I adored this book. The characters were excellent, the tension sizzled, and I loved watching them grow together. I devoured the book and was sad when it ended. Can't wait to see what's next for Daria.

Alexis Daria is officially on the auto-buy author list for me. I highly recommend this book if you’re a fan of reality TV and steamy contemporary romance. It has a fabulous cinnamon roll love interest in a fish out of water situation as a season guest star on the reality Dance Off competition, a fierce, earnest professional dancer, and a strong cast of siblings, rival coworkers, and friends to round out the characters. I just loved Gina and Stone right from the start. They have fantastic chemistry and loved that we get both of their POVs. This book is fast-paced, and I devoured it in two sittings. I really loved everything about it. Thank you so much St. Martin's for sharing this gem with me.

I’ve seen the original story a few times being recommended around the social media and I didn’t want to miss this opportunity to read it as a new rerelease story.

It was exactly as I was expecting, beautiful romance with interesting characters and lots of steamy scenes and moments. I’m always looking forward to this type of books and this one was perfect to sate my cravings for it.

Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy

Wow, this was so much fun to read. If theres anything I like, it is a trashy reality show and this kind of reminded me of that. Loved the representation and also the whole vibe of the book. I like this could be a great Netflix series.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

A romance centered around Dancing with the Stars? Sign me up! I loved the concept of the dance professional and the rugged, reality TV star mountain man pairing up to try and win the dance competition, and I did enjoy this book a lot.

It was steamy, it was fun, and I had a great time. If you don't love the miscommunication trope though, fair warning, it's here. That's probably the biggest knock I have on the whole story--if the characters just TALKED to each other, 99% of their problems would have been solved.

Other than that, though, Gina and Stone were adorable, and I loved watching them fall in love. I gave this four out of five stars, and had a great time with this book.

I had seen this book everywhere prior to requesting, and I guess that left me with a bit higher expectations. I still enjoyed though!

I absolutely loved this book! It was steamy, exciting, and so much fun to read.

I loved the reality show settings, as well as the chemistry between Gina and Stone. I wasn't ready for their story to be over, because this is definitely a new favorite. I even liked it more than "You Had Me at Hola" from this author which I also really, really enjoyed, I definitely recommend this book and am excited to see where the author takes the rest of the series!

In this story, Gina works as a professional dancer on a television series loosely based on Dancing With the Stars. Despite being super talented and hardworking, she's yet to take the trophy or make it to the finals, but this season, she's paired with a reality t.v. survivalist named Stone who might provide the perfect partnership to get them the win. Things get sort of complicated when it becomes clear the producers are pushing a "showmance" angle on their partnership, and Gina isn't pleased because she has strict clauses in her contract to restrict that sort of thing. (She's Latina, and she doesn't want to feed into stereotypes or restrict her future professional opportunities by being known as someone who hooked up with a work colleague.) To make matters more complex, Stone's reality show isn't all that it appears, and his family is constantly pressuring him to stay quiet and keep the secrets behind their own production, which essentially isolates him from making meaningful connections with others. As you might guess, Stone and Gina have fantastic chemistry, though, and keeping their developing relationship a secret proves difficult.

For my fellow aces/awkward goobs/persons who do not fancy on page spice: There is MA content in this story, but I was able to skip/skim without confusion.

My take:
This story is complicated. At times, I really loved Gina and her ambition, and I was deeply invested in her success. But her reactions didn't always ring true to me, especially when <spoiler> Stone purposefully neglected to tell her that they'd been filmed kissing. This felt like a huge deal, and Gina's mentality in her reaction was already undercutting the legitimacy of her feelings (i.e. she was internally acknowledging that she wasn't THAT upset, it was mostly a defense mechanism). But...Gina has every right to be furious? Even if she was helpless to stop the show from using the footage, she deserved to know, and that wasn't respectful of Stone to make that call on her behalf--especially since this was her long term working environment and not his. I understand she talked to a producer alone about a different situation when she was photographed leaving Stone's apartment, but the contexts were different, and Stone was not unaware of the fact that they'd been photographed when she did. So, comparing those two moments as justification didn't really make sense to me. The story includes an apology from Stone at the very end, but it's already been skated over because Gina's decided by then that she overreacted. I guess I didn't follow her internal reasoning very well, or how she chose to process Stone's actions. That bothered me a lot, and it kept me from enjoying the story like I might've. </spoiler>.

While Gina's professional arch is really interesting, I wish we would've gotten a closer look at the confrontation/conclusion of Stone's. The book builds up the pressure he feels in his family's reality show a lot, but we don't see the resolution on page. Meli was cool, though. <3

Ultimately, many of the dance numbers were fun to read about, and the reality show pressures were a unique plot element, but this one wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Griffin for providing an ARC of this rerelease for consideration for review. <3

First off all this cover is stunning. That’s what drew me in. The premise isn’t something I usually go for, but it was well written and I read it in less than a day. 3.5 stars

4/5 Stars

3.5/5 Spice

TW : Lying, Sexual Harassement

Rep : Latine Main Female Character

Thank you to St Martin’s Griffin and Netgalley for providing me with this sampler in exchange for an honest review.

This book was unlike anything I’ve ever read before. I had never read a book that took place on a dancing competition show and I loved it so much more than I thought I would. Both characters had so much depth and their motivations felt so real. While I am not Latine, I loved all of the representation in this book, it talks about food and dancing and culture. Of course I don’t know if it is accurate but if it was it was amazing to see.

Take the Lead is centered around Gina, a professional dancer on The Dance Off, and Stone, is on the reality show Living Wild with his family. All Gina wants is to prove herself on the show and win with just her skills to prove that she doesn’t have to be forced into the sexy latine stereotype to win and not get involved with her partner, Stone. Stone has been forced to do Living Wild for years but it hasn’t been enough to keep his family out of debt, he is on the show to win money to pay off his mothers surgery debt and give any extra to his younger siblings for college. When Gina learns her job is gone if she doesn’t make it to the finals, she has to make sure she does everything she can to get there without playing into the showmance her boss wants, except that becomes complicated when she can stop her attraction to Stone from growing as time goes on. Stone hates LA and wants nothing more than to go back to Alaska when this show is over except how he can pick his priorities when his attraction to Gina won’t stop intensifying. They both have to pick what matters most to them, their careers or each other?

I don’t see enough books talk about how hard it is for Latine Women in any entertainment industry to not automatically be perceived as sexy instead of being respected for their skills that got them to where they are. This book provides a lot of commentary on how hard it is for Latine women to be taken seriously and not just labeled sexy, it also shows how many people think that if it gives them a leg up then they should just embrace the label instead of stand up for themselves. Gina wants to prove to her family, especially her nieces that you don’t have to be seen as sexy to succeed in the entertainment industry, which is such a powerful motivator and instantly made me love Gina. Gina walls herself off from any relationships after being hurt in the past and she has to learn how to break those walls down while also fighting that lens of the media that wants to label her a sexy.

Stone is fighting the whole book to break free from the role he has been forced into for years on Living Wild, and he struggles to understand some things at times. He has been forced to stay in a quiet role and this is the first time he is able to be himself in a long time. This definitely causes issues in their relationship but they are realistic issues of being in a relationship at the same time as figuring out who you are as a person. It added to the depth of their relationship and made me feel a lot more for them as a couple.

I highly recommend this book for fans of romance, reality tv, and dancing.

This was cute! Nothing super special, but I liked the cover and writing was good. Loved how original the plot was!

4/5 💃🏽

I have been an avid Dancing with the Stars watcher since the first season (with some breaks when I thought they were giving attention to right wing hatemongers, let’s be real, they’re not always great with casting) and was v excited to read a romance on a fictionalized DWTS type show called The Dance Off. I love Daria’s You Had Me at Hola series a lot and was excited to read more of her work. This is her first novel, which has been given a new cover and new pieces of story and will be published in February 2023. I didn’t read it before the rewrite and couldn’t tell what was new, so all that to say, it’s not jammed with new content just to relaunch the book. Whatever was added worked really well for the story.

So what’s the story? It’s a story of two people - Gina, a Dance Off pro on her fifth season, and Stone, a reality tv star for a show called Living Wild that he films with his family in the Alaskan wilderness - who are tied down by their own choices of reality tv life and the boxes that puts them in, and they of course also fall in love while competing together on the show. I love DWTS so every bit of the Dance Off was a delight - it was pitch perfect, down to the dances from week to week, the competition, showmances, and the ugly trophy. I really liked Gina’s real view of how tv packages people - she’s fighting being characterized as a sexy Latina and wants the focus to be on her dance skills, so doesn’t want a show romance. Stone was hot and really grew on me as the story went on.

Will Stone win the ugly mirrored trophy? Will Stone win Gina’s heart beyond Dance Off? I had a great time reading to find out. Also it was super fun to read as the current DWTS season was going on and as I real time speculated about showmance’s with my daughter.

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had the opportunity to read an ARC(thanks NetGalley!) of this re-release of the author’s debut novel and it was great fun. I’ve read 3 others by Daria and really enjoy her storytelling style.

I’ve never watched any reality style dance show before and now I kind of want to, but it wouldn’t be the same without Gina and Stone. What an adorable pair, navigating life and show business and how to pursue what they want out of life.

The “final-act drama” wasn’t my favorite but I understand the use of such a trope. I felt things for the characters throughout the book and very much rooted for their happy ending.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book Gina is traveling to Alaska for a tv show. She meets her new dance partner who she is attracted to. This book was a quick read.

⭐Book Review⭐
Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher for the #AdvanceReviewCopy

Stone is a celebrity in a reality show set in Alaska's wilderness and Gina is a competitor on a reality TV dance show. Due to family obligations, Stone agrees to join the dance show and gets partnered with Gina. Gina's tasked with teaching Stone the moves! Neither is looking for romance but the moment they meet, sparks catapult all around the dance floor.

This started strong, gripping, and full of promise but as the story progressed, I lost some interest and mainly because of pacing. The relevant scenes were tight, but the story just needed to be tightened up and chipped away at to reveal its true beauty. I didn't care for Gina's character much, but she and Stone had chemistry that felt believable. Stone was a great male lead! And the ending left me satisfied.

If you love Dance, give this one a try.

Overall I liked it.
3 stars.

⭐⭐⭐

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Like all of Alexia Daria's books, this is an incredibly fun setup for a romance story. An Alaskan survival hero + a ballroom dancer heroine + a reality tv dance competition = a perfect forced proximity, opposites attract, high steam read. Despite being set in the reality TV world, Daria's creation of characters and their conflicts never felt fake or forced or produced, but rather were deeply grounded in honest portrayals of the nuances of fame and the lies we keep in the name of family. I loved Stone and Gina both separately and together, but the entire time I was reading I was frantically trying to figure out how they were going to make it work -- which to me is the sign of a very well-written and plotted story.

Now, how can I get my hands on the second book in the series??!!

This is such a good romance. I really liked the main characters and thought they fit together well. The conflict in the story was believable and not too farfetched as I see in some of the books in this genre. I definitely recommend this book for fans of romance.

Very good read Stone and Gina give dancing the star vibes along with a boy meets girl attitude. I usually stay in the Fantasy lane but I really enjoy these down to earth books too. Plus who doesn’t want a tall as heck mountain man to cuddle on a cold night.

Confession time. I don’t watch reality television of any type – dating, housewifing, remodeling, competing, etc. No criticism intended. It’s just not my thing. However, the theme has gotten really popular which means that many of my recent reads have used a reality television backdrop, including this one. I’m going to try to keep my reality television prejudices from affecting my review, I swear.

Okay, moving on to the review. The premise of Take the Lead by Alexis Daria is that a really hot off-the-grid reality star with limited dancing experience joins a dancing competition show. Stone (yep, that’s his name and the author tries to make it okay with some explanation of how the children all have weird nature names) is doing the show because his family needs the money. Gina, his partner, is a professional dancer. She’s trying to win the show to take her career to the next level and her producer is threatening to cut her if she’s not successful.

So, now that you’ve got the plot, let’s talk about the fundamentals of the story. The character arcs are okay. Stone’s is a little unbelievable to me. He gives up a good job and a relationship to live off the grid with his parents and his large family. It feels contrived but it might be a completely normal contrivance for reality television which, as noted, I am not in a position to judge.

Gina is a well-crafted character. She’s powerful, successful and excellent at her job. Of course, the story wouldn’t exist without her being conflicted about having a relationship with her partner. That part also feels contrived, especially because her boundaries (which she chooses to break) cause conflict with Stone. I kind of dislike miscommunication as a tool for separating love interests but at least the author allows Gina to grow.

I don’t love the story arc, though I’m not including any spoilers. The author has built up that Stone longs to return to Alaska and Gina needs to be in LA or NYC. The ending doesn’t, in my humble opinion, resolve this fundamental conflict. These are incompatible requirements and there isn’t a believable solution other than one of them deciding love is more important than their individual needs.

One final thought: a big shout out to the author for having Gina wise up and make Stone wear a condom. I’m so tired of reading books where the woman doesn’t require a condom. Haven’t we read enough unexpected pregnancy stories or seen enough news articles about STD transmission to understand that “I’m clean and on the pill” isn’t the answer?

I received a digital ARC through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

TAKE THE LEAD was such a fun and surprising read. Dancing with the Stars is one of my guilty pleasure shows and it was so much fun to see all the nods to the show. I’m not entirely sure that I was totally sold on Gina and Stone as a couple. Their physical connection was there but I didn’t really get a whole lot from them emotionally. I had a blast reading this though, and definitely recommend to anyone who’s a fan of reality talent competitions!