Author’s Note: Alexis Daria’s Dance Off series was published by St. Martin’s Press, which is currently being boycotted. To learn more, please watch this video.
I enjoyed Alexis Daria’s Audible Original, What The Hex, and I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to read more of her books! I started the Quick Dip series because many romance author’s backlists are too big for me to do a deep dive but since Daria doesn’t have a huge backlist so this really is more like a deep dive.
Her stories tend to be heavy on emotion, internal struggles, and discuss mental illness. She writes primarily about Puerto Rican and POC characters. She also seems to have a thing for age gaps–most of her heroes are always a couple years older than the heroine.
All of Daria’s traditionally published audiobooks are done by Seraphine Valentine, who is one of my favorites. Her range is uncanny!
Take The Lead (Dance Off #1)
Take The Lead * follows contestants on Dance Off, a fictional Dancing with The Stars type show. Professional dancer Gina Morales is a hardworking Nuyorican who is resistant to the showmance the producers are creating between her and her celebrity partner, Alaskan survivalist reality show star Stone Nielson. Gina can’t risk being seen as the ‘spicy Latina’ who mixes her professional with personal but as she and Stone dominate the competition their showmance begins to feel like the real thing.
I like to think of this book as a reverse fake dating.
Daria offers a fun take on the reality show tropes and builds an emotional, compelling and sensual romance.
This book was Daria’s 2017 debut with Swerve, St. Martin Press’ now defunct e-only romance publisher. It was edited and re-released in print and audio by SMP in 2023 following the success of You Had Me at Hola. I am so curious to know what was changed but it’s so hard to find the original version.
Nevermind, I found it…
It looks like they added some filler information like an episode and cast guide for the fictional Dance Off. I did a quick scan of texts and what jumps out to me most is that they added ethnicity descriptions for almost every character, removed the italics from the Spanish, and softened some of the judgemental language.
The other biggest plot difference is at the end. In the updated version *spoilers* Stone becomes a consultant for an Alaskan conservation group at the end. In the 2017 version, he becomes a male model…which honestly makes A LOT more sense in some ways.
Dance All Night (Dance Off #2.5)
The second book in the Dance Off series, Dance With Me, is out of print and not legally available in any format.
However, in 2018, Daria ( in conjunction with her literacy agency) self-published a Dance Off Novella, Dance All Night. This Christmas novella follows Broadway dancer Nikolai Kovalenko’s attempts at showing ballroom dancer Jess Davenport that 1.) Christmas is worth celebrating and 2.) He wants her.
It’s a well-written novella with a healthy dose of spice and pining. I love the way that Daria writes about dance and how she uses it to create a connection between the characters. It reads well as a standalone but I do think I would have gotten more out of it if I’d read Dance All Night.
I think Daria did an okay job writing a Black character. Jess isn’t close to her family but Daria at least invented one Black friend for her. What stood out to me most is that for whatever reason Jess (or any of the Black characters) is never explicitly described as Black. Jess is in the background of Daria’s next book and in the revised Take The Lead it stands out that they decided not to say Black for her (or any Black-coded characters) but will say everyone else’s ethnicity.
Also, lol, the Photoshop job on this cover sends me every time.
You Had Me at Hola (Primas of Power #1)
You Had Me At Hola is the first book in the Primas of Power series and Daria’s print debut with Avon. This is the book that pushed Daria into the mainstream and I think part of it had to do with the cover by Bo Feng Lin. I’ve owned the physical copy of this book for years just because of THAT COVER.
30-year-old soap actress Jasmine Lin has been dogged in the tabloids for her serial dating so when she gets a lead role on a Netflix ScreenFlix series she needs her cousins, the Primas of Power as their group chat is called, to keep her focused on being a leading lady and not falling for another guy.
Then her co-star, 40-year-old telenovela star Ashton Suarez says ‘hola’ by accidently dumping iced coffee all over her. Jasmine can’t get her instant off screen (and on screen) attraction to the aloof telenovela legend out of her mind. Ashton is intrigued by Jasmine but he doesn’t have room in his life for a real romance. He has a son that he’s keeping hidden from the world and despite his feeling for Jasmine the last person he needs to be attached to is a woman the paparazzi is obsessed with.
I enjoyed this book. It builds a simmering tension well and I think Ashton is one of the most unique heroes I’ve read. He’s suffering from anxiety and PTSD and trying to hold it together to make his dreams come true.
But like with a lot of traditionally published books released in the last few years, I found the plotting slow and the world-building lacking. So often these books feel like one-room plays where a majority of the books are the main characters going in and out of interactions. I would have loved to see more development of the other primas, I didn’t feel like I know them at all and they are the center of the series.
Final Thoughts
The only two Daria’s I have left to read are A Lot Like Adios and her 2021 Holiday Anthology Amor, Actually.
I don’t see a new edition of her out-of-print Dance Off book in St. Martin’s Press catalogs and it looks like Daria’s editor left Avon so I’m guessing the third book in the Primas of Power is up in the air ? It was scheduled for 2023 but never came out.
In my pettiest thoughts, I feel like she, and many authors of color who were on the rise, got sidelined by the BookTok-fiction of traditional book publishing. As well as Avon’s shift to Bridgerton promo mode. It feels like authors with built-in fanbases and already-written stories are getting more of attention. But I’ve signed up for Daria’s newsletter and will be curious to discover where she goes next.
*Take the Lead shares a name with the Antonio Banderas movie that I definitely did not pay to see in theaters.
