Book Reviews

Book Blurb

One is at the beginning, one feels like it's the end of everything.

About to lose the only thing he ever loved, Adam Pittaluga is at a crossroads in a dancing career that has hardly begun. He always wanted to be a ballet dancer, but now that it’s impossible, he turns to Peridot for comfort.

Peridot has been rebuilding his life after losing his ability to dance professionally, his marriage, and very nearly his daughter. He has a lot of reasons to be leery of starting something new, especially with a man as young as Adam.

Adam and Peridot have to believe that starting again can lead to love and success and that sometimes, the strength needed to love like you've never been hurt can be borrowed from unexpected places for a while. But ultimately, they must find it inside themselves to be each other’s happy ending.

To avoid more hurt, they'd miss the chance to dance altogether.

First edition published at Dreamspinner Press, April 2016.

Book Review

Considering how much I enjoyed Conrad and Dusty's story in the first book of Jaime Samms's 'Dance, Love, Live' series, it was certainly no hardship to read Adam and Peridot's journey with its own share of disappointments, hurts, and burgeoning love. Conrad, Peridot, and Cobalt are three friends who weathered many, many storms together in their younger days, but have circled around to being friends again. I mention these men only because they've each suffered in their own way, and each of them is important within the context of the books that the author has written.

“How long before you can dance ballet again?” Peridot asked.
Adam glared at him through the wash of tears. “You’re actually going to make me say it, you lousy asshole?”
“It isn’t real until you say it and move past it,” Peridot insisted, sweetly ignoring Adam being a jerk to him.
“Never,” Adam spat. “You happy?” His throat ached. His eyes stung. His heart thudded, a slow, iron weight in his body. “Ballet is off the table. Forever.”

Adam's story is almost as painful as Dusty's was, because it's not anything Adam did that is going to prevent him from accomplishing his dream. The one he shared with his mother, the dream she encouraged and fought with his father to get for him, and now the dream is dead, just like she is. So, it was painful to read. But Perry understands. He was once one of the greats and he made a mistake and lost everything except his daughter. Now, though, it's time for Adam to move forward, to discover something else within dance that he can do, and he can fall in love with all over again.

I was concerned that this book would be too much like the first in the series, and in some ways I was right — but more importantly, I was wrong in quite a few ways. There are similarities between Conrad and Perry, and Adam and Dusty, in that two men were once on top of the world of ballet and now they aren't, and two young men who could've been on the top lost their opportunities through no fault of their own. However, the romance and love story between Perry and Adam is definitely unique to them. Perry is very wealthy, while Adam's family owns an auto repair shop and the differences in their social strata is hard for Adam to deal with. The one big challenge is Perry's ten-year-old daughter who is talented beyond belief, but has an attitude that far overshadows her own ego.

“It isn’t right, what we’re doing,” Adam said. “You have to talk to her. You have to tell her about us.”
“And if she doesn’t want to accept you as my partner?”
“We’ll never know how she’ll react if you don’t tell her. If she doesn’t accept it, well.” Adam’s heart flitted around in his chest at the thought.

Oh what a convoluted (in a good way) ending. The author definitely threw some curveballs along the way but I think they were good for Adam and Perry. 'Like You've Never Been Hurt' is a story of pain - emotional and physical, family, hope, and love, always love. Thank you, Jaime, for another lovely story about the strength of the human spirit. I'll be watching for Cobalt's story next because something tells me it's going to be amazing.

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. The first edition of this book has been purchased by the reviewer.

 

Additional Information

Format	ebook and print
Length	Novel, 202 pages
Heat Level
Publication Date	11-April-2023
Price	$4.99 ebook, $10.99 paperback
Buy Link	https://www.amazon.com/Like-Youve-Never-Been-Hurt-ebook/dp/B0BYKNDY4K