Book Review: Flirty Dancing by Jennifer Moffatt

Official Synopsis: Archer Read is 27 and desperate to find his place in life. Five months ago, he quit his soul-destroying accounting job in Ohio and moved to Manhattan with dreams of making it on Broadway. And now he has nothing to show for it but a string of rejections. Even for a ray-of-sunshine like Archer, hope can only go so far. A musical revue at Shady Queens, a queer-friendly resort in the Catskills, is his last chance to break into show biz—otherwise, it’s back to Ohio, broke and hopeless. He arrives ready to dance his heart out, only to find he’ll be working with his teenage celebrity crush, the Broadway star Mateo Dixon.

What is Mateo doing working at Shady Queens? Besides barking orders and glaring at everyone…when he’s not absolutely smoldering at Archer on the dancefloor. As Archer tries to forget his teen crush and get to know the real Mateo, he’s caught up in a romance with his hot, temperamental bunkmate, Caleb. Between Mateo’s baggage and the dance crew’s drama—partying, flirting, breaking up, getting back together, then breaking up again—it’s no surprise when the show starts to fall apart. Archer quickly discovers that when it comes to dance, sometimes you can’t leave all your problems backstage.

This book took me a second to get into but once I did I was in, I really started to enjoy it. When Archer gets to Shady Queens, the cast of characters around him are really entertaining. The background and side characters definitely made this book for me . A lot of behind the scenes drama and different crushes happening throughout the story with all of the characters involved. (I mean what else do you expect in the theater world). There are also a lot of Broadway references, which we all now I love. There are also the patrons of Shady Queens, who were a delight when they showed up in the story as well.

The one part of this book that didn't really hit for me was the fact Mateo and Archer couldn't figure it out, I get that sometimes there are crushes, but Archer 'dating' Caleb instead of just falling for Mateo was silly to me, since the signs were there the whole time. I do think having a complicated relationship helped the plot out a bit, especially since they were paired together in dances, so their chemistry was obviously there from a stage standpoint. Mateo can be kind of a cranky character, but I really liked when he started to show his true self and trust the others around him.

Overall, this book was about living out a dream and working on a dream, no matter your age, and I really appreciate that. I like how Mateo had to work back into the Broadway world after having a mishap, and how Archer was hoping to break through at an age that felt 'too late'. The vibe of being about following your dreams and working hard for them was really great, and the epilogue really helped with that.

The book itself was well written and I enjoyed the descriptions of the dances quite a bit. The characters were all unique and had their moments to shine. The overall plot didn't have a 'third act breakup' which was a point in its favor from me. I just think some small things kept this book in an average rating for me. If you like dancing, Broadway and just a fun cast of queer characters be sure to check this book out!

I rated this book 3 out of 5 stars!

Flirty Dancing came out May 27, 2025!

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