Book Reviews

Book Blurb

I love my daughter, but finding out she wasn’t biologically mine is the best news ever.

I’m a widower who is too scared to have the stupid test that would tell me whether or not I even have the gene that would mean dealing with a horrible illness and certain death. A gene that could’ve also been passed to my child, had she been mine.

She’ll need her father, if something ever does happen to me…That’s why I search for Maddie’s biological father, and when I find him, ask him to become part of her life.

What I didn’t expect is for him to become my best friend. Shane is fun and easygoing, the exact opposite of me. He makes me laugh. He’s the perfect antidote for my neurotic existence. And he’s bi, like me.

But am I courageous enough to take the leap into falling in love with him?

Dancing with Daddy is a super sweet, full-length, standalone, feel good mm romance. There’s no angst, just two very opposite men who befriend each other super fast then slowly find their way to love…all while parenting the precocious five-year-old who belongs to both of them. 

Book Review

The author states that this was written during the time of the Covid-19 quarantine and she intended to give readers an angst-free read. She definitely accomplished that goal. And while the plot is a bit far-fetched, she made it work and delivered a lovely slow-burn romance.

 

The concept of a man being happy to know his daughter is not his own is something I would never have thought would make a good plot, and yet the author makes it work. Bradley, a young widower with a fatal genetic disorder hanging over his head, does indeed feel that way. He doesn’t have family support and has never cultivated friends. So his very organized accountant brain decides to do research to find the long-term boyfriend his wife dated throughout college to see if he might be his child’s biological father.

 

His search leads him to Shane, a self-employed web designer and freelance artist living in Texas, who jumps at the chance to meet them. It’s evident by his facial features and distinctive gray eyes that he likely shares Maddie’s genetics, and through a satisfying exchange of correspondence, Bradley feels safe enough to offer Shane a place in his home in California as they work through getting to know each other better. Though this is rather a stretch of one’s imagination, if readers are willing to suspend disbelief and go with the flow here, the story is rather sweet and fills that need to read fluff when outside circumstances are stressful.

 

The guys strike up an immediate friendship and Shane falls for Maddie immediately. The two men get along well but their bisexuality is not something they discuss so their relationship is platonic through most of the story. In fact, there’s no date until the 85 percent mark. There’s low angst as the author promised. But there’s a great deal of discussion about Trina, Bradley’s ex-wife/Shane’s ex-girlfriend/Maddie’s mother. In fact, there’s so much information about her and her character and life’s goals that I became bored with how many pages she took up. She was not likeable, and I felt her inclusion became rather intrusive to the lovely slow-burn romance building in the background.

 

So my dislikes for this story were centered around the overshared background information related to Trina, the ex, and the odd circumstances that brought two well-suited men together. But my likes for this story start with the fact that it is low angst. I liked both Bradley and Shane. Their characters were distinct, and they came from different backgrounds, but both were interesting and memorable, and both had their child’s best interests as their focus through most of the book. Maddie, the five-year-old, was sweet and not over-the-top precocious. I enjoyed Bradley’s and Shane’s strong friendship and slow buildup of romance. And the fact that the story ends with the family looking to a bright future was the cherry on top.

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by the author for the purpose of a review.

Additional Information

Format	ebook, print and audio
Length	Novel, 206 pages
Heat Level
Publication Date	16-May-2020
Price	$5.10 ebook, $12.99 paperback, $17.45 audio book
Buy Link	https://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Daddy-Single-Father-Romance-ebook/dp/B088QPMTZW