Dancing for Jonathan

Title: Dancing for Jonathan
Author: Anel Viz
Publisher: Dreamspinner
Genre: Contemporary M/M, diverse
Length: 93 pages (ebook)
Rating: 3 stars out of 5

A guest review by Leslie

THE BLURB

The palpable sexual attraction between Jonathan, a wealthy paraplegic, and Vince, his new live-in aide, is deepening as quickly as their friendship. But both men are trying to keep their feelings in check, keenly aware of the difference in their ages and the stresses on their relationship caused by the imbalance of power in their roles of employer/employee and patient/caregiver. Adding to the strain are the secrets Vince is keeping… secrets that might lead Jonathan to suspect he is trying to take advantage of him and destroy any hope of a future together.

THE REVIEW

I was intrigued by this book from the blurb and looked forward to reading it, but in the end, it just didn’t work for me. This was a new author for me. Maybe his fans will have a different opinion, but I found this book to be uninvolving, tedious, and—although I hate to say it—boring. Getting the stats for this review, I was surprised to see it was only 93 pages (I read it on my Kindle, so I have no idea of the page count). It felt much longer and I, unfortunately, felt like I needed to plow through it to get to the end.

Usually when I read a book, I see the characters in my mind’s eye and hear their voices. I think it is telling that when I finished this book, I had no mental image of one of the main characters, Vince. I can’t tell you the color of his hair or eyes. Jonathan didn’t fare much better. He’s wealthy, so I pictured him with a patrician nose and he’s paralyzed, so he’s in a wheelchair. Beyond that, who knows? I almost felt like the actual story was playing up on a movie screen, and the author was writing notes while he watched it—and what I got to read were the notes! But that’s not what I want to read. I want to be in the story, with the characters—up on the screen, as it were—and with Dancing for Jonathan, I definitely wasn’t there.

Compounding this, the vast majority of the story happened off-page. There would be statements such as, “Over the course of eight months, Vince and Jonathan became friends.” But we never see them becoming friends—they never have any real, meaningful conversation, never have an interaction. Everything is described in this weird, abstract third-person vantage point. Vince did lots of stuff for Jonathan: bathed him, dressed him, did range of motion exercises, cooked his meals, took him out to exercise, get fresh air, shop—but it’s all described in an arm’s length way that never brings me, the reader, into the story.

The most vivid descriptions occur at the beginning of the story when Vince is trying out for a job as a dancer at a club and wears scrubs (hence, the cover). But once he starts working for Jonathan, all that disappears. There were lengthy portions where I felt like I was reading some sort of clinical manual on how to care for a paraplegic. I suppose for some people that might be sort of fetish-y but for me it was just TMI.

This is the fourth book I’ve read recently in which one character believes his shady past will impact his relationship with his new love interest. Only one book of the four has handled this in what I believe is a realistic manner (and this one wasn’t the one). In this story, Vince has worked as a dancer and briefly as an escort. He believes that if Jonathan finds this out, he’ll fire him on the spot. While that might be a worry, by the time the info comes out, Vince and Jonathan have forged a real friendship and trusting relationship. Vince still worries that Jonathan will hate him/kick him out, but Jonathan doesn’t. Isn’t that what trust is? Isn’t that what caring is? Knowing someone in the present and being able to forgive the past? Like I said, this is the third story that used this trope and it bugs me, because I feel like it is fake conflict—trying to create an issue where one does not exist. The only story that got it right (K.Z. Snow’s Bastards and Pretty Boys, in case anyone is wondering) had the character with the bad past confessing it right up front, before there was any sort of a relationship. In that situation I could see the other character deciding to not get involved and walk away. But once a foundation of trust has been created, the “shady past” device just doesn’t work for me.

Another oddity of this story: there weren’t many secondary characters, but the few that there were, three of them were named Brenda, Brenda, and Brendan. I’m not quite sure why the author selected all these Bren names but…whatever.

One thing the author did get right: Vince was quite ethical in his approach to Jonathan. Even though he was attracted to the other man right from the start, Vince never breached any professional boundaries in their interactions. When they did finally become lovers, it was with an open and honest understanding of their relationship and what was going on between them. As a health professional myself, I appreciated the respect that Vince gave Jonathan through the author’s words.

Like I said, this author was new to me so I have no idea if this is his usual style of writing or a fluke for this book. Fans of his will likely have more insight into this. Those who enjoy disability-based stories might enjoy this, too, since the clinical detail is carefully presented and accurate. But for me—this is not a book I can recommend to the general audience of M/M readers.