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Alex's life was moving in a dream direction. A beautiful prima ballerina with a promising career, she had long ago sacrificed many things - including her first love - to pursue her dream of dancing on the world's most prestigious stages.
When fate strikes Alex a terrible blow, a devastating injury leaves her unable to dance. As if the loss of her hard-earned career wasn't enough, Alex is shocked when the first visitor to call on her in the hospital is Scott - the man whose love she denied to pursue her dream to dance. Will fate strike another devastating blow to the fallen ballerina, or does Scott have something more to offer her than a regretful look at a long-lost love?
When fate strikes Alex a terrible blow, a devastating injury leaves her unable to dance. As if the loss of her hard-earned career wasn't enough, Alex is shocked when the first visitor to call on her in the hospital is Scott - the man whose love she denied to pursue her dream to dance. Will fate strike another devastating blow to the fallen ballerina, or does Scott have something more to offer her than a regretful look at a long-lost love?
Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1997
About the author
Margaret Way
622 books164 followersMargaret Way was born and educated in the river city of Brisbane, Australia. Before her marriage she was a well-known pianist, teacher, vocal coach and accompanist, but her hectic musical career came to a halt when her son was born and the demands of motherhood dictated a change of pace.
On a fortuitous impulse she decided to try her hand at romance writing and was thrilled when Mills & Boon accepted her first effort, Time of the Jacaranda, which they published less than a year later in 1970; a feat that brought tears to her father's eyes. Some seventy odd books have followed resulting in a loyal readership whose letters provide a source of support and encouragement. A driving force in all her writing has been the promotion of her much loved country, Australia. She delights in bringing it alive for her readers; its people, way of life, environment, flora and fauna. Her efforts so far have not excited official recognition, but she expects one day she will be awarded the "Order of Australia."
Her interests remain with the arts. She still plays the piano seriously, but her "top Cs" have gone. She is still addicted to collecting antiques and paintings and browsing through galleries. She now lives within sight and sound of beautiful Moreton Bay and its islands, inspiration for some of her books. Her house is full of books, spectacular plants, Chinese screens and pots. She is devoted to her garden and spends much time "directing the design and digging and providing cold drinks and chocolates."
On a fortuitous impulse she decided to try her hand at romance writing and was thrilled when Mills & Boon accepted her first effort, Time of the Jacaranda, which they published less than a year later in 1970; a feat that brought tears to her father's eyes. Some seventy odd books have followed resulting in a loyal readership whose letters provide a source of support and encouragement. A driving force in all her writing has been the promotion of her much loved country, Australia. She delights in bringing it alive for her readers; its people, way of life, environment, flora and fauna. Her efforts so far have not excited official recognition, but she expects one day she will be awarded the "Order of Australia."
Her interests remain with the arts. She still plays the piano seriously, but her "top Cs" have gone. She is still addicted to collecting antiques and paintings and browsing through galleries. She now lives within sight and sound of beautiful Moreton Bay and its islands, inspiration for some of her books. Her house is full of books, spectacular plants, Chinese screens and pots. She is devoted to her garden and spends much time "directing the design and digging and providing cold drinks and chocolates."
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 25, 2024
The OW knocks an already injured heroine down onto a glass table and the hero's reaction is to ask the heroine how SHE provoked the OW???!!!
Pfffffffffftttttttttttttt
Pfffffffffftttttttttttttt
August 9, 2025
Втори шанс насред Австралия под мотото “балет или венчило”. Добра история.
3,5⭐️
3,5⭐️
August 11, 2025
He kept harping on her decision to choose a ballet career for herself when she was 19. He ended their relationship back then because he didn’t want her to pursue a career and not be with him all the time.
The h and H slept together multiple times before he had broken off his relationship with the OW. Cheaters.
The h and H slept together multiple times before he had broken off his relationship with the OW. Cheaters.
August 12, 2025
Kinda ok
Both H and h were highly strung and idiots.
Ow was not great but neither did she deserve what they both did to her.
Both H and h were highly strung and idiots.
Ow was not great but neither did she deserve what they both did to her.
January 9, 2021
Harlequin/soapy reads come in different flavors, and Holding on to Alex is the OTT whacky/non-serious variety. The only real “feel” you’re going to get is amusement which mostly comes from the psycho OW. The title is a bit misleading, because Alex is the h.
This is a second-chance romance for childhood loves, the uber-sexy rancher Scott McLaren (30) and gorgeous ballerina Alexandra (23) Ashton. These two lovebirds were in love big time and set to be married when Alex jumped ship to follow her ballerina dreams. That was three years ago, she’s now famous and Scott pretty much hates her...but secretly lurves her.
The book starts with an injured Alex, and her god-mother (Scott’s aunt) guilting him into retrieving her to recuperate at the ranch. Scott’s lady friend, Valerie Freeman is NOT happy about this development and tries to run interference. Scott is bitter, but not really cruel. He doesn’t let the OW berate her (she does that behind his back) 😂 I actually felt their dynamic was pretty balanced…. She left him to pursue her career, and he reminded her of her decision often… but it’s obvious they both still 🔥 for each other.
Bottom Line- I liked it. The OW was batshit and got quite a lot of page time which I LOVED. The H was bitter but not cruel, and the h was repentant but not a doormat. Where most mc’s would rather provide a kidney than their feelings; she’s wasn’t afraid to put it out there, and go after what she wanted….sexytime with Scott. There's even a second-chance for the beloved aunt in the epilogue. *Some cheating-ish if you consider Vicious Valerie and Scott a real couple. It’s assumed they are having sex, but nothing is on page, not even kissing. I assume the h was celibate. **I read for free on Openlibrary, but you can only check out for an hour so be prepared to speed read. 🤣🤣 (You can renew immediately though)
This is a second-chance romance for childhood loves, the uber-sexy rancher Scott McLaren (30) and gorgeous ballerina Alexandra (23) Ashton. These two lovebirds were in love big time and set to be married when Alex jumped ship to follow her ballerina dreams. That was three years ago, she’s now famous and Scott pretty much hates her...but secretly lurves her.
The book starts with an injured Alex, and her god-mother (Scott’s aunt) guilting him into retrieving her to recuperate at the ranch. Scott’s lady friend, Valerie Freeman is NOT happy about this development and tries to run interference. Scott is bitter, but not really cruel. He doesn’t let the OW berate her (she does that behind his back) 😂 I actually felt their dynamic was pretty balanced…. She left him to pursue her career, and he reminded her of her decision often… but it’s obvious they both still 🔥 for each other.
Bottom Line- I liked it. The OW was batshit and got quite a lot of page time which I LOVED. The H was bitter but not cruel, and the h was repentant but not a doormat. Where most mc’s would rather provide a kidney than their feelings; she’s wasn’t afraid to put it out there, and go after what she wanted….sexytime with Scott. There's even a second-chance for the beloved aunt in the epilogue. *Some cheating-ish if you consider Vicious Valerie and Scott a real couple. It’s assumed they are having sex, but nothing is on page, not even kissing. I assume the h was celibate. **I read for free on Openlibrary, but you can only check out for an hour so be prepared to speed read. 🤣🤣 (You can renew immediately though)
August 8, 2025
This time *hero* was the high-strung character in a Margaret Way story.
The wild stallion they are trying to trap is a nice metaphor for our womanizing hero who had his heart broken by his mother when she left the station two years after his father's death. He was 16 at the time and felt abandoned. Then heroine, whom he had loved since he was 17 (she was 11), decided that at 19, she wanted to postpone their engagement and pursue her dancing career.
Hero is devastated and vows to never forgive her.
Now, 3 years later, heroine has had a devastating accident and my never dance professionally again. The hero refuses to have her on the station to recover, but her godmother ( his aunt) convinces him otherwise.
Heroine is a mess physically and emotionally, but she still seems more level-headed than our volatile hero who flies off the handle at anyone who interferes with the heroine. And that includes the physiotherapist who doesn't protect her from a stampeding horse.
The H/h have sex several times before their HEA. It's always surprising to see explicit sex scenes in these later MW stories. But they're well done and show how well matched the H/h are.
Yes, the hero does acknowledge how selfish he had been trying to hold the heroine back at 19, but I don't think it's a deeply held lesson. He's very obsessive/nuerotic.
The wild stallion they are trying to trap is a nice metaphor for our womanizing hero who had his heart broken by his mother when she left the station two years after his father's death. He was 16 at the time and felt abandoned. Then heroine, whom he had loved since he was 17 (she was 11), decided that at 19, she wanted to postpone their engagement and pursue her dancing career.
Hero is devastated and vows to never forgive her.
Now, 3 years later, heroine has had a devastating accident and my never dance professionally again. The hero refuses to have her on the station to recover, but her godmother ( his aunt) convinces him otherwise.
Heroine is a mess physically and emotionally, but she still seems more level-headed than our volatile hero who flies off the handle at anyone who interferes with the heroine. And that includes the physiotherapist who doesn't protect her from a stampeding horse.
The H/h have sex several times before their HEA. It's always surprising to see explicit sex scenes in these later MW stories. But they're well done and show how well matched the H/h are.
Yes, the hero does acknowledge how selfish he had been trying to hold the heroine back at 19, but I don't think it's a deeply held lesson. He's very obsessive/nuerotic.
December 4, 2017
Not bad. The heroine Alex and the Hero, Scott had been very much in love and engaged to be married. However she is a ballerina and wanted her chance to shine. The Hero hasn’t forgiven her for leaving him.
She is injured and needs time to recuperate, so the Hero brings her back to his homestead to rest and have therapy. They still have a strong overwhelming attraction for each other, but by now the H has another girlfriend and she is very jealous of the heroine.
The Hero tries to fight his attraction to the heroine since he doesn’t want to go through the heartache he did when she left and he fears when her knee is mended that she would leave him again. The heroine claims to still love the Hero although she needed to prove to herself that she could achieve her goals.
A bit overwrought in the writing and a lot of other minor incidents take place before they find their HEA.
She is injured and needs time to recuperate, so the Hero brings her back to his homestead to rest and have therapy. They still have a strong overwhelming attraction for each other, but by now the H has another girlfriend and she is very jealous of the heroine.
The Hero tries to fight his attraction to the heroine since he doesn’t want to go through the heartache he did when she left and he fears when her knee is mended that she would leave him again. The heroine claims to still love the Hero although she needed to prove to herself that she could achieve her goals.
A bit overwrought in the writing and a lot of other minor incidents take place before they find their HEA.
September 2, 2017
This is the first Margaret Way I have read. I will hold back judgement until I read another one. I will say it was OK. Didn't floor me though.
November 6, 2025
Just a bit too silly for me, even the whole reason for the separation of the H and h, Scott and Alex. She was an orphan girl who came to live with him and his Aunt Edwina (Wyn) when her parents died (Wyn was her godmother), and her hero worship/puppy love for him became the real thing when she turned 17 (he was 24). A few years later, they got engaged.
Alex had a talent for dance that was so great she had a chance to join a company and become a star ballerina. Scott, however, a socialite/businessman with a lot of responsibilities and obligations, wanted Alex to concentrate on being his wife/partner/social hostess/future mom to his kids. She wanted to try and have both her life with him and her dance career, he declared it was impossible and demanded she choose. Well, you know what usually happens when someone makes a demand like that: they lose!
Three years later, Alex is acclaimed as a ballerina on the rise to stardom, but her career is all she has, along with a few friends. She never stopped loving Scott and didn't want any other man.
Scott, meanwhile, lived his life, fulfilled his career/social obligations, became a champion polo player, had a few meaningless affairs, then started dating the OW (Val), but his heart still belonged to Alex.
Then Alex is injured, when a clumsy dance partner makes her fall, and guess where she goes to recuperate?
What makes this story so silly, is that there was no reason for any of it to happen. At 20 or thereabouts, Alex was a bit young to get married, no matter how much she loved Scott, and part of the reason she wanted her career was to prove to herself that she was more than the orphan girl, that she had something to offer Scott besides the good looks he was attracted to. She wanted to be somebody worthy in her own right. All she asked was a chance, she wasn't thinking about the future as much as the present.
Scott, meanwhile, was 27 and a lot more mature than most guys that age. He was ready to settle down and since he and Alex were so much in love, he figured she'd want that, too. He didn't stop and consider her exceptional talent and how terrible it would have been to waste it. If she had suddenly taken it into her head to go to California and try for a movie career, or if she worked for a company that was opening a Paris branch and she thought it would be exciting to work there, then I'd be on his side, but in this case, I think he was being selfish.
The reason it's all so silly, is because Alex decided on her own (and it had nothing to do with her injury) that she didn't want to dance anymore, professionally; she wanted to be Scott's wife and live the life he wanted for them. So, if Scott had been willing for them to have their dual careers and seen how it worked out, all it would have taken was a couple of years and he'd have gotten what he wanted, and she'd have gotten the ballerina bug out of her system.
Besides, he wasn't some average accountant or whatever, who was home every night by six and didn't want his wife off somewhere dancing in Rome or Vienna, or wherever. He had to travel a lot for his work, often to other countries and could be gone a few weeks, so they would have been apart a lot, anyway.
See how silly?
What's even sillier, is the way years of issues between Scott and his runaway mom are suddenly resolved, as if someone waved a magic wand. And then, wouldn't you know it? The man Wyn loved years ago suddenly reenters her life for a HEA!!! (COME ON!!!)
Silly, Silly, SILLY!!
P.S. The OW was a dangerous bitch, who at one point pushes Alex and makes her fall on a glass top table and gets away with it! And Alex's poor excuse for a therapist, Peter, is a bit of a moron, who stands around like a dummy when Alex falls while practicing dance moves, freezes in terror when she's nearly run down by a frightened horse, then goes horseback riding on a trail he was told to avoid and ends up breaking his leg! What a JOKE!! A therapist with broken bones! This guy wasn't qualified to care for himself, let alone other people!
CAN YOU GET ANY SILLIER?????
Alex had a talent for dance that was so great she had a chance to join a company and become a star ballerina. Scott, however, a socialite/businessman with a lot of responsibilities and obligations, wanted Alex to concentrate on being his wife/partner/social hostess/future mom to his kids. She wanted to try and have both her life with him and her dance career, he declared it was impossible and demanded she choose. Well, you know what usually happens when someone makes a demand like that: they lose!
Three years later, Alex is acclaimed as a ballerina on the rise to stardom, but her career is all she has, along with a few friends. She never stopped loving Scott and didn't want any other man.
Scott, meanwhile, lived his life, fulfilled his career/social obligations, became a champion polo player, had a few meaningless affairs, then started dating the OW (Val), but his heart still belonged to Alex.
Then Alex is injured, when a clumsy dance partner makes her fall, and guess where she goes to recuperate?
What makes this story so silly, is that there was no reason for any of it to happen. At 20 or thereabouts, Alex was a bit young to get married, no matter how much she loved Scott, and part of the reason she wanted her career was to prove to herself that she was more than the orphan girl, that she had something to offer Scott besides the good looks he was attracted to. She wanted to be somebody worthy in her own right. All she asked was a chance, she wasn't thinking about the future as much as the present.
Scott, meanwhile, was 27 and a lot more mature than most guys that age. He was ready to settle down and since he and Alex were so much in love, he figured she'd want that, too. He didn't stop and consider her exceptional talent and how terrible it would have been to waste it. If she had suddenly taken it into her head to go to California and try for a movie career, or if she worked for a company that was opening a Paris branch and she thought it would be exciting to work there, then I'd be on his side, but in this case, I think he was being selfish.
The reason it's all so silly, is because Alex decided on her own (and it had nothing to do with her injury) that she didn't want to dance anymore, professionally; she wanted to be Scott's wife and live the life he wanted for them. So, if Scott had been willing for them to have their dual careers and seen how it worked out, all it would have taken was a couple of years and he'd have gotten what he wanted, and she'd have gotten the ballerina bug out of her system.
Besides, he wasn't some average accountant or whatever, who was home every night by six and didn't want his wife off somewhere dancing in Rome or Vienna, or wherever. He had to travel a lot for his work, often to other countries and could be gone a few weeks, so they would have been apart a lot, anyway.
See how silly?
What's even sillier, is the way years of issues between Scott and his runaway mom are suddenly resolved, as if someone waved a magic wand. And then, wouldn't you know it? The man Wyn loved years ago suddenly reenters her life for a HEA!!! (COME ON!!!)
Silly, Silly, SILLY!!
P.S. The OW was a dangerous bitch, who at one point pushes Alex and makes her fall on a glass top table and gets away with it! And Alex's poor excuse for a therapist, Peter, is a bit of a moron, who stands around like a dummy when Alex falls while practicing dance moves, freezes in terror when she's nearly run down by a frightened horse, then goes horseback riding on a trail he was told to avoid and ends up breaking his leg! What a JOKE!! A therapist with broken bones! This guy wasn't qualified to care for himself, let alone other people!
CAN YOU GET ANY SILLIER?????
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 21, 2013
I felt there should have been a little more to this one, the ending seemed rushed to me, but other part felt drawn out.
March 26, 2015
What a disappointment! Where are the beautiful descriptions of Australia? I feel that she needed to produce a new book and didn't put much effort into it.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews