3.5 stars -- I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.

As is hinted at in the blurb, trigger warnings for descriptions of emotional/transphobic abuse and the aftermath.  Not being trans, nor having experienced emotional abuse, I cannot speak to how that is handled.  From an outsider perspective, I thought it was fine, but I've seen reviews from abuse survivors that suggest otherwise, so perhaps read those and decide for yourself.

I was attracted to this book for several reasons.  First, it's a cornucopia of diversity...and not only that, but it has LGBT+ characters of the lesser explored variety, so I was intrigued.  Especially with Evie, as I identify on the gray spectrum.  I even chose to read it this month because one of my diversity challenge themes is intersectionality, and since Tyler is trans and biracial it totally fits.  Second, and this cannot be understated enough, I LOVE dance books.  I'm not a dancer myself, I'm just constantly in awe of the dance community, which I feel is the perfect marriage between athletics and art...both of which I do not excel in.  :P  And third, it's set in Canada!!  I love reading books set in my country, so that definitely played a factor.  And honestly, on the whole I was fulfilled!  I wasn't blown away or anything, but it satisfied my desire for diversity, dance, and Canadianism!

Like I said, I cannot speak to the realistic representation of Tyler as a trans character, but I felt like the author explored some of the challenges of being a transgendered man, and the horrible experience of transphobic/emotional abuse.  I will admit that while I appreciated some of the observations Tyler had in his journey, this was not a great example of someone healing from an abusive relationship.  It was kind of glossed over and shallow, so if that's what you're looking for, you're in the wrong place.  This book was more about the relationship between Tyler and Evie, with Tyler's fears used mostly as a roadblock to that relationship.  So more heavy on the romance, less on depth of an emotional journey.  That was fine for me, but may not work for everyone.  In general I liked Tyler, but I felt like his character could be a bit inconsistent.  And since we didn't really get to see in depth healing, the constant roadblock from the aftermath of his ex became a bit overused without satisfying growth and change.

I really loved Evie's character, and her representation for the gray spectrum.  I realize not everyone will appreciate it if they're looking for the quintessential asexual character, which she is not.  But as someone elsewhere on the spectrum, I was super excited to see a character very much like me represented, as the gray spectrum really is vast.  We got to see her fall in love with different things about Tyler that had nothing to do with sexual attraction.  Ace stuff aside, I thought she was really funny, forthright, and a good mix of sweet and sass.

I loved that we got a good amount of dancing as well...it satisfied my wannabe dancer's heart.  And watching Tyler and Evie crush and flirt with each other while dancing was the highlight of this book for me.

On the not so good side of things, there were a lot of little threads left hanging and not dealt with...I don't understand why an author would introduce something and leave it unresolved.  The biggest was Evie's relationship with her mother.  It was constantly in the background through emails, and quite frankly it was kind of toxic.  But we never see the resolution in that relationship.  Perhaps if we were told she had a bad relationship, that she couldn't come out to her family, but left it at that, I would have been OK having it glossed over at the end.  But to see the quietly toxic relationship consistently in the background, complete with fat-shaming remarks, and to then see no resolution was unsatisfying.

I was also really unimpressed with Gigi in this story...he made fat-shaming remarks of his own that made me uncomfortable, and he was really allowed to be fairly mean throughout the story without consequences.  And I wasn't impressed with his side story, especially if he's going to get a book of his own.  I would have liked more Tyler/Evie time.

And quite frankly, none of the friendships were super awesome.  They could have good qualities, but there was a level of care missing at times...just a lot of meddling without thinking of consequences.

There were a lot of terms used in this book that went unexplained...from the tumblr things Evie and Sarah connected with, to dance terms, to whatever fujoshi is (still need to Google that).  And it took me a bit to figure out that Bailey is nonbinary, and that when the author used they/them they were just talking about Bailey, and not Bailey and Sarah or something.  I liked having another lesser explored LGBT+ character represented, but it was too bad that it took me so long to understand that.

So yeah.  Like I said, not blown away, but still enjoyed myself.  It wasn't a book I gobbled up, but it did have some great aspects that I personally really enjoyed!  As an aside, am I the only Canadian that doesn't actually consume a lot of maple syrup?

ace romance, a first for me =) really sweet read, despite prefering steamy ;p but I know the book didn't call for it, I still enjoyed nonetheless

In Finding Your Feet by Cass Lennox (Toronto Connections series #2), Evie Whitmore comes to Toronto on holiday from her home in England to stay with friends she met online in an asexuality forum and get to know the city in preparation for an upcoming move to Toronto for graduate school. She’s recently been let go from her job and it seems like a welcome respite from her normal life, overbearing family, and the drudgery of day-to-day. It’s meant to be a casual holiday and nothing more. The last thing she expects is to be recruited into a dance competition that is being hailed as part of Toronto’s annual Pride festival, but when she stumbles into auditions while touring the city with her friends that’s exactly what happens.

Tyler Davis is a professional dancer who has spent the last year trying desperately to great cover from the shambles is emotionally abusive relationship with his ex-girlfriend and former dance partner left him in. He doesn’t want to dance with another partner period, most certainly not another female partner and a beginner at that. However, when he is volunteered by a friend to participate in a ludicrous dance competition against another dance studio where each person tries to teach a beginner dance routine and only a week, that’s where he finds himself — step teaching not only a beginner but a tourist, no less.

From the beginning, despite their obvious reluctance, Tyler and Evie have a chemistry that is obvious to everyone around them, except for them of course. Both have had bad experiences with relationships in the past – Tyler because he is transgender and Evie because she is asexual. They determine they should be just friends, but despite their best efforts, the relationship turns deeper than either one of them had expected. Are they brave enough to make a go of it or will the ghost of their pasts keep them apart?

Like the first book in the series, my favorite part about this book is the exploration of non-heteronormative sexualities. This is a very character-based series, and I really enjoyed the individual characters trying to navigate their lives and relationships without falling into the standard romance pattern of moving quickly from kissing into sex. Intimacy comes in many levels and works in many different ways for different people, and this series does a great job of exploring that. That being said, this is no political diatribe. The characters are human, fallible, frustrating and often funny. It’s a step sideways from standard romance but quite enjoyable in its own right.

I'm a sucker for dance stories, but this one never quite gelled. Too much time was spent on the subplot of a coworker, Gigi, who is being romantically pursued by his HS bully, now out and crushing again. I also wasn't keen on the slams of Evie's weight.

I was really interested to see how a romance with an ace protag would work, and honestly, I was disappointed. I know there's a spectrum, and I know there's no wrong way to do sexuality (and I'm pretty sure I read the author is ace), but Evie really, really seemed to be grey or demi. She felt sexual attraction to Tyler at first glance, which surprised her, and then after setting the boundary of no sex until they knew each other, she was the one who was grateful for the boundary, because she really wanted to have sex with him. There was just always a disconnect, and I kept getting pulled out of the story, because what the narration said (she just wasn't interested in sex, could take it or leave it) was totally the opposite of her thoughts and actions. It wasn't what I hoped for from the book.

Before I start this review I want to say 2 things. 1) I got a copy of Finding Your Feet for free through Netgalley, and while I’m incredibly grateful for this, it won’t affect my review in any way. 2) I am not trans, nor am I asexual, so I can’t comment on the representation in this book. Here you can find a review by someone who identifies as asexual, and here is a review of someone who identifies as gray-asexual.

Finding Your Feet is about an asexual girl named Evie, a tourist from the UK who is roped into a dancing competition for Toronto’s Pride event. It’s also about Tyler, Evie’s biracial and trans dancing partner in the competition, who is still very much affected by his last abusive relationship.

Evie and Tyler hit it off right away, but there are a few things in the way of their blossoming romance: the camera crew that’s filming a documentary about the dancing competition, meddling friends, and their rough pasts.

One of this books strongest points were it’s characters. Our main characters, Evie and Tyler, had very strong personalities, and they’re definitely characters that’ll be stuck with me for quite a long time. The side characters were a lot of fun too, and they all formed a very dynamic and supportive friend group that I wish I could be apart of. Also, almost all of the characters in this book belong to the LGBT+ community, which is something that I very much appreciated.

However, the writing wasn’t great. Sure, I had a lot of fun reading it, and it was a very easy read, but it was too simplistic. It was that kind of writing where the author tells you what a character is feeling instead of showing you, and I’m not a big fan of that.

I adored the romance between Evie and Tyler. I had a big smile on my face whenever I read a scene with them together, because they were so perfect for each other. It was also very hard-hitting at times, when it came clear how much Tyler was still affected by his abused relationship, and how they both still struggled with the way some other people reacted to their identity.

Something I want to add to this review, is how much I loved the fact that Evie was staying with her amazing Tumblr friend Sarah while in Toronto. I used to be on Tumblr a lot and I made some pretty great friends there, and seeing that talked about in a book made me incredibly happy.

Overall, Finding Your Feet was a very cute and touching read, which I’ll be sure to recommend to a lot of friends.

Finding Your Feet is the second book in the Toronto Connections series, the first being Blank Spaces (you can read my review here). The couple in Blank Spaces does appear in Finding Your Feet, which I love when it comes to companion novels. As for the main characters in this latest book, we have Evie Whitmore from England and Tyler Davis who is living in Toronto as a dance teacher.

Evie is asexual and she's in Toronto to check out the sights (she'll be back in a few months time to attend grad school) and meet an online friend named Sarah. As for Tyler, he's a friend of Sarah's but he's not in the best place when the book begins as he's still trying to get used to being out of a relationship after dealing with an emotionally abusive ex. When Evie is pushed into trying out for a dance competition, she ends up being paired with Tyler for a Pride Day dance competition between the studio Tyler works at and another in the Toronto area.

Despite being very different, the two eventually get to know each other better - after a rough first start - and Evie even finds that she loves to dance. As someone who never danced growing up, but has taken a couple of dance classes as an adult, I could really understand Evie's enthusiasm. Granted, I didn't have to practice as many hours in one day as she did, since all the couples only have one week to get a dance together for the competition. It was an intense project, but I loved hearing about the various dance lessons.

One of the things that I really loved about this book - and the other, Blank Spaces - is that it's full of diversity. Finding Your Feet has Evie who is asexual but isn't opposed to sex if she really falls for someone. Then there is Tyler, who is a trans, biracial man. I liked the secondary characters too and they are all equally as diverse! The next book in the series (Growing Pains) will focus on Gigi and Brock, who you meet in Finding Your Feet. I can't wait!

I absolutely requested a copy of Cass Lennox’s Finding Your Feet because I took one look at the cover copy and felt like my desire to get to know Lennox’s characters hit me like a punch to the gut.

I’m always making noises about my desire for representation in the media I consume and when I saw that the book centered the relationship between an a-spec character and a Black transdude character, I was basically on the edge of my seat and bouncing with excitement hoping that I’d get a chance to read and review the book. Because at first glance, this book was exactly what I wanted to read and I was not disappointed at all.

What I loved about Finding Your Feet is that that Lennox’s characters feel so realistic. They feel like my band of queer compatriots at the English Department at my school – only more artistically inclined. Often, when I pick up a new queer book, one of the things that jars me out of my enjoyment is that I can’t see myself and my social group in them because of how popular queer romances tend to center the white cis dude experience above all others.

Finding Your Feet literally feels like a look at the artsy version of my friend group and I loved every second of reading it – even the kinda stressful parts.

Both of the book’s main characters – Evie Whitmore and Tyler Davis – are incredibly well-written. I clicked with them immediately and I felt that Lennox’s way of clearly delineated POV switching worked to get me into the characters as quickly as I did. I love both characters’ voices because they’re just so dang strong and all I wanted was to devour Finding Your Feet as fast as I could so that I could already have the narrative imprinted on my brain.

Like me, Evie places herself on the asexual spectrum when it comes to identity. She’s also dealing with the fact that she’s a jobless 20-something in a sort of holding pattern as she waits for her grad school opportunity (in Toronto) to start.

I clicked with her from the start because there’s so much of her experiences and her internal process that felt like my own. Evie is also snarky (there’s a bit of dialogue during the break of her and Tyler’s first practice that made me laugh so hard that I snorted) and I ove her personality so much! She’s so full of this fiery energy! I’m not even sure how that’s possible but well – here we are.

Tyler, our co-lead (in movie parlance) is basically my favorite. I love him. I know that’s a strong reaction to have to a single fictional character, but Lennox’s writing is so great about fleshing Tyler out that I just… I have all the feels. I think I really adored the way that Lennox had his thoughts play out across the page. There are a bunch of really great moments where I desperately wanted to squish someone’s face, but I think that the biggest scenes that stood out for me were:

A moment in their first practice where Tyler realizes that Evie can probably lift him and he goes through basically the cutest and thirstiest thoughts. The language of lifting in this scene was exquisite on top of the tension and really, I just felt spoiled by it.
There’s a conversation that Tyler has with Gigi where a drunken Gigi basically goes all “Oppression Olympics” on Tyler basically dismissing Tyler’s experiences growing and seeing himself as something he wasn’t by saying that he (Gigi) was fat growing up. Tyler has this like really great internal “are you freaking kidding me” moment that I totally felt in my soul because as a queer Black person dear lord have I had to just sit down and stare at friends who were so deep in their feelings about their identity that they forgot that I had any.
All of chapter ten. Look… just… All of that freaking chapter.
Tyler is just such a great dude and as the narrative progressive, we get so much insight to his character and why he’s so anxious about working with Evie – or having a female partner again. His ex-girlfriend Lucette (who thankfully isn’t present outside of Tyler’s thoughts and conversations about her) is a cissexist and abusive asshole who I hope falls in a lake and loses all of her electronic devices. I could legitimately fight her because you can see how much Tyler is still hurting from her horrible mistreatment and I’m not about that.

Argh!

What I am about is how Finding Your Feet is about moving forward. I clicked with this book, with Tyler and Evie and their emotional arcs, because I’ve had similar experiences and I’ve gone through some stuff. So I’m rooting for them on every page, not just about the relationship I wanted them to have from the freaking page that they met or the dance competition that makes up the main reason for their initial connection, but for their personal lives and paths.

They’re fictional characters, but they feel like real people. They feel like me and my friends and that’s just swell.

The majority of the background and secondary characters in Finding Your Feet are interesting and I definitely look forward to reading more about them. While Gigi takes a bit to grow on you (or at least he did with me), by the end of this book I was actually eager for his (which’ll come out in March!!). I’m also invested in Evie’s friends Bailey and Sarah and would lowkey kill for a chance to read more of them because they’re just so interesting!!

Now if you’re like me, a die-hard fan of the Step Up franchise that wished the films could’ve centered on queer characters and deeper narratives while not pushing a pretty uniform “look” for dancers as far as ethnicity and body types went, you’re going to love Finding Your Feet.

End Note (for content warnings): While Riptide is awesome and has a warning tag and details out the wazoo about what you can expect to find in the book, I wanted to be clear about them in my own review. (These things are all either resolved or addressed critically in the narrative.)

Finding Your Feet has some significant moments that deal with the aftermath of and healing after cissexist emotional abuse towards Tyler from his ex-girlfriend that may be anxiety-inducing for some.

Then, Evie’s mother is kind of… a problem. There’s some stuff with Evie’s mom that made me incredibly anxious and uncomfortable (I’m not 100% sure if it falls under abuse but I wanted to cover it) and then her whole family kind of just doesn’t get queerness and so we get Evie talk about that at a couple of points.

Additionally, the character of Gigi Rosenberg makes bodyshaming comments about Evie a couple times behind her back before he gets to know her and Tyler shuts that down quick.

Finding your Feet is the second book in the Toronto Connections series, which focuses on a section of the LGBTQA+ community in Toronto, Canada, and the second to feature an asexual romance, although one that is rather different from the first installment Blank Spaces. This time it’s about tumblr friendships, a Pride parade dance-off, lots of trips to Tim Hortons, unrepentant fluff, learning how to be happy, both with yourself and others, and an adorable toy Godzilla.

Lennox does a great job at ensuring what could be a very repetitive plot (dance rehearsal-social event-dance rehearsal-etc) remains engaging and fun to read, and I was surprised how well the spirit of the choreography came across without having to spend time describing every box step and ball change. The ensemble cast were interesting characters in their own right, although it did occasionally feel like we were in their story, not Tyler and Evie’s. I especially liked the portrayal of bubbly, enthusiastically demonstrative Sarah, helping to dispel myths about aromantic people being incapable of affection or love. Evie’s stated asexuality may prove to be divisive, as she comes across as more demisexual than ace, saying she ‘likes what she likes’ and under the right conditions is happy to have sex, but it’s also important to show just how wide the spectrum of asexuality is, and no one character can embody just how different our desires – or lack thereof – and needs can be. I can’t speak to how authentic trans representation is in the novel, but I was pleased Tyler is never deadnamed and has a loving, if distant, family to support him.

There were some minor issues that kept distracting me from thoroughly enjoying the story, like the fact we’re told Evie is a very clever engineer but she never demonstrates her practical knowledge or even hints at what she knows – I certainly would have appreciated at least one moment in which she shares her enthusiasm for her field, because I’m a sucker for scientists in romance. I’m unsure if it’s just me being overly sensitive, but I felt uncomfortable with ‘twinks’ ‘queens’ and ‘queening’ appearing frequently, especially to describe the flamboyant cis gay dancer Gigi, as well as a few other instances of unpleasantly stereotypical language. There were also a lot of repeated words that stuck out while reading, but that may be resolved in the final copy. I was a bit frustrated the main conflict centred around a minor miscommunication that could easily have been avoided, and would have preferred if instead Tyler’s emotional trauma from his previous relationship was given more weight as the wedge that could keep them apart.

While I was disappointed that the hints at femdom didn’t actually go anywhere (and yes, it’s absolutely possible to be ace and kinky), the chemistry between Evie and Tyler was tangible and made for a charming infatuation turned romance. Finding Your Feet is a sweetly entertaining story and I hope we see more of these two, along with Vaughn and Jonah, throughout the series.

Cute romance, loved seeing ace and trans representation in a romance novel. Evie and Tyler were great, the chemistry between them was fun. The premise was cute and worked really well in text. I thought there was a bit too much backstory for the next title in the series throughout the book, it got a little cluttered, but the story was solid. This was an eARC from Netgalley, but I bought the first book in the series based on the strength of this one. And it was set in one of my favorite cities, which made me just want to visit Toronto again

Absolutely adorable :) Representative, without being preachy and overbearing. Lovable characters. Great job :)

I have been waiting for this book ever since I finished Blank Spaces. Finding Your Feet follows Evie Whitmore and Tyler Davis, and while Vaughn and Jonah from the first book make appearances in this one you can easily read this as standalone.

Evie is in Canada to visit friends she's met online but also to look at where she'll be living in a few months time to get a degree in engeneering.

Tyler is a dancer at QS Dance. Right at the beginning of Finding Your Feet he enters a dance competition. During this competition he's supposed to teach a non-dancer a routine and this performance is going to be part of the upcoming pride parade. Something he's not too happy about because he's wary of dancing with someone again after his last dance partner Lucette. He does need the money though, so he grumpily agrees. And Evie pretty much enters by accident because she isn't aware that she's participating in an audition.

I loved the scenes in which Tyler and Evie dance together. Tyler is a fantastic teacher and I enjoyed Evie's snarky comments. But most of all I enjoyed the dance-descriptions. I felt like I was there in the dance studio, or the park, where they practice. It all came alive on page and sucked me right in.

The reader is aware that Tyler is a trans-man right from the beginning (and it's also mentioned in the blurb) but it's not used as a tool to create drama. And for Evie it's no big deal that Tyler is trans. Something that takes Tyler a bit of time to really understand because his last dance partner and grilfriend also assured Tyler that she "didn't mind" but her actions spoke another language and it took Tyler a while to see how toxic she was for him. So it's understandable that he's more careful now.
As a cis-reader I thought Cass Lennox did a great job portraying this without making it dramatic. And as I said Evie doesn't care about it because she likes Tyler.

With Evie we have now two asexual characters in this series. But unlike Vaughn, Evie isn't questioning or thinking there's maybe something wrong with her. She knows what she likes and what not and has been in relationships before. As ace person it was great to see this represented too.

Overall I really enjoyed Finding Your Feet but the conflict at the end came a bit out of the blue. I understand Tylers reaction, but it felt off that he reacts like this so late in the story when he's had a lor of time to get to know Evie.
Nonetheless I quite liked how both Evie and Tyler influenced each other to be a better version of themselves without trying to make them someone they're not.

My favourite thing about Finding Your Feet though is that it's so amazingly queer!
There's characters featuring the whole rainbow and each one grew on me (if i didn't love them on first sight, like Gigi for example. He stole my heart the first time we meet him and I'm really looking forward to read his book. His and Brock's story sounds like it'll be quite a ride.

When Evie takes a Toronto vacation ahead of her move there for grad school, she finds herself tossed into a dance competition for Toronto Pride, the non-dancer paired with a professional to compete for the win. In one week, dancer Tyler has to choreograph a routine for the two of them and teach her the moves. Evie and Tyler have an immediate connection, but both of them are relationship wary, Tyler because of a previous tumultuous, emotionally abusive relationship, and Evie because she is asexual and her former partners have been exasperated with her indifference to sex. But as their dance practices draw them closer together, they have trouble fighting their attraction...and do they really want to keep fighting?

This was a sweet romance repping the A and T in LGBTQIA, which I enjoyed, since trans and ace representation in literature is negligible, and trans and ace representation in romance is practically unheard of (especially ace--does anyone know of other ace romances? I would be very interested in them!).

I immediately jumped at the chance to read an advance copy of this book because I identify as gray-asexual, so I was super excited to read a romance featuring an ace protagonist. While I appreciate why some ace people may have been disappointed in this portrayal (Evie is pretty far toward the "sexual" end of the spectrum for someone who identifies as ace), I personally enjoyed that Cass Lennox chose to explore a more non-traditional aspect of asexuality--Evie is someone who has had sex and can enjoy it, but finds it overall pretty unimportant and doesn't really experience sexual attraction (at least not often).

The writing here wasn't that great though. It read like, well, a decently good fanfiction. If I'd stumbled on this story on Tumblr, I probably would have loved it, but I hold published works to a higher standard, and this unfortunately doesn't really stand up against the writing quality of other books in its genre. It was fairly juvenile, and felt like an early work from a writer who has talent but needs a few years and maybe a few writing classes to really develop her craft. I kind of doubt it would have found a home at a publishing house, even a small LGBT house like Riptide, if it hadn't filled a niche in that otherwise totally empty "ace romance" category.

Still, it was a sweet, light read, and I really appreciated reading about an ace woman and a trans man finding happiness together.