New York Ballet principal dancer Heather Hays has it all, until discovering her fiancee and golden boy dancer who claims to have brought her up from nothing is caught cheating by Heather's bff. Heather wants to escape the shadow of Jack, who she increasingly recognizes as controlling and manipulative, and takes a temporary position at The Australian National Ballet.

Heather is scared, but excited to explore Sydney and her new home, and especially excited that the head of the company has progressive views about dancers' rights. Heather is less enthused about being assigned injured Australian dancer Marcus Campbell as her guide to the city, since from the moment they met sparks have flown, and the company's rules make dancer relationships forbidden.

As for Marcus, slowly recovering from a traumatic Achilles tendon injury, he is both thrilled and scared at the feelings for the determined and beautiful dancer that Heather is.

What follows is a lyrically beautiful romance about two hurt lovers who find healing together, even if they might have to risk it all to keep it.

I super appreciated the content warnings for this prior to jumping in (see front matter from the author) AND from the back copy. While dealing with heavier subject matter, the author makes the romance shine as the main plot while also filling your imagination with ballet moves and song (even if you've never been to a ballet).

I especially appreciated how Heather confronts the no-exceptions policy on relationships; her previous employer and her new employer both were handling things in not the best way, and ultimately both were hurting their dancers. Also, as someone who is sensitive to food // dieting this story does a great job of not glorifying unhealthy eating disorders OR diet culture, which is wonderful to see in a ballet romance.

PLUS, Sydney and Australia are wonderful characters in their own right in this story, and I loved the camping 'glamping' chapters so much (no thank you to hard camp mattresses) ahahh.

Thank you to the author and edelweiss for the arc.

CW: Cancer (in the past-secondary character died of); injuries (ballet injuries on page, marcus's injury described in the past * surgery mention), domestic abuse (gas lighting, controlling, scary encounters but no physical violence) - cw'ed by author.