We're 6 hours from Pas de Don't
Less, if you're in Australia.
It’s already the 2nd of May in my hometown, Sydney, where my romance novel takes place.
Today (or tomorrow, depending on what hemisphere you’re in), the feminist ballet romance novel of my dreams is/will be out in the world. It’s Centre Stage meets Under the Tuscan Sun, but in Sydney, plus First Wives Club. It’s sweet, it’s serious, it’s hot, it’s funny, and it’s… here. Finally.
I started writing this book when Australia’s borders were closed and I didn’t know when I’d get to go home to Sydney again. I also didn’t know how long it would be before I’d get to see live ballet again. I missed them both terribly, so I wrote about them.
This book has all the things I miss about home, like coffee, beaches, and incredible food. Bottlebrush trees full of lorikeets (also, some of the things I don’t miss, like Sydney’s nightmare housing market).
And it has all the things I love about ballet, like the soaring joy of grand allegro, and the way a perfectly made costume swirls around you when you move (also, some of the things I don’t love, like sexual harassment and rigid hierarchies).
Pas de Don’t is about learning to see yourself clearly again after leaving a relationship where coercive control warped your self-image. It’s about how every sibling experiences a parent differently. It’s about how well-intentioned policies can be disastrous in practice.
It’s about friends who make you brave and a little reckless, friends who hold you accountable and try to save you from yourself, and friends you’d follow into battle because they’ll make sure you come out in one piece.
And, of course, it’s about falling in love. With a place, with your long-buried self, with someone who sees right away how special and loveable you are. I love this book, and I hope you love it too.