to hide their relationship from Chloe and I could see where that hurt their relationship. Also, they didn’t communicate and both jumped to conclusions about the other person. I actually cringed during those parts because I am guilty of doing the same things in my relationship (don’t let BK ever read that…lol). But it added to their romance, if that makes sense, and made it seem more real to me.

Drew was such a complicated character and I loved it. I really enjoyed that the author started him off with so many flaws. He drank too much and was wallowing in self-pity. The self-pity part I totally got. Any normal person would do that after being told that they couldn’t do what they loved ever again. Plus, his personal life kinda fell apart after his injury too. I mean, he found out that his ex-wife was cheating on him with his ex-best friend. What a blow to someone’s self-confidence. But the drinking part, I didn’t like and I agreed with Peyton when she made the assessment that he was on his way to becoming an alcoholic. As much as I didn’t like it, though, again, it was part of what made this book really good and it humanized Drew. His reaction to having a tween daughter was great. Instead of jumping on the bandwagon when Sarah told him, he did the right thing and got a paternity test done. Which made me go “Hallelujah, Praise the Lord”. Why? Because I have read so many books where the hero is told that the kid is his and goes “Ok” with no questions ask. So when it was revealed that he had a paternity test done, I got up and did the happy dance.

Peyton kinda rubbed me the wrong way during certain scenes but I could totally get that she was stressing over losing her sister, having to raise her niece and she is falling in love with Drew…who is Chloe’s father. I would have probably acted the same way. But, she was a very strong woman who dealt with life’s blows with grace. She dropped everything to go be with Sarah when it was becoming pretty clear that she didn’t have long to live (and for the record, Peyton’s boss was a jerk). Then she had to mediate visitations with Drew until she felt that he would be ok to be left alone with Chloe. Plus, she was caretaking for Sarah until it was time to go to hospice. It was a lot.

I liked that the author chose to deal with tween/teen issues in a realistic way. Like when Chloe was asked to leave school because what she was wearing violated the dress code. The way that Drew handled it was a dream and for the record, I agree with him. If a girl is asked to leave because what they are wearing calls a boy to comment on their body, it wasn’t right. The boy should be called out on why he thinks it is ok to make comments like that to a girl. Like I said above, the way Drew handled that situation was perfect. Also what I liked was when Chloe was caught shoplifting. While it was on video, the other girl’s mother refused to look at it, has the mentality that her special snowflake would never do something like that and leaves. I could go on a rant about parents like that, but I won’t. I do think that the way that Drew and Peyton handled it was perfect.

When they finally had sex, it was off the pages hot and every time after that was scorching. Like I said above, what made it even hotter for me is that they had a relationship before hand. Something about feeling and sex gets me in the feels.

The end of the book was what I thought it was going to be and the decisions that were made were what I thought were going to be made. The epilogue was perfect!! I love it when the HEA is perfect for the book!!

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**