In the spirit of full honesty, I must start this review with a confession - I was originally drawn to this book because the cover illustration, while gorgeous, is also fully unhinged. Kudos to the artist who captured Carly’s temper so well! 😂 I’m so glad selected this book, even if for a silly reason. After realizing it was a companion to Pas De Don’t, I read that book first. You certainly don’t need to do so to enjoy Pointe of Pride, but I’m glad I read Heather and Marcus’s story before starting this one.

Moving on to the actual review, this book was well-written and refreshing on several counts. While remaining polite and spoiler-free, I’d like to say that this take on physical intimacy was especially well handled, putting outdated notions about what sex is or isn’t to rest. As someone with pelvic floor dysfunction, I found the discussion of Carly’s issues to be accurate and informative, possibly opening the door for women with similar issues to find relief. And I loved Carly’s personality - she’s a spitfire, for sure - a work in progress, perfectly imperfect. I also found Nick to be likable, though less well-rounded than Carly.

The banter and chemistry were both good and I loved that, even in the end, the book makes sure to mention that Carly and Nick still have their disagreements. I hate when a romance is like “And then everything was perfect and nothing bad happened ever again. The End.” Real relationships don’t operate like that - you choose to work through conflict *because* you love someone, not despite it.

As for the dance parts, I can’t speak to their accuracy, but it all certainly seemed believable and well-researched. The author’s past credentials seem to support this.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an advanced reader copy of this book. I will most certainly be looking for future books by this author.

I've been eagerly awaiting the follow-up to Pas De Don't, and was so excited to see Pointe of Pride show up on Netgalley! Chloe Angyal might be my favorite romance author, her books are romance novels that acknowledge the complexity of adult relationships. This book follows Carly and Nick, the best friends of Heather and Marcus from PDD. Carly has been in the corps for years, and desperately wants to be promoted as she knows she doesn't have many years of dancing left. Nick has left ballet, and is trying to break through as a photographer. They meet up in Sydney for Heather and Marcus' wedding, where they are tasked with driving around Sydney to help get everything ready. But complicating matters, they've very much got off on the wrong foot.

Pointe of Pride follows Carly and Nick as they slowly overcome their initial animosity, to becoming allies, to becoming more. The chemistry was so hot, and I really appreciated how realistic the enemies to lovers timeline felt. It didn't seem abrupt at all.

I can't wait for the next book in this world, I'm so looking forward to it!

3.25⭐️

ARC kindly provided by publisher via NetGally for an honest review.


A smutty enemies-to-lovers rom-com that was a delight to read! Nick and Carly both had good moments of growth throughout the story. The only down side for me was the third act break up, I’m not typically a fan of these along with the fact that the reason was a bit ridiculous made it fall off a bit.

I was really intrigued by the premise of this story. The main characters, Carly and Nick, are ballet dancers (or former dancer in Nick’s case), who travel to Australia for their friends’ wedding. I love ballet, so I was excited to read a story about ballet dancers, which I don’t see very often.

At first, I struggled to get into the story. The writing style seemed a bit clunky, the characters barely talked to each other, it was a lot of inner dialogue. But after the first 20% or so the story definitely picked up, and I enjoyed myself, even though it was a bit ridiculous at times (the third-act conflict was definitely over the top).

One thing I want to point out is that this book depicts pelvic pain and Carly’s struggle with it. This isn’t a topic I see very often (or at all) in romance books, even though it’s an issue for a lot of people and I think it was realistically represented here; the author even put more information on it at the end of the book, and I just thought that this was really great and important.

I struggled with the writing style, but overall I enjoyed the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I loved this book, especially as someone who struggles with pelvic pain. I often don't see myself represented in romance books, but with Carly, I found someone in the romance space I could relate to. The story itself was enjoyable for a cute, fluffy read!

What I loved:
-The characters are in their early 30s and still haven't figured their lives out. It's so refreshing to showcase characters struggling to find their way.
-Representation of pelvic pain and the difficulty of approaching intimacy, as well as having doctors dismiss your pain.
-THE TENSION. Oh my god, the sparks that crackle between Carly and Nick are incredible! It made me so giddy when the enemies turned into lovers.
- loved the theme of finding a home and Nick's struggle to find what home means to him.
-It was really well-written
-Strong and complicated characters

What I didn't love as much:
***SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER***
***SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER***
-The third-act breakup was a STRETCH. I didn't believe that Nick's pretending to be a more prominent photographer than he was resulted in Carly fleeing the country.
-It would help if you suspended your disbelief a little bit when Carly and Nick go viral. I always say romance involves fantasy elements, especially with this book. Don't question it too much.


Overall, I really enjoyed Pointe of Pride. If you want a sweet, fluffy romance read that touches on some complex life topics, I highly recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley, Chloe Angyal, and Amberjack Publishing for providing and ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Nick is a retired dancer returning home for his best friends wedding. Carly is a hurricane flying into Sydney for her best friends wedding. Nick and Carly have a bumpy start. There is tension and romance and a HEA guaranteed.

Carly kinda annoyed me as the main character. Heather deserved a better best friend

Ballet
Third act break up
Maid of honor x best man
"Broken Vagina"
Enemies to lovers

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the arc

Thank you amberjack publishing and netgalley for providing this ARC.

Now this book is such a light read for me.. it really gives off romcom movies vibes but instead being set in NYC like many romcoms this is set in Sydney.

i really like the banter between Carly and Nick and how chaotic their first meeting is! And their dynamic oh i like it!

This book also talks about how Carly has pelvic issues and i love there is PSA about this issue in the end of the book.

Overall i would rec this book for romcom enjoyers

This book was good. I really liked the way Nick respected her when their relationship developed into more (especially with the intercourse moment). Carly is so clumsy (kind of like me actually) so I found her really sweet. I love the fact Carly stood up for him against his family. The book was overall good but I felt like the 3rd act break up was too dramatic. That reason of breaking up is a big too much in my point of view.

Thanks again for the ARC

𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚. 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙜𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙢𝙚.

Carly has come to Australia to be her best friend’s maid of honor. She has a (literal) run-in with her luggage trolley and another passenger, and let’s just say, her and this man do not get a long after that. And, oops, of course he’s the best man!

Ok, so I didn’t read the first book in this series, but I didn’t find that I had any trouble enjoying this one. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, that I’m going to track down 𝘗𝘢𝘴 𝘥𝘦 𝘋𝘰𝘯’𝘵 and read it whenever I get a chance.

The part of this book I loved the most, was the representation of a FMC with pelvic pain. This prevents her from having/enjoying penetrative sex, but this does not in anyway negatively impact the spiciness and intimacy of this book.

I love seeing all sorts of bodies represented in romance and getting their HEAs! 🥰

I’ve never been to Australia (hopefully someday 🤞) but the book really made me feel like I was there, with these characters, seeing all the sights, and having a refreshing Australian Iced Coffee 😜.

I was definitely tearing up through the later 10-20% of the books. There were so many emotions, and I was definitely investing in them all.

The only issue I had, was the third act conflict seemed a little overblown, but overall, I really enjoyed this read.

𝙉𝙤 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙨 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙡 […] 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨𝙣’𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙖 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚.

Thank you to the publisher and @netgalley for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What this book is giving:
✅ Romantic comedy
✅ Dual POV
✅ Enemies to Lovers
✅ “Broken” Vagina Rep
✅ “Uptight Asshole”
✅ “Ballet Brat”

Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½ / 5
🌶️🌶️½ / 5

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I enjoyed reading the first of this series, and it was a lovely surprise to see the same characters turn up again!
This novel started off fantastically for me. I loved the stand-offs between Nick and Carly, loved their internal dilemmas, and the exchange from enemies-to-business-to-lovers, as it felt authentic to their personalities. I found the side characters were very strong, too, and loved when the group was together.

Unfortunately I found the "third act" conflict was very convoluted and felt more dramatic than it needed to be - like it was only in there because there needed to be conflict, rather than feeling organic. I found the last few chapters were quite rushed in an attempt to tie up all loose ends, which took away a bit of the magic of the writing for me.

I loved Pas de Don’t and was so excited to return to these characters! I’m glad Carly got her own story and this one was perfection. The enemy to friends trope is a fave of mine and I loved how Carly and Nick developed. I really found her struggle with pelvic floor disorder interesting. It was refreshing to have a MC with a problem that many women deal with in their lives. I enjoyed catching up with these characters!

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

I read pointe of pride as it was sent to me by NetGalley for an honest review of the book. Carly shows up to a wedding, with the intentions of being the best maid of honor, where she ends up meeting Nick where he is also attending the same wedding as Carly as the best man. Since she wants to be the best this leads her to run all over town with nick and she thinks he has his whole life together, when really it’s fallen apart, but she doesn’t know his secret and asks him for help with something she needs. This book is full of charm and the romance is very sweet. I did have some issues loading the kindle version so I had to download the book itself. Otherwise good read #netgalley