Review: Strictly Come Dating

Strictly Come Dating by Kathryn Freeman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Maggie is a 37 year old divorced mother of two, a doctor, and (naturally) super-organised, she lives and dies by her to-do lists.

Seb is Maggie's best friends' younger brother. He's single and carefree, only returned to the UK from his worldwide travels because of his father's heart-attack, living with his sister Sarah.

Every Saturday night Maggie and her BFFs: Hannah (the nanny); Sarah and her twin sister Alice meet at one of their houses with the children and pizza to watch that staple of early Saturday night entertainment, Strictly Come Dancing. Maggie has always loved dancing and longed to visit Blackpool, that mecca for ballroom dancers, but her ex-husband Paul said it was tacky.

Egged on by her friends, Maggie joins a ballroom dancing class on Wednesday evening, but sadly the only males on offer are short and bald. Then Seb steps up to the rescue.

This is a very low-key gentle romance, centred on Maggie and her two daughters, the dance lessons, Seb and his volunteering at a local youth centre, and Saturday night Strictly. I did enjoy it but I also wanted something more to happen, some interaction outside of the small group of characters, even some insight into Maggie's work as a GP. Heck, Hannah just seemed to be a plot device because we barely saw her working as a nanny to the children. If I say all the characters other than Maggie and Seb (and maybe Maggie's children) were sort of out-of-focus, does that make sense?

I enjoyed Kathryn Freeman's novel The New Guy and I thought that had more oomph than this one.

Overall, if Strictly is the highlight of your Saturday night and a romance about family is your thing then I think you will love this, I just wanted a bit more edge, some angst, some drama (said in a loud over-emphatic way).

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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