Kiss Me, Dancer

Dance ‘n’ Luv #1

by Alicia Street

A roller coaster of a romance between a divorced dad and a dance teacher.

Dance instructor Casey Richardson takes an immediate dislike to the brash, arrogant Drew Byrne when he pulls his nine-year-old son out of her “silly” dance class. Still, she cannot help noticing his smoking hot body and bedroom eyes.

A working class girl raised in the small fishing and farming community on Long Island’s rural North Fork, Casey knows all too well how easily a girl can get hurt by the notorious womanizing hunks that flourish on the South Fork in the Hamptons. Men like Drew Byrne.

The last thing she needs is for him to be the only one who can save her from losing her dance academy, the dream she has worked so hard to turn into a reality.

Remarrying is definitely off Drew’s list of things to do. As head of his Fortune 500 trucking company, he enjoys his wealth and has no problem keeping it a game with some of the world’s most beautiful women. So why should his son’s challenging, straight talking dance teacher get under his skin in a way no other female has?

Sure, Casey Richardson has luminous brown eyes and a lean, taut body that drives him nuts, but he’s seen plenty in his day with the supermodels he is used to dating. He tells himself it is because Casey is the only one who was able to bring his shy, uncommunicative son out of his shell. But even that isn’t it.

Bewildered, Drew decides he just might make use of those ridiculous psychic readings he won at North Cove’s Annual Fourth Of July Bazaar raffle. Little does he know the local psychic who donated the readings has taken off last minute for some trekking in Tibet —and Casey was swayed into substituting for her with phone readings to the anonymous winner.

Add in a stint on a hit TV dance-off series, a cozy local coffee shop, a narcissistic rock star and a protective big brother to make KISS ME, DANCER a sexy, heartfelt and fun read.

In addition to being part of today’s Indie author movement, Alicia and Roy Street are also traditionally published (under another penname). In 2009 they received a Daphne Du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense.

Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Fiction, Chick Lit, Amazon, Adult

230 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 11, 2011

About the author

Alicia Street is a USA Today Bestselling Author and Daphne du Maurier award-winner. She writes both sweet and steamy romance and sometimes collaborates with her husband, Roy. Her years as a professional dancer, choreographer and teacher provide the inspiration behind her Dance 'n' Luv contemporary romance series. A compulsive reader of every genre, Alicia loves watching old black-and-white movies and inventing new recipes for soup.

Reviews

[Samantha March · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alicia and Roy Street are currently on tour with their novel Kiss Me, Dancer. This story follows Casey Richardson, a ballet dancer and working girl that finds passion in teaching others how to express themselves through dance. Though she might not have made it into professional dancing like her younger sister, her talent and drive is still there. Casey is devastated to learn that she might lose her dance studio – and home – for not reading the fine print in her leasing contract.

Drew Byrne, a wealthy, arrogant man, disapproves of his nine year old son being in Casey’s dance class. He wants his son to focus on sports, something manly. But when he sees how Casey’s class is helping Josh break out of his shell, he lets him report back to class. He may have another reason for allowing Josh back in Casey’s studio – he has an on the dance teacher herself. But could a romance between these opposites ever work?

I thoroughly enjoyed Kiss Me, Dancer. The story is well-written and kept my attention throughout. Casey and Drew are complete opposites who fight their romance for so long, but the chemistry between the two sizzles between the pages. I even loved Josh’s character, a shy little boy who loves to dance to hip-hop routines. Everything was well put together, from the romance to the inadequate feeling Casey has when being compared to her sister, to Casey building her new business. The only gripe I have is how long Casey and Drew fought their attraction. I was actually unsure at one point if they would be able to stay together due to them both being so stubborn! But overall, fun book that I would recommend. Looking forward to the sequel that focuses on Casey’s brother!

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reviewed the Ebook version via Romance Junkies and here is my review:

Casey Richardson is outraged when a stranger barges into the middle of her dance class and pulls one of her students away. Afraid that the man is a kidnapper or worse, she chases him down to protect her student. When the man, Drew Byrne, establishes that he is the father of the boy, Casey feels a little more relieved. It does not take long to get her angry when Drew announces that his son is not going to be participating in her sissy ballet classes anymore.

Drew Byrne is attracted to Casey the minute he sees her, but he ignores his feelings since he will probably never see her again. Besides, he knows they are from different classes, and she would never go for the 'love them and leave them' type. Imagine his surprise when he just keeps running into Casey everywhere he goes. Suddenly, Drew is seeing things in a whole new light. It just might be time to settle down with the woman who has won his heart, Casey.

KISS ME, DANCER is breath-taking. It is a truly inspiring romance about two polar opposites finding love when and where they least expect it. I am still amazed that KISS ME, DANCER is written by a husband and wife team. I honestly cannot tell where one ends and the other starts. With KISS ME, DANCER, Alicia and Roy Street have created a fast-paced and captivating story filled with memorable characters. I cannot wait to read the next book, TOUCH ME AND TANGO, in their fun Dance 'n' Luv series. I am sure it will be just as enjoyable as KISS ME, DANCER.

[Germaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not a bad read. The heroine is a poor but hardworking dance teacher and the hero is a rich, powerful, sexy man who has a young son who takes dance lessons from the heroine. Hero, being a true alpha male, doesn't want his son taking dancing lessons -- he should be doing more manly things like working out at the gym with dad/hero. Oh yeah, dad is a compulsive womanizer when he's not screwing things up with his son or being pushed around by HIS dad. Heroine, through her sterling character changes the lives of all those around her, and they all live happily ever after.

The plot moved along at a good clip for the first two-thirds of the book. Then things ground to a halt in a series of contrived misunderstandings which were miraculously resolved in the last ten pages. I never thought it would end!

The story is set on Long Island, but not the fancy part. The author gives us a good sense of place.

I'd recommend this for a vacation read if there isn't anything better around. I won't be reading it again.

[Coco.V]

🎁 FREE on Amazon today (3/13/2021)! 🎁

[Naj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adult contemporary romance is like a maze. A maze built out of so many books that it is so difficult to find anything good in the genre... until I found this one. I'm so glad I got an email with this eBook waiting for me to munch on!

Casey Richardson has a dream. A dream that she made a reality: she teaches dance at her very own dance school. But it seems too good to be true. Her dance school is threatened and she has less than two-three months before she closes it completely. On the day she received the bad news, she meets a very dashing, rich and harsh womanizer that makes her insides melt and her groin ache. No way is she going to let herself fall in love with him, she's been down that road before and she is not going to repeat her mistakes. Especially when she can avoid it now.

Kiss Me, Dancer is a contemporary romance that had so much depth, emotion, passion and love. At first glance at the cover, I expected to read one of those sweet, fluffy and funny novels that really didn't have much depth and had more of the straight to the point love that is too easy. This book slapped that cover away and gave you reality that was written by a great duo of authors writing from both a male and female side. The outcome of the perfect tag team is simply AH-MEH-ZING.

Casey is a humble, sweet and sexy (in her own way) character. She is incredibly likable and any reader would love her and treat her like their very own book best friend. Drew on the other hand, is an incredibly realistic male lead. I've read a lot of books written by women and they almost got the male character right, ALMOST. But this one is spot on realistic. Secondary characters fit in so well and I'm pretty sure the story will be nothing without them. The storyline was in depth, detailed, wonderfully constructed and simply perfect.

Hats off to the Streets for their beautifully written romantic story of real life troubles, and heart ache's. A brilliant script for a chick flick we girls would love to cry and swoon about!

[Lisa (lifeinlit) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kiss Me, Dancer is the story of Casey, a dance instructor that lives her life often overlooked, both in her family and in her personal life, and Drew, a wealthy, egotistical, over-the-top womanizer who hates to fail, loves to win, and doesn't care who he steps on to get there. Casey spends her life doing for others, never believing anything good will ever come to her (either because she will fail or because she doesn't believe she deserves anything good to begin with.) and Drew has had his entire life planned for him by his father from day one. Complete opposites that find themselves in a sizzling love affair that they both try to fight from the very beginning.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. The characters are very creative and well developed. I especially loved Drew's son, Josh, who's a very shy hip-hop dancer in Casey's class, who little by little is learning to come out of his shell. This story has the perfect amount of giggles, gasps, and anxious page-turning to keep the reader interested. I was particularly on the edge of my seat during the psychic reading parts - is she going to tell Drew it's her? Will he ever speak to her again if she does?

I do have to admit though that I didn't much care for the cover, and at first glance wasn't too sure that this book was for me. I tend to be more of a "Cover Girl" and I find myself judging books by their covers. But I'm so happy I gave this one a chance because I was definitely pleasantly surprised! I would strongly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys chick lit and is looking for their next good read.

[Graylark]

You know it's not going to be good when the very first page contains lines like:

- "A man who just happened to resemble a Greek god walking the earth in jeans and silky black tee." (Lolwut)

- "He shot Casey an impatient glance, stunning her with teal blue eyes." (Did the X-men lose someone?)

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nice easy read. The beginning was a little slow and a bit trite but the story picks up nicely in the middle. The ending feels a bit rushed -- I'm not a fan of conflict being resolved in the last 10 pages or so. All-in-all it is a good book to take on vacation or to the beach.

[Julie Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kiss Me Dancer by Alicia Street and Roy Street
This story starts off with Casey and she's in charge of the 8 and 10 year old students at the barre. Love hearing abou the dance moves.
Josh left with his bio dad and she ran after them to find out who he was.
Story follows Casey and her family and her career and job of running and owning the ballet shop and the lease is about to be sold.
Parker, her brother took over the landscaping jobs his father had along with other miscellaneous jobs. He had helped her redo the whole place for the studio and her own apartment above.
Story also follows Josh and his dad. He's a very rich man and arrived in a limo and has yachts and everything else he ever wanted.
Drew Burn from the trucking company and he's got tats all over. She is strongly attracted to Drew.
He is highly attracted to her also when they show up for the local play Josh will be in.
Great keeping up to date with the others in her family as we were introduced to them in the previous book.
Like twist of the fortune teller. Their relationship takes different turns and twists and plans are made but with hestiation...
Sex scenes.She's lucky to have her best friend Natalie around when things don't go exactly as planned...

[Myra Gabor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Casey Richardson is a 28-year-old dance instructor. Drew Byrne is the divorced, biological father of one of her students. They're both drop dead gorgeous, of course. Casey has faced many hardships and might lose her school. Without any proof of who he is, Drew shows up and takes his son away from the lesson. He's going to turn the kid into a "real man" at the gym. Thank goodness the kid is stronger and smarter than his father and insists on returning to class. How could Casey let a stranger walk in and remove a child in her care without calling someone to verify that Drew is who he says he is and has permission to take the child? It's not a "meet cute". It's cause to call the cops. Drew uses threats, intimidation and sexual innuendo against Casey in order to get her attention. The whole story is Mr Macho having lewd thoughts about Casey and her being torn between him and saving her dance school. It's ridiculous. Avoid it.

[Iris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun story

Though too much drama at times, I enjoyed the story and of course the HEA and the epilogue. I liked the heroine, despite her occasional “wimpiness” but it took much longer to embrace Drew - too much of a jerk. I still enjoyed it and look forward to reading more from this author.

[Irene · Rating 1 out of 5]

My Review

I’m sorry to say but this story is just not going to be my cup of tea. I will not finish this book.

[Janet Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book

[Jeri Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review of Kiss Me and Tango

Alicia and Roy did an amazing job with this book. I really enjoyed it and will be buying more of this series!

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This romance caught me a little off guard, I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. Casey has had some hard knocks in the romance department as well as life. She is the sister who took care of everyone else first and always placed herself second. She is not naïve, she is strong willed and steadfast. Her biggest problem is she doesn’t think she deserves the things she has fought so hard to have. She believes that all of her dreams are just pipe-dreams that will never come to fruition and she is too willing to accept this as a truth of her life.

Drew Byrne is a millionaire playboy, there is no doubt about that. However, he has come to a time in his life when friends are starting to call him out about it. The cast is full of secondary players that are as well developed as the main characters. Their dialogue is realistic, sharp witted, and doesn’t pull any punches. There is something about Casey that has broken through Drew’s well-constructed defenses and he feels like a weak man because of this. Author Roy Street does an excellent job expressing the male perspective in his stories, which I think is an added bonus.

Both Casey’s and Drew’s journey to accept the inevitable is a roller-coaster ride through misbeliefs, miscommunications, and pride. There were more than a few times I wanted to knock both of their heads together. Family dynamics play a huge part in this heartwarming tale of two people that are really easy to care about.

FYI: Steamy adult situations and three F-bombs are dropped. So, not really PG rated.

This is the first book in the Dance 'n' Luv Series that include stories for Casey’s older brother, Parker, and her younger sister, Jenna. Both of whom I would love to read more about.

Format/Typo Issues: I found no significant editing or formatting issues.
**Originally written for "Books and Pals" book blog. May have received a free review copy.** October 30, 2014

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book! This tells the story of dance instructor Casey Richardson. She runs a dancing school in North Folk, and one day one of her student's father, the infamous playboy, Drew Byrne, comes barging in to her classes to pull him out of her class. From here on out begins some serious sexual attraction, funny bantering, and misguided notions on a relationship.

Drew and Casey's relationship was very tumutlous. Their attraction is instant, obviously, but their love for each other grows slowly and develops very well. I thought they complimented each other perfectly. Casey tames his temper and wild instincts, and Drew helps Casey realize her self-worth and instills confidence within her. Because Drew is known as a playboy, Casey tells herself not to fall for him, that their relationship is just a fling. Drew keeps saying that he doesn't do marriage or committments. It does get redundant a lot, and his reason for not wanting to do committment didn't feel plausible, but I overlooked that. It was fun to see them slowly falling for each other, and when they do realize it, the results were funny, despairing, but satisfying in the end. There does come a point about two-thirds of the way into the book. It's simply a matter of back-and-forth arguments between Drew and Casey. They have some serious trust issues they have to overcome. This also seemed repetetive, and I almost groaned when they got into yet another argument.

Still, I enjoyed this book. It was entertaining and made me laugh. There are plenty of hot scenes in the book--when they played basketball!--whew, that was hot. :)

[Phylis Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

asey Richardson is a ballet instructor who operates her own ballet school on property that her landlord is threatening to sell and Casey can not afford to buy. Her brother offered to help but Casey does not want to take all his savings to try to

save the school. Her sister Jenna who happens to be part of a major ballet group is living the life that Casey dreamed for herself but helped Jenna achieve.

Casey's Mom is quick to compare Casey to Jenna but in a way that hurts Casey.

In the middle of all of her problems she is teaching a ballet class and in walks one of the fathers (Drew) to "kidnap" his child (Josh). He pulls Josh out of the school because he doesnt want his son doing ballet.

Casey and Josh prove to Drew that dancing of any kind is important, it improves self confidence and so much more. Will Drew and Casey become an item. Guess you should read the book and see if complete opposites can build a meaningful relationship.

[Tima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Casey, a dance instructor, meets Drew when he comes to pull his son out of her class. She's poor and struggling to keep her dance studio afloat; he's wealthy and never wanted for anything. It's a relationship fraught with misunderstanding and drama from the very beginning.

The characters in the story were real, especially the males. Romance stories typically have the females more true to character than the males. But in this story both characters, I felt, were portrayed correctly. This is probably due to the husband and wife writing team. The story was enjoyable to read and moved smoothly. There was quite a bit of drama at the end, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment. I will definitely be keeping my eye out for the next book in the series.

I received this book free of charge in exchange for my honest review.

[Rebecca Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Casey Richardson, director of North Cove Dance Academy, seems to finally be at a stable point in her life. Her dance academy is doing well but when a guy who looks like a Greek God, walks into the studio her life is about to be turned upside down.

Drew Byrne is a millionaire and is used to having women all over him, yet when Casey doesn't throw herself at him he finds himself intrigued by her and wants to get to know her.

As Casey is about to lose the building her dance studio is in she is in desperate need to find another but financially is unable to.

As Casey and Drew grow closer together they have so many obstacles to overcome if they are to find a future together. But many, many past relationships come back to put doubts into both of them.

The characters are great and they show how even with money, you can't buy everything.

[Jennifer Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars for Kiss Me, Dancer by husband-and-wife writing team, Alicia and Roy Street. I thoroughly enjoyed this romance that left me with a smile on my face and my feet itching to dance in heroine Casey's studio. One of my key criteria for a good romance - actually, for a good book regardless of genre - is character growth, and I felt this story delivered that in spades. As a divorced parent myself I'm aware of the difficulties of bringing up children post-divorce, and Kiss Me, Dancer, handled this aspect of the story with finesse, while delivering a delightful and believable romance for two people who definitely grew emotionally during the course of this story.

[⚜️XAR the Bookwyrm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roller coaster of a romance is right for this book! The roller coaster being that the two main characters blew hot and cold with each other and played games worthy of high school teenagers rather than consenting adults! This made it difficult to connect with Casey and Drew for me. Casey's constant belittling of herself was also annoying and grated on the nerves after a while. Aside from all that, the book was entertaining and well written, and does have re-read potential, though it will have to be several years between reads!

[Monica Akinyi Odhiambo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alicia Street,Kiss me dancer is the the first book on the (Dance and Luv Series) that I enjoyed so much.I can't even believe I had all the three books on my Kindle.I can't even believe how fast I have breezed through the books in the series.Such a delight,strong plot,had me dreaming and wishing I would find such a beautiful love.Casey Richardson and Drew Bryne were such a beautiful couple.I so love the dance theme the stories are set on.

[Conny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book as a free download and I really liked it. It was a nice read with likable characters and plenty of ups and downs you expect in a romance novel. The only thing that I did not care for too much was the way the main character would talk to her when he was upset with her. I do agree with some of the other reviews that the end feels rushed but overall I found it to be an enjoyable read and I had a hard time putting it down.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written contemporary romance. The characters are believable and the story moves at a fairly quick pace. A nice quick read that draws you into the characters to the point that I didn't want to put it down once I started reading it. Would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good love story.

[Beth Lechman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Casey Richardson had her heart set on being a professional dancer. when that didn't work out she started her own dance studio. One of her students fathers showed up one day and her world was never the same. Sparks flew between the two and her life as she knew it changed. Light hearted and funny at times. Enjoyed the book.

[Ginny Lamere · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful read

Loved this book so much, loved how Casey and Drew flight falling for each other. This book made me laugh, sigh, and in a few places cry right along with Casey and I felt bad for Drew in a few

[Michelle [Helen Geek]]

Free on Amazon 05/23/2012.

[Michelle Paine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to open a bakery, so where is my millionaire?? oh wait, I'm already married to man that I love!!!!
good book.

[❤️ Dorsey aka Wrath Lover Reviews ❤️]

Kindle Freebie 8/08/12

[Desiree Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute!