I really felt for Clara and that made me a little impatient with Nina.Īnd it doesn't help that I'm more-or-less contemporary with Nina and have a hard time imagining the Royal Ballet being so ragingly homophobic all that time. That fear is really the only bar to them being together and it causes a few setbacks that Clara just rolls with that would have been devastating (though, thankfully, nothing like a dark moment).

They're best friends with hints of could've-been that are achingly poignant. There's a core of fear that has kept her apart from Clara despite becoming close in their teens. I'm really torn about Nina as a character, though. Plus, I really liked having Nina's ballet play another significant role in a romance because Duncan's descriptions of it are evocative and engaging and getting another run at it felt lovely. Plus, having met and interacted with Nina and Clara in the previous book gives interesting insight into this story.īoth Nina and Clara are distant enough from the characters in the previous book that all you really know is that they might get/be together, so I think the parallel thing works pretty well. I definitely recommend reading that one first as this one has many more spoilers for that story. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title.This is third in a series and happens simultaneously with Pas de Deux. Thankfully for her, however, George doesn't give up so easily. Joss is immediately smitten with her beautiful neighbor, but their conversations walk the line between friendliness and flirtation like it’s a tightrope, and Joss is reluctant to do anything that will risk their budding friendship.

Before Joss can recover from being tackled by the Great Dane, she finds herself face to face with George's mom, Maeve Dylan. Cupid strikes as she’s moving into her new place outside Sky and, contrary to popular belief, Cupid has four legs and a tail, hits like a linebacker, and answers to the name George. Burned out on public accounting after too many sixteen-hour days, the allure of operating a small, independent bookstore is too tempting to resist, and Joss decides to walk away from the career she spent the last decade building to move back to the resort town high in the Rockies. Joss Perrault left Sky, Colorado after high school with no intention of ever returning, but all that changes when she inherits Atramentum.

Atramentum by M.J. Duncan