What do you think?
Rate this book
Dance Duo #1
Dance While You Can
"A dancer is married only to her art."
Carrie Moore, the Manhattan Ballet Company's beautiful and brilliant prima ballerina, believed completely in that maxim. Love interfered with concentration and undermined a dancer's discipline.
Yet there were times when she felt as if life was passing her by somehow; she envied the freedom of her flamboyant roommate Bonnie, who could eat as much as she liked, keep late hours and fall in and out of love with carefree abandon
Carrie had fallen in love, just once, on a moonlit night in Florida. But she knew her career depended on one thing: Alex Taylor must never have any part in her life!
Carrie Moore, the Manhattan Ballet Company's beautiful and brilliant prima ballerina, believed completely in that maxim. Love interfered with concentration and undermined a dancer's discipline.
Yet there were times when she felt as if life was passing her by somehow; she envied the freedom of her flamboyant roommate Bonnie, who could eat as much as she liked, keep late hours and fall in and out of love with carefree abandon
Carrie had fallen in love, just once, on a moonlit night in Florida. But she knew her career depended on one thing: Alex Taylor must never have any part in her life!
192 pages, Paperback
First published June 15, 1984
About the author
Claire Harrison
31 books7 followersaka Laura Eden
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 15, 2015
Dance While You Can is a very angsty read, but it does have CH hallmark of an emotionally immature h who gradually and usually quite painfully, grows up to find a romantic relationship.
Carrie is a dancer and all her life has wanted to be a Prima Ballerina- if you know anything about dance, this means years of intense and very focused lessons and a very narrow life, as all Carrie has done for 23 odd years or so is dance. She has the talent and ambition and is well on her way, when she runs into Alex the H on vacation. She gets a bit intoxicated, throws caution to the winds and has a fling (taking the precaution of lying about her name - she gives her roommate's- so that she doesn't run the risk of sleeping with a celebrity hunter).
She leaves the affair behind and all is going well until she winds up preggers. In the meantime the H has managed to track her down but he is irked she lied to him and rather mean about the whole thing, so she doesn't tell him she is preggers. I actually understood that, cause in typical HPlandia style, the H comes across as being more interested in bagging a trophy and if he knew about the pregnancy, having an heir with a forced marriage, than really liking the h. So he starts dating her man-eating roommate and this of course depresses the h. She takes some time off and goes into seclusion.
Eventually the H finds out she is preggers but she tells him her dance partner is the father, and after another big fight with the H being a jerk, he goes off and she has a still birth. She falls into a huge depression but her dance teacher gets her out of it and the h goes back to rebuilding her dancing star status.
The H is still around with the roommate but the h focuses back on her career until her parents and her dance teacher convince her to tell the H she loves him. He has loved h all along (although why he never said ANYTHING nice to her or about his feelings is a mystery) and was only friends with the roommate to make the h jealous but gave it up when they did not think it worked. The roommate is actually in love with the h's dance partner. (His story is One Last Dance.
So they both finally get around to confessing their feelings and huge HEA with a good epilogue. The h is able to maintain her career and have a family, so good finish all around.
I liked it, but there are some heavy angst moment's and CH does have a skill for making the horrible choices made by both H and h seem almost reasonable in the circumstances. The writing is good, the emo drama is good and the only thing lacking is more one on one time with the h and H. The story works as it is, but a little more relationship that wasn't antagonistic would have been better.
Carrie is a dancer and all her life has wanted to be a Prima Ballerina- if you know anything about dance, this means years of intense and very focused lessons and a very narrow life, as all Carrie has done for 23 odd years or so is dance. She has the talent and ambition and is well on her way, when she runs into Alex the H on vacation. She gets a bit intoxicated, throws caution to the winds and has a fling (taking the precaution of lying about her name - she gives her roommate's- so that she doesn't run the risk of sleeping with a celebrity hunter).
She leaves the affair behind and all is going well until she winds up preggers. In the meantime the H has managed to track her down but he is irked she lied to him and rather mean about the whole thing, so she doesn't tell him she is preggers. I actually understood that, cause in typical HPlandia style, the H comes across as being more interested in bagging a trophy and if he knew about the pregnancy, having an heir with a forced marriage, than really liking the h. So he starts dating her man-eating roommate and this of course depresses the h. She takes some time off and goes into seclusion.
Eventually the H finds out she is preggers but she tells him her dance partner is the father, and after another big fight with the H being a jerk, he goes off and she has a still birth. She falls into a huge depression but her dance teacher gets her out of it and the h goes back to rebuilding her dancing star status.
The H is still around with the roommate but the h focuses back on her career until her parents and her dance teacher convince her to tell the H she loves him. He has loved h all along (although why he never said ANYTHING nice to her or about his feelings is a mystery) and was only friends with the roommate to make the h jealous but gave it up when they did not think it worked. The roommate is actually in love with the h's dance partner. (His story is One Last Dance.
So they both finally get around to confessing their feelings and huge HEA with a good epilogue. The h is able to maintain her career and have a family, so good finish all around.
I liked it, but there are some heavy angst moment's and CH does have a skill for making the horrible choices made by both H and h seem almost reasonable in the circumstances. The writing is good, the emo drama is good and the only thing lacking is more one on one time with the h and H. The story works as it is, but a little more relationship that wasn't antagonistic would have been better.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 5, 2024
Кифленско ми е, и точка 🤣 Тук за разнообразие героинята натвори сума ти глупости и накрая трябваше да се извинява, а момчето си беше жив светец да я изтърпи, но пък лИбоФта победи както си трябва 😆.
3,5⭐️
3,5⭐️
July 30, 2022
This was well written and the storyline pulled me right in. I loved the "supporting cast". They added depth to the story making it more interesting and complex. However, I struggled with the decisions and thought processes of the heroine.
Available on open library!
Available on open library!
May 25, 2021
I'm torn. I love the setting. However, the love story itself is lacking the chemistry.
The characters meet and go to bed. The hero is furious because the heroine's reaction is not what he wanted. What did he expect? Did he want her to start writing the wedding guests list?
And why is everybody trying to make the heroine feel guilty? Her loving mother calls her heartless. Really?
The hero is really placid. And they spend the most part of the book apart.
The characters meet and go to bed. The hero is furious because the heroine's reaction is not what he wanted. What did he expect? Did he want her to start writing the wedding guests list?
And why is everybody trying to make the heroine feel guilty? Her loving mother calls her heartless. Really?
The hero is really placid. And they spend the most part of the book apart.
February 11, 2025
The two stars are for the other couple: I really liked Casimir and Bonnie and would have preferred them as the MC, instead. Their story alone would have made a great book!
I couldn't stand the h; Carrie, she was a selfish bitch! There's nothing wrong with wanting to devote yourself to your dance career, but even her mentor told her not to exclude everything else, especially love, but she didn't listen of course, treating the H, Alex, like crap! She lied to him about being pregnant with his baby (let him think it was the OM who knocked her up), and that was bad enough, but then accusing him of not giving a damn when the baby died was just awful!!! And she had no qualms about using Casimir (when she thought the H, Alex, was involved with Bonnie), so I'm glad he was also using her as well. After pushing Alex away so many times, she had no business being jealous!
Her biggest thing against him (besides the fact that he was the only guy that could dampen the tights beneath her tutu) was that she claimed he didn't care about the lost baby (born prematurely). Well, DUH!!!! You told him the baby wasn't his, so you could hardy expect him to be the grieving father, for crying out loud! He DID care when he found out the truth, but for some reason that only her lame brain knows, she didn't believe him! Even worse, she blames him for the baby's loss, because she was stressed out over an argument that they had prior to that. And what was that argument about? She told him the baby wasn't his!!! And he actually got angry??? The NERVE of him!!!!
She even choreographs a dorky ballet where the leading man dancer murders a baby and the leading lady (herself, of course) is consumed with bitter hatred!!! Gee, where did that come from????
While it's true that grief can make a person temporarily unbalanced, this was NOT the case with her, as she admitted to herself that then pain from the baby's loss was slowly fading. In other words, it was okay for her to get over the loss of the baby she carried inside her, but it was NOT okay for the H to not be a grieving wreck over a baby that he didn't even know was his until it was too late! Makes perfect sense, in her DeLuLu Land!
She obviously had serious mental issues and was in need of a good psychiatrist, but of course, that doesn't happen.
Alex was a real jerk (as well as a simp) to be in love with her. I was hoping she'd fall and injure herself so badly it was the end of her career, and she winds up with nothing and no one, and he wised up and found a woman who really loved him, doesn't play "you are NOT the father" games and is not suffering from psychosis!
DNF; I didn't want this h to have the HEA she did NOT deserve!
I couldn't stand the h; Carrie, she was a selfish bitch! There's nothing wrong with wanting to devote yourself to your dance career, but even her mentor told her not to exclude everything else, especially love, but she didn't listen of course, treating the H, Alex, like crap! She lied to him about being pregnant with his baby (let him think it was the OM who knocked her up), and that was bad enough, but then accusing him of not giving a damn when the baby died was just awful!!! And she had no qualms about using Casimir (when she thought the H, Alex, was involved with Bonnie), so I'm glad he was also using her as well. After pushing Alex away so many times, she had no business being jealous!
Her biggest thing against him (besides the fact that he was the only guy that could dampen the tights beneath her tutu) was that she claimed he didn't care about the lost baby (born prematurely). Well, DUH!!!! You told him the baby wasn't his, so you could hardy expect him to be the grieving father, for crying out loud! He DID care when he found out the truth, but for some reason that only her lame brain knows, she didn't believe him! Even worse, she blames him for the baby's loss, because she was stressed out over an argument that they had prior to that. And what was that argument about? She told him the baby wasn't his!!! And he actually got angry??? The NERVE of him!!!!
She even choreographs a dorky ballet where the leading man dancer murders a baby and the leading lady (herself, of course) is consumed with bitter hatred!!! Gee, where did that come from????
While it's true that grief can make a person temporarily unbalanced, this was NOT the case with her, as she admitted to herself that then pain from the baby's loss was slowly fading. In other words, it was okay for her to get over the loss of the baby she carried inside her, but it was NOT okay for the H to not be a grieving wreck over a baby that he didn't even know was his until it was too late! Makes perfect sense, in her DeLuLu Land!
She obviously had serious mental issues and was in need of a good psychiatrist, but of course, that doesn't happen.
Alex was a real jerk (as well as a simp) to be in love with her. I was hoping she'd fall and injure herself so badly it was the end of her career, and she winds up with nothing and no one, and he wised up and found a woman who really loved him, doesn't play "you are NOT the father" games and is not suffering from psychosis!
DNF; I didn't want this h to have the HEA she did NOT deserve!
December 6, 2025
Carrie didn't want anyone to recognize her for her fame as a ballet dancer, so she took the name Boonie Hughes (her friend's name) when she went in a two-day vacation in Florida. She met Alex Taylor - a mysterious attractive man - and soon he became her first lover! Even though he touched her like no other man, Carrie had to go back to her ballet life. She didn't correct Alex's information about her name and the other things she lied about because she thought that any man could not figure out in her career life, and any way she wouldn't meet Alex ever again because he was too angry of her rejection of him in their last day together. But, she was totally wrong!
I enjoyed this book immensely. Different with greet depth and intensity. A book to keep and a recommended read.
I enjoyed this book immensely. Different with greet depth and intensity. A book to keep and a recommended read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 30, 2019
A dancer is married only to her art."
Carrie Moore, the Manhattan Ballet Company's beautiful and brilliant prima ballerina, believed completely in that maxim. Love interfered with concentration and undermined a dancer's discipline.
Yet there were times when she felt as if life was passing her by somehow; she envied the freedom of her flamboyant roommate Bonnie, who could eat as much as she liked, keep late hours and fall in and out of love with carefree abandon
Carrie had fallen in love, just once, on a moonlit night in Florida. But she knew her career depended on one thing: Alex Taylor must never have any part in her life!
Carrie Moore, the Manhattan Ballet Company's beautiful and brilliant prima ballerina, believed completely in that maxim. Love interfered with concentration and undermined a dancer's discipline.
Yet there were times when she felt as if life was passing her by somehow; she envied the freedom of her flamboyant roommate Bonnie, who could eat as much as she liked, keep late hours and fall in and out of love with carefree abandon
Carrie had fallen in love, just once, on a moonlit night in Florida. But she knew her career depended on one thing: Alex Taylor must never have any part in her life!
December 16, 2020
I absolutely love this book, one of my favorites. It’s a story about not giving up on love.
July 27, 2022
Excellent world-building and characterization in this romance set in the ballet world. The ballerina heroine is devoted to her career which means that she has no personal life. Feeling burnt out, she takes a holiday, wherein she meets the handsome hero. When he does not recognize her as a famous prima ballerina, she can't resist having a fantasy holiday fling with him under a fake name. But it turns out she was not equipped with the emotional fallout of their affair, so she runs.
For those who get triggered, be warned there is a devastating scene where .
I don't remember why I had initially shelved this book on my avoid list, probably because the hero uses an OW to try and make the heroine jealous but I can say without a doubt that I don't regret reading this story. I totally believed in the eventual HEA of the hero and heroine, not an easy feat in a genre that is littered with wishy-washy characters and dubious "happy for now" endings.
For those who get triggered, be warned there is a devastating scene where .
I don't remember why I had initially shelved this book on my avoid list, probably because the hero uses an OW to try and make the heroine jealous but I can say without a doubt that I don't regret reading this story. I totally believed in the eventual HEA of the hero and heroine, not an easy feat in a genre that is littered with wishy-washy characters and dubious "happy for now" endings.
Read
July 1, 2018"A danger is married only to her art."
Carrie Moore, the Manhattan Ballet Company's beautiful and brilliant prima ballerina, believed completely in that maxim. Love interfered with concentration and undermined a dancer's discipline.
Yet there were times when she felt as if life was passing her by somehow; she envied the freedom of her flamboyant roommate Bonnie, who could eat as much as she liked, keep late hours and fall in and out of love with carefree abandon
Carrie had fallen in love, just once, on a moonlit night in Florida. But she knew her career depended on one thing: Alex Taylor must never have any part in her life!
Carrie Moore, the Manhattan Ballet Company's beautiful and brilliant prima ballerina, believed completely in that maxim. Love interfered with concentration and undermined a dancer's discipline.
Yet there were times when she felt as if life was passing her by somehow; she envied the freedom of her flamboyant roommate Bonnie, who could eat as much as she liked, keep late hours and fall in and out of love with carefree abandon
Carrie had fallen in love, just once, on a moonlit night in Florida. But she knew her career depended on one thing: Alex Taylor must never have any part in her life!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews