Grand Jeté, Diana Copland

I love ballet I love male ballet dancers in particular and I love M/M. This book had me covered. 

- Review by Kazza K

This was a nice story. Nothing untoward, histrionic, or angst ridden in sight. Just nice characters, a nice family, and friends.

Jordan Armstead has reluctantly been taken to see his niece, Mandy, as the white mouse in a performance of The Nutcracker, two weekends before Christmas. He's tired, would rather be shopping, but does it because he loves his family. Thankfully Jordan's mum knew just what would pick Jordan up and decided to give him some incentive -

"You don't get to nag when someone is being a good sport. And here," she handed Jordan a heavy magazine, "you look at the menu."
"It's not a menu mother," Jillian said with an expressive eye roll. "It's a program."
"I think that depends entirely on one's point of view," Carol muttered under her breath...
She looked down at Jordan as she walked away. "Page fifteen, " she muttered, then threw her scarf around her neck with a flourish and followed Jillian toward the door.
When he came to page fifteen he smirked. He should have known. Company Members was printed across the top.

Davis Conrad, one of the 'Company Members,'  stands out on the, uh, menu for Jordan. He happens to be dancing the Arabian Pas De Deux.

So his mum, his sister and his brother, plus his nieces and nephews all accept Jordan for who he is. Which is nice, you get tired of the whole homophobe drama in the family trope.

He knew how lucky he was that his mother and siblings accepted his orientation; he had too many friends whose parents hadn't, and he knew what kind of heartache that lead to.

Davis Conrad is 31, getting up there for a ballet dancer, principal or soloist. He has injued himself during the performance and finds himself both at the ER, with a career ending injury, and dumped by his partner, all in one fell swoop. Just for the record there is no grand jete in the Arabian Pas De Deux, not the standard variation anyway. However, the title is nice and the book is intially about ballet and the theme intertwines throughout the book so I'm not complaining, just saying .

Obviously our ER triage nurse, Jordan, and gorgeous ballet dancer, Davis, are bound to cross paths, officially, this time. Davis has nowhere to go while he intially recovers and can manage to book a flight home. Jordan offers his place and some extra TLC in the mean time. Okay, it may be a  little convenient but it's nice, and I enjoyed the whole thing.

The book follows two men, who like each other, have both been left by partners, and find one another at a time when they needed someone else. Davis is charming, he says the loveliest things to Jordan, whose ego has taken a bit of a battering. Jordan is a gentleman and Davis is so enamoured of his caring, thoughtful ways. The intial build is over nearly two days.There's a little bit of tension as Davis goes home and Jordan can't seem to contact him which just added that little tug at the heartstrings.

There is a nice epilogue, four years down the track. They are still going strong, which is always nice to know. I do prefer closure. I like it more when a book doesn't just stop; rather it lets you know how the couple are doing, And they are doing very well.

Grand jete is a delight. It is sweet, it is well paced, it has engaging characters, and it has ballet in it. I'm all for those things. If it sounds like you then I say grab a copy and start reading.

If you want to see some fabulous grand jete's en tournant watch the wonderful Carlos Acosta doing Solar's Variation from La Bayadere. They're towards the end :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIWKIc2mx4w&feature=related