It is the perfect book Valentine’s Day. It is cute romance of city girl vs country guy. You should def read it@

Tremendously good fun, light and upbeat, with sexy leads and lots of forced contact during dance rehearsals. I enjoyed how thoroughly the reality show setting was fleshed out in this one, realized with descriptions of how staging works, mic'ng the cast, and creating story/drama with carefully constructed interview questions. The details made the setting feel real, with real stakes and real challenges for the characters. Naturally, I also loved the descriptions of the costumes, and Daria does a bang-up job describing the dances so we can visualize them and feel the emotion of the movement and the partners' connection through the prose. Triumphant, energetic, and brimming with physical attraction from first awkward meetup to eagerly anticipated HEA.

This was tender, sweet and sexy. Looking forward to more stories from this author. The pacing really set the tone and the MC was actually very likeable.

Ooohh they have such chemistry! This was really good. A perfect follow-up novel. Alexis Daria is going to be an auto buy author I love her writing.
I just reviewed Take the Lead by Alexis Daria. #NetGalley
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I recently came across Alexis Daria this year and the first book I read was You Had Me at Hola. I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between the Hola characters and Take the Lead characters, both having characters in the “spotlight” and trying to resist each other. Regardless, this book was different enough that had me intrigued since the beginning. I loved the dance/reality TV setting, I enjoyed the storyline, I fell in love with Gina’s character because she’s just a hard-working woman and I respect that she wants the spotlight and fame but only in her own terms. Stone, he may be the quiet one but he has a big heart, he did the competition and reality TV show for his family, but I also loved how much he cared and respected Gina. I just loved the way the story unfolded and how their relationship developed, I literally did not want to put it down. Excited to own my own copy in February.
I give this 4.5/5 stars.

Fun and sexy look behind-the-scenes of reality tv life! Alexis Daria knows how to make us care about characters and feel invested in their lives. You'll love rooting for these two - in the competition and in love.

Dancing with the stars but make it Latinx 😜

Gina and Stone’s diynamic together was perfect!

Gina life’s hasn’t always have an easy life and the pressure of expectations that everyone around puts on her is not gonna define who she is! HELL NO! She will not let anyone make a stereotype out of her! And definitely not gonna let anything or “anyone” get in her way to achieve her long lasting *DREAM*

Omg I loved this book so much and I’m just so upset I got to read it NOW! But hey! It’s never too late to fall in love with Alexis Daria even more 💃🏼

I am a massive fan of Alexis Daria so I was so excited when SMP sent me this arc!! I hadn't read TAKE THE LEAD before and as a HUGE fan of reality show stuff, I was immediately drew in. The dancing is hot and the smut is even hotter. And not only that, but like any Alexis Daria book, the heart of the characters is the true driving force. It would be work for me not to care about any character that Daria writes and TAKE THE LEAD was no different.

Thank you so much for an eARC in exchange for an honest answer! This one wasn't quite for me, unfortunately, but I do hope to try it again in audiobook, form!

I love anything written by Alexis Daria and this is no exception. 'Take the Lead' was a fun opposites attract story about reality TV stars falling in love on their dance competition show.

2.5 stars. This was just fine. Definitely carried by the premise, which is interesting, but I wanted more from the characters.

If you love Dancing with the Stars or any other dancing TV show you will enjoy this book. It was an energetic, sweet and emotional story of two people with their past, present and future. This hot romance book by author Alexis Daria is the first one in a duology. I am not a dancer, so for me all this stuff looks real and fun. The romance of Gina and Stone is absolutely slow burn and enemies-to-lovers(love it). Gina is a really strong person, she knows what she wants and works hard for it. She has a terrible story with her ex which made her stronger and what made colder towards other people. I like the conflict of this story, it was interesting to watch the conflict and development of the characters in this story, how they showed each other their secrets. I recommend this book to TV reality shows lovers and to anyone who loves to dance.

I’m not a big lover of contemporary romance but whenever there’s a reality tv element I’m all in.

This was a cute fun read, I didn’t totally love the FMC but adored the MMC so it made it work.

Alexis Daria has been one of those authors I've been meaning to read from for a while now, so I was super excited to get Take the Lead sent my way. Funnily enough, I read this soon after the most recent season of Dancing with the Stars finished in the US!

And that's what this story is very reminiscent of: a romance set with a celebrity dance competition as the backdrop. Gina and Stone were a great pair and I appreciated that while there was instant attraction/lust, both had their own goals and ambitions that made difficult anything further than attraction. I did think the amount of sexual encounters described got a bit gratuitous and overdone by the end, but part of that is really because I was invested in how their story was going to work out! Both Gina and Stone had reasons to walk away and reasons to be upset, even when they were the ones who erred.

On a line level, there were a couple places where phrasing was a bit confusing. That was a bit concerning, since it was my understanding that this is the first paperback release of the book, but not it's first overall release. What I can hope is that these were some of the newer sections being worked on for this publishing and that they will be cleaned up by print release. Even that did not change how much I enjoyed the book and its characters.

This is going to be an excellent Valentine's Day release for 2023 and it certainly has cemented that I want to read more from Alexis Daria in the future!

Thank you to St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for sending me an advanced copy to review!

First off, I love the cover so much! It grabbed my attention immediately.

I really enjoyed the premise and the relationship between the two characters. I was truly tuned into the dance competition as if I was actually watching it on tv. Admittedly at the beginning the pacing felt a little slow, but it definitely began to pick up towards the middle of the book.

Thank you so much St. Martins Press and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review!

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Such a fun read! I liked the tv show life behind the scenes.

4.5 stars, rounded down
Holy shit, Alexis Daria. She is my favorite romance writer for a reason, and this is a perfect example of it. Every character is perfect and the plot is great and the relationship just feels so healthy. I love her writing style and I want to read her books all the time.
For her debut novel, I'm very impressed. It's not better than her Primas of Power series, but it is such a strong start to her bibliography. Stone and Gina were such wonderful characters -- I was so invested in them both and I loved them (especially Gina, I felt her struggle against the tropes of Latinas in media as a female-presenting Latine in the performing arts just a little too much). Stone was so endearing with his love for Gina and his feelings of responsibility for his family.
I think that a dance competition was the perfect setting for this story. It allowed for the story to move along at a great pace while adding tension to the relationship. It made for really good conflict as Stone and Gina's conflicting dreams butted heads over the course of the novel. And the images of them dancing that I created in my head? So cool, so fun, so gorgeous.
And the part that makes or breaks a romance novel: the epilogue. This one was perfect!! It wraps up the story while still leaving room for my brain to think up more of a future for them. I want more Stone and Gina, but I can leave the book knowing that their okay and imagine their life in my head when I want to.

✨ Review ✨ Take the Lead by Alexis Daria

The first book in her Dance Off series, this book follows a Dancing with the Stars type show with the pairing of Gina, a nuyorican dance pro, and Stone, a roughing in it in the wilderness of Alaska reality show star. Their connection is nearly instantaneous, and we watch their relationship grow and struggle and grow throughout the season of this reality show.

This was lots of fun to read and full of that Alexis Daria style. Admittedly, the back third felt a little repetitive as they grappled with the same sorts of issues and struggled a bit with communication. I enjoy reading reality show style books, and so this reminded me a bit of Alexis Hall's baking show books. If you like AD's other books, you'll probably enjoy this one too!

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Genre: f/m contemporary romance
Location: Los Angeles and a little bit in NYC and Alaska
Reminds me of: Alexis Hall's baking show books
Pub Date: rerelease date 14 Feb 2023 (originally came out as an independent release in 2017)

Read this if you like:
⭕️ reality show / dancing show books
⭕️ steamy romances
⭕️ celebrity secret relationships
⭕️ opposites attract

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and #netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book!

This was just what I needed to get me out of my reading slump. The main characters have great chemistry and I loved the setting. Very fun read

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½

Professional dancer Gina Morales is determined to make it to the finals of the celebraty dance competition show she is on. When she is paired with popular wilderness show star Stone Nielson, she has a feeling that they are going to win the season. The producers are setting up the pair to be the "showmance" of the season and although there is chemistry between them from the beginning, they try to resist the urge to fulfill that role. Things heat up between the two as they work closely together for months.

This novel is Alexis Daria's debut novel and it is being republished by St. Martin's Press. I love to dive into backlists from authors I enjoy and I was impressed by Daria's debut. This book got me in the feels in a way I didn't expect. From the very beginning of the story, I was invested in Gina and Stone's story and I connected with their characters. Gina was a badass dancer who was sassy and didn't put up with nonsense. Stone was a silent and brooding man who was thoughtful, kind, and caring underneath the mysterious façade. And he chopped wood without a shirt on, for goodness sakes!

As Gina and Stone got to know each other, their connection grew with depth and intensity. They each were something that the other needed. Gina was the confidence and encouraging support Stone needed to pull off something that many thought was impossible. Stone was the person who reminded Gina that they could work hard and have fun, too. These two made me feel some type of way and I loved every moment with them. They were like fire on the dance floor (that ARGENTINE TANGO was everything) and in the bedroom.

I want to campaign for this book to be made into a movie because I think it would be perfect for the screen!

Steam level: 🔥🔥🔥½
⚠️: mention of a house fire