Tremor

This was a real tear jerker poor Arabella she has been through so much and you could completely understand why she felt the way she did but at the same time you long for her to just give in to the romance and chemistry.

I liked the premise of this book, but it had a lot of things wrong with it. I liked Jett’s character, Arabelle’s character could use some work. I did enjoy the story overall. Thank you to netgalley for the arc.

I really hate to say anything negative about someone's book, but I really couldn't finish this one. Arabelle is the worst character. I cannot get behind anyone being that horrible to people, and treating them with such disdain. I do not understand how Jett had any interest in her, and it's just not a believable enough relationship to sustain an entire book.

Tremor is the first book I've read from this author and I was beyond excited to read it because I loved the aspect of Ballroom Dancing in the story. However, its hard to love or even like a story when you dislike the main character. Arabelle had the worst attitude. She was downright hateful and disrespectful to Jett at times, even when he was being nice. Her attitude stayed that way the whole story. I could not for the life of me figure out why the author made her character so unlikeable. I loved Jett!!! However, as much as I loved him, I just didn't and couldn't love this story and believe me I tried. I wanted to stop so many times but pushed myself because I believed that if I kept reading something would happen to make me change my mind about Arabelle, and she would somehow be redeemed in my eyes. But no, Arabelle killed this story for me and the slow pace to the story did not help at all. This one was not for me.

I enjoyed this story as it was unique in a great way. This was my first time reading a story by Tonya Plank. I like the simple easy flow to the story. I like that it shows the beginning of a friendship between two talented dancer's. I am looking forward to reading more by this author.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This has to be one of the most captivating books I have read in a long time. I wish a few of the dance terms had been more progressively defined. I can see where people who are not fluent in dance terminology would get a bit lost.

I love the sense of character development that the author has. The author definitely had a clear depiction of where she wanted these characters to go and had a very clear (but somewhat bumpy) path to get there.

I kinda loved to hate Arabella. She was so unkind at times! I understand the stress of being a dancer but did she have to be so mean!? It made for a great read. She eventually grew on me. She had a ton of character grown and really overcome any obstacles put in her way. She was full of determination!

I really liked this book. It was a quick and easy read. We don’t get a lot of books involving dancers, so this was an interesting and new kind of trope-y read.

Thank you so much to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me to review this title.

3.5 stars

Not my normal read. For Dance afficianados lots of descriptions of the routines. Interesting dynamic between Jett and Arabelle. The hero was attentive, interested and respective of Arabelle's problems. I thought Arabelle wasn't as nice to him. It all worked out well. I wouldnt say that Blackpool is a small seaside place and not sure there are boardwalks. I think I would have added a description of the tower ballroom as there's certainly lots of pictures out there about this stunning space. This book is part of a series but I'm invested enough in it to find the others out.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

I really liked the premise of this book, but I couldn't bring myself to like Arabelle all that much and the book seemed to be a bit lengthy for me. I don't like to leave negative reviews so this isn't a negative review! I just think this wasn't the book for me at this time--I may revisit it again in the future because it was well written --it just didn't grab me like I wanted it to. I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC for NetGalley.

I've never read a book that involved ballet and ballroom dancing quite like this one. I had to look a few moves up online to really understand what I was reading. Once I did that, the moves described flowed as if I was there watching them rehearse and dance.
I really enjoyed Arabelle's growth and determination. The tremors would not keep her down. Arabelle learning that even though life did go on, it could also continue on for her. Not just her personal life but her dancing career as well.
Jett was a little too cocky at the beginning but once he got to LA I started to like him. That feeling continued to grow throughout the book. By the end I loved him.
Some of the characters were a little over the top and that knocked the story down a bit for me. Otherwise, I enjoyed it.

I got to admit the first few chapters didn’t actually leave a good impression on me. Actually even uptil the fifth chapter I was really thinking of giving the book a 2 star. It all turned around after they came to LA. The whole Vegas show didn’t really impress me but after our two MCs came to LA and the show dancing aspect started everything made sense. Although all the dance moves didn’t actually make sense for me and I had to google and watch show dance clips on YouTube to actually get the whole picture, I can say that I was thouroughly educated on a whole new aspect of dancing.

At first Belle actually got on my nerves. Her constant negative and pessimistic thoughts got to me. She judged Jett way too fast. But with time through the book I understood her. She was in a really bad place after the death of Wilhem. Even if all her actions couldn’t be sorted by that. Some were over the top. Still by the end I really liked her. I wished she didn’t lean so much on Wilhem. Even till the end, she needed his approval for everything. Although the epilogue was sweet. My favorite character though is Kendrick. I will definitely read the rest of Plank’s books for sure as the world of dance is really calling me in.

I was attracted to the book as a former dancer as soon as I saw the cover. I did not realize it was book 6 in a series prior to starting it, but I was able to follow it easily without having read any of the other books in the series.

I haven't read many dancer romances that actually focused on the dance aspects. That was a big plus for me when it came to this book. I loved Tonya's use of the appropriate terminology and actually showing true aspects of the competition dance world. That being said, the pacing in this book was a bit strange. It started off as a slow burn and then suddenly everything ramped up to a pinnacle before cooling completely back off again. I do attribute some of that to the grief that Bella was experiencing. It is personal preference, but I also wanted a bit more spice in this book.

I think the author should have made Arabelle older than 25.. She and her husband appeared to have been performing for years; ballroom at Blackpool 4 times; teaching; ballet dancers before that and he passed from an accident at 23. (They were the same age). If they had been in their late 20's or early 30's, I would have believed the back story a bit more, because they would have been together a long time and it would have made perfect sense for her to have an extended anxiety problem because of his death.

Frankly, I'm not sure what Jett saw in her, I wouldn't have bothered if I were him as she gave him mixed signals every time they met. There was lots of push and pull. The author didn't have the characterization down very well for Arabelle, in my opinion so it was easy for me not to like her. Also, there was overuse of the word 'totally', which was annoying.

The whole idea of the heroine being a dancer made me want to read this book, plus the fact the hero was a trapeze artist/performer and former ballet dancer, so the story should have been fabulous. There were lots of dancing descriptions, (it's clear the author loves dance and knows her stuff). There are lots of detailed descriptions of Arabelle's trembling hand, arm, body, which zoned me out as it became pretty repetitive - yes, I know the book's called Tremor!

So. the story was just okay for me, it felt tedious and drawn out. The book got better as it went along and there are lots of side characters. My thanks go to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc in return for my honest opinion.

I almost DNFed this book multiple times throughout my read of it. The author used odd words in their descriptions and was very repetitive. Additionally, the main female protagonist was wholly unlikable and I felt had no redeeming qualities. The male lead at least seemed to have character growth throughout the story. But the majority of the book felt like two people talking about how great they were.

This novel was ok for me. Jett was a little too arrogant in the beginning but he grew on me. I didn’t understand some of the dance moves and it wasn’t important enough for me to research. All in all it was a good story.
Many thanks to Laurie White and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Nothing really stood out for me as unique compared to other romance novels. I have not read the other books in this series, but I doubt that would have made much of a difference.

Note: I received an ARC generously from Netgalley, the publisher, the author in exchange for an honest review.

Another Note: This is a series. This book can be read out of order/as a standalone, but there are mentions of previous characters. So it would be advised if you read this novel in order. This is 6th in the series.

AH, this literally killed me. And not in a good way.

I mean it had the recipe to be one of my favorite novels of 2020.

1. Dance -Ballroom, yesss, my jam.

2. A chance for two people to dance together - I tell you the chemistry lies closest in dance, no question.

3. A hot male ballroom/theatrical dancer -Fuck yes. My dream come true.

4. A broken showdance/ballroom female dancer -My heart sang at the summary.

Then why the fuck did it turn it out anything but perfect?

Well let me explain. Let me start by telling you the good things first.

1. The cover (I just exploded with mushiness..)

2. THe summary - "After losing her husband and dance partner to a motorcycle accident, ballroom showdance champion Arabelle has developed a hand tremor, making it impossible to perform the beautiful balletic feats she is known for. In her devastation, she’s lost her love of dance anyway. But when she meets Jett, a theatrical dancer specializing in daredevil aerial stunts, Arabelle feels a double tremor – one producing trepidation, the other pulsing excitement, as he evokes the bad boy ways of her husband that had so enthralled her but had also resulted in his tragedy. Can Jett help Arabelle overcome the pain of her loss, cure her trembling body, and reinvigorate her passion for dance and life? And can Arabelle tame Jett’s reckless ways before they result in his own misfortune?"

Isn't it bloody perfection? I think it was too.

3. Jett. Jett my baby. Sure he was cocky as hell, but he had also his sweetness and sensitive side, which made me love him even more.

These are the reasons why I gave it three stars.

The reasons why the rest of the stars are gone - The heroine is fucking annoying.

She's constantly treating poor Jett like shit (for no coherent reason, apart from the fact that he's cocky) (she barely knows him and assumes shit...). Like I get it, he doesn't seem all that gentlemanly and all from the outside, but you shouldn't judge someone on first impressions (that's what you do in highschool and in private...geez).

She pissed me off so much that I had to DNF this. Otherwise this novel had so much promise to be great.

So it's close to being mediocre at best.

Until the next read,

Javelyn B (Reviewer)