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Dancers, Quitters, and Garden Gnomes
Why is the hottest guy in school such a jerk?Alyssa’s a dancer who loves choreography. She’s new to town and she’s done with mean dance teams, and dance instructors who insult to motivate. She’s out to prove that an appreciative, supportive choreographer can win the Willow Dance Championship. When handsome, witty Thayer asks her out, the lights of New York shine even brighter.She doesn’t know he’s lying about his last name, thinks she’s a poor scholarship girl, and is on a date with her as an experiment. And when she finds out…Thayer’s sick of dating the girls at Shay Prep who use his family’s influence to get ahead in society. He decides to date a girl from the prep school across town. That’s when his best friend offers him a challenge, “Stop with the prep school girls. Go out with a regular girl, not someone paying 100K a year in tuition.” It’s one of those ideas that hits him as right. Thayer musses his perfect hair, ditches his Shay Prep blazer and accepts the challenge. Twelve dollars will buy him a bit of truth – will a Manhattan girl go out with a guy who only has twelve dollars to spend on their date? He finds Alyssa, the pretty scholarship dancer.
163 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 2016
34 people are currently reading
94 people want to read
About the author
Emily Evans
37 books427 followersEmily Evans writes fun, young adult romance. She holds a BA in Psychology from Texas A&M University and an MFA in Creative Writing from American College Dublin. A native Houstonian, she loves travel, movies, and books and may be found at www.EmilyEvansBooks.com.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 10, 2016
There's just not enough emotion in the characters for me.
Everything just happens so fast.
One thing just skips to the next with big, giant leaps.
And the thing is that I used to love her books, Accidental Movie Star is one of my favourites, but with every book of hers that I read, they just start to fall short.
Either the characters have not known each other long enough to have a relationship that appears as if they've been childhood friends though they'd just met or, there is not enough dialogue from one of the characters.
This books wasn't really that good a read for me.
Things just happen to fast to early.
Everything just happens so fast.
One thing just skips to the next with big, giant leaps.
And the thing is that I used to love her books, Accidental Movie Star is one of my favourites, but with every book of hers that I read, they just start to fall short.
Either the characters have not known each other long enough to have a relationship that appears as if they've been childhood friends though they'd just met or, there is not enough dialogue from one of the characters.
This books wasn't really that good a read for me.
Things just happen to fast to early.
January 28, 2018
Everything happens too fast, there is often no connection between the chapters.
The characters were too shallow and I found them hard to connect with.
My feeling through most of the book:
"The H was a stupid Jerk and the h was just stupid."
I don't know, maybe I'm just to old for this book.
The characters were too shallow and I found them hard to connect with.
My feeling through most of the book:
"The H was a stupid Jerk and the h was just stupid."
I don't know, maybe I'm just to old for this book.
May 2, 2021
One of my favorite YA authors that each story, I have enjoyed as they have been quite cutesy and end in a HEA is Emily Evans. In Dancers, Quitters, and Garden Gnomes we meet Thayer and Alyssa. Our story starts with Thayer at a dance school competition for choreographers and dancers where Alyssa is waiting for her dancing picks. Here she meets Thayer who decides to "slum" it and picks Alyssa to go on a date with as for the first time - he is with someone who wants to spend time with him and not for his family name or money. The next week starts and Thayer ends up ghosting Alyssa which is a shame as she thought they connected. Alyssa starts her new school and sees Thayer and realizes that he is another rich jerk and the reason he is ghosting Alyssa is that he thinks she is poor which is far from the truth, she just doesn't believe in flouncing her wealth. When Thayer realizes who Alyssa is and discovers that he might have missed his chance with an actual "good girl" who wanted him for him and that by acting the way he did, he is just like his father - someone who he didn't want to grow up to be. Can he win Alyssa's heart back? The second storyline which is where the Garden Gnomes come in is that Alyssa's Grandmother loves Garden Gnomes and someone is stealing them-- when it was discovered, I have to admit that it did make me go Awh and tickled my heartstrings. If you are in the mood for a clean YA romance with dancing, high school hijinks, and garden gnomes - then check out this read by Emily Evans, it also helps that the cover is TDF.
February 25, 2019
3.5 Stars
I love the world Emily Evans creates and all the characters in it. That said, I would also like if the girls in them grow some backbone and walk away from a guy who treats them horribly. Like in the Accidental Movie Star, he treated her so horribly but the second he got back, she jumped onto his lap to go to the school prom.
Other than this irritating fact, I absolutely love these stories.
I love the world Emily Evans creates and all the characters in it. That said, I would also like if the girls in them grow some backbone and walk away from a guy who treats them horribly. Like in the Accidental Movie Star, he treated her so horribly but the second he got back, she jumped onto his lap to go to the school prom.
Other than this irritating fact, I absolutely love these stories.
May 30, 2017
Love the book
I want a grandmother like that. I love gnomes.
Fun story. Couldn't put the book down. Who knew math could be fun.
I want a grandmother like that. I love gnomes.
Fun story. Couldn't put the book down. Who knew math could be fun.
December 21, 2016
This was pretty cute and a quick read. The plot and characters were pretty predictable, which was some nice fluffly reading. I liked the main characters, but disliked using the mean girl as an antagonistic. It's a contemporary YA trope I'm pretty much over because it's so cliched and overdone.
March 10, 2017
It may be possible that I remember the characters from other books, or I remember Thayer, though it too me forever to remember from where, that has loving this so much, but despite the fact that yeah its not likely to happen and despite most definitely falling into the fluff category I just don't think you can go wrong with an Emily Evans title. She really is one of my favorites and Alyssa and Thayer's story was no exception. I'll admit I'd have liked to see more of Rhys and the gang from The Boarding School Experiment where this character line sort of started, but I still really enjoyed this one.
October 2, 2016
Another good one
This is the second book that I have read in the series and I must say it was a good one. I can't wait to read another
This is the second book that I have read in the series and I must say it was a good one. I can't wait to read another
June 12, 2016
A sweet, strong and fulfilling book
YA at its best has a deep core. It speaks about maturity and what that actually is, about choices and how they define a person -- until that person chooses different possibilities and works to become someone new instead. This is a very fine YA novel. It has appealing characters who are sometimes profoundly unsure of themselves. They can be completely wrong, and sometimes choose to do the wrong thing, but when their hearts are in the right place, they're magnificent. Alyssa especially is a wonderful and wonderfully flawed person. At her old school she was a follower, got hurt because of it, and said nothing while others were hurt, so at Shay Prep she's decided to be herself and see what happens. That turns out to be a lot harder than she'd imagined, especially because of Thayer, a boy who attracts and repels her in almost equal measures. I really liked that their relationship was hard for them both for so long. Easy fixes aren't real. People don't change overnight, especially when they have such good reasons to be negative. Thayer has been used his whole life, and that's made him a very guarded jerk who's sure everyone is out for his money and his family's influence. Alyssa sees something more and stronger in him. She's determined to get him to see those same possibilities for himself, and to correct his false assumptions about her. Their relationship follows a much more realistic trajectory than in many books. There's no insta-love or cliched about-faces with one particular moment changing a person forever. Instead, their relationship gradually shifts through Alyssa's hard work and Thayer's slow learning to trust, despite setbacks, disappointment and personal attacks. And Thayer isn't the only one changing -- Alyssa, too, learns to stand up for herself and her own way of seeing, both as a person and as a choreographer. It's a lovely, satisfying story and I'm going to read Emily Evans' other work.
YA at its best has a deep core. It speaks about maturity and what that actually is, about choices and how they define a person -- until that person chooses different possibilities and works to become someone new instead. This is a very fine YA novel. It has appealing characters who are sometimes profoundly unsure of themselves. They can be completely wrong, and sometimes choose to do the wrong thing, but when their hearts are in the right place, they're magnificent. Alyssa especially is a wonderful and wonderfully flawed person. At her old school she was a follower, got hurt because of it, and said nothing while others were hurt, so at Shay Prep she's decided to be herself and see what happens. That turns out to be a lot harder than she'd imagined, especially because of Thayer, a boy who attracts and repels her in almost equal measures. I really liked that their relationship was hard for them both for so long. Easy fixes aren't real. People don't change overnight, especially when they have such good reasons to be negative. Thayer has been used his whole life, and that's made him a very guarded jerk who's sure everyone is out for his money and his family's influence. Alyssa sees something more and stronger in him. She's determined to get him to see those same possibilities for himself, and to correct his false assumptions about her. Their relationship follows a much more realistic trajectory than in many books. There's no insta-love or cliched about-faces with one particular moment changing a person forever. Instead, their relationship gradually shifts through Alyssa's hard work and Thayer's slow learning to trust, despite setbacks, disappointment and personal attacks. And Thayer isn't the only one changing -- Alyssa, too, learns to stand up for herself and her own way of seeing, both as a person and as a choreographer. It's a lovely, satisfying story and I'm going to read Emily Evans' other work.
August 9, 2016
On point(e)! ;)
I have read and loved all of Emily Evans' Accidental series books and Dancers, Quitters, and Garden Gnomes is equally pleasing and refreshing. I loved Alyssa's strong character. I loved the dance and math brainiac aspects. I loved the usual Emily sarcasm. It was a quick, clean read that any fan of Emily's will enjoy!
I have read and loved all of Emily Evans' Accidental series books and Dancers, Quitters, and Garden Gnomes is equally pleasing and refreshing. I loved Alyssa's strong character. I loved the dance and math brainiac aspects. I loved the usual Emily sarcasm. It was a quick, clean read that any fan of Emily's will enjoy!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews