Mol Reads Books: Second Position by Katherine Locke
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
This book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to various themes; it may also be considered New Adult, or contain triggers.
Second Position by Katherine Locke Series: District Ballet Company
Published by Carina on April 13, 2015
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Source: Galley from the publisher
Four years ago, a car accident ended Zedekiah Harrow’s ballet career and sent Philadelphia Ballet principal dancer Alyona Miller spinning toward the breakdown that suspended her own. What they lost on the side of the road that day can never be replaced, and grief is always harshest under a spotlight...
Now twenty-three, Zed teaches music and theatre at a private school in Washington, D.C. and regularly attends AA meetings to keep the pain at bay. Aly has returned to D.C. to live with her mother while trying to recover from the mental and physical breakdown that forced her to take a leave of absence from the ballet world, and her adoring fans.
When Zed and Aly run into each other in a coffee shop, it’s as if no time has passed at all. But without the buffer and escape of dance—and with so much lust, anger and heartbreak hanging between them—their renewed connection will either allow them to build the together they never had... or destroy the fragile recoveries they've only started to make.
Confession: Sometimes I read books, then I want to talk about them. But I don’t want to write super formal reviews like I did when I first started blogging. I want my reviews to be fun and hopefully make YOU want to read the book. So…here goes!
I’m always a tiny bit a lot nervous when I pick up a book by an author friend, especially when the book is one I’ve anticipated as much as I anticipated SECOND POSITION, Katherine Locke’s debut novel. New Adult + second chance romance + ballet was exactly the Molli bait that guaranteed I’d be on this book so hard. Thankfully, I didn’t actually have any reason to worry, because within a few pages of Locke’s ballet book, I was basically like:
THE PROSE, YOU GUYS. Katie writes super beautifully. It’s haunting. It’s descriptive to the point that you’re THERE, feeling what the characters feel, seeing what they see, aching with them. Because of how gorgeously Locke writes, you immediately get drawn into SECOND POSITION effortlessly, there in that coffee house where Zed and Aly come face to face for the first time in years.
When we talk about “second chance romances,” (aka the number 1 way to get me to read a book), I have to list Katie’s book as one of my favorites. It’s all there. That rich, undeniable history. That complicated friendship, bleeding into more. That ache, that gorgeous, full-body ache, that comes from a shared past. That beautiful hope, the hope that this will be different, this time will be redemption and a beginning, instead of an ending. Katherine Locke nails the essence of second chance romance, and makes it look easy (it isn’t.)
SECOND POSITION is everything I want from New Adult: the uncertainty that comes from the time in your life when the world is telling you that because you’re legally an adult, you should have it all together — except, what if you don’t? There’s the sense that your life is wide-open, and you’ve got time to figure it out, but not forever. Everything is brand new, except the growing pains. That’s familiar, and there are definitely growing pains between Zed and Aly. Watching them navigate their ghosts, both together and separately, brought back so much of my own New Adult years. I was struggling with my realizing my sexuality. Zed is struggling with being a recovering alcoholic, Aly, an eating disorder. We don’t see enough NA books that tackle tough subjects, that take characters away from the secondary parenting device of college, parties, and sex, and really put them on their own. SECOND POSITION does. There’s no security blanket. Aly may be living with her mother, but she and Zed are very much tasked with working through their issues.
I connected with SECOND POSITION personally. I could write a lot more about that aspect, but suffice to say I thought Aly and Zed were both SO brave. Neither of them is written as perfect, but I understood both of them, and their individual struggles. There were times I cried for Aly, watching her in therapy, trying to come to terms with her life and her eating disorder, and the need to dance again. There were moments of such vulnerability, times when she was so fragile, that I just wanted to hug her.
AND THE REST, OH. Want to know what happens?
TL;DR
Swoonage on a scale of 1-10: DEFINITE 8. Aly and Zed are sizzling together, in an intimate, constant way. There isn’t a lot of sex in SECOND POSITION, but what there IS, is a chemistry that is undeniable.
Reread eligible on a scale of 1-10: Oh I’d love to re-read it someday!
Connection on a scale of 1-10: I couldn’t identify with Zed, but that didn’t make me love him any less, especially seeing how he was with Aly. And Aly herself…wow, I felt so connected to her, like I knew her.
I heart it on a scale of 1-10: 10. 10. 10. Amazingly written book, great pacing and history, and seeing it all come together was so meaningful. There’s a LOT of heart here, friendship, family relationships (with Aly’s family), and it was just all beautiful.
Favorite Quote
He looked at me in there like he wanted to scream at me and like he wanted to kiss me, and if he could have done both of those things at the same time, we’d still be in there, scream-kissing each other into pieces.
