I love everything Alexis Daris writes and this is no exception! She's so talented at weaving believable love stories and the setting of this one with the DWTS vibes was so fun. And I'm obsessed with the new cover for this re-release of her debut. Highly recommend! Thanks to SMP and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I received a copy of Take the Lead via NetGalley to read and review.

I feel like Alexis Daria is a super fan of Dancing with the Stars. I feel like this story could have actually happened to a couple (or multiple couples) over the course of the show. The conflict was great without being over the top or over dramatic. My only minor complaint is the initial attraction between Stone and Gina seemed a little forced at the beginning but became more believable as the story went on. Thankful to have been given an advance copy of Take the Lead!

I'm kinda torn because this originally debuted in 2017--I'm not sure if it underwent edits or just a cover change (which is a better reflection of the book so I approve)--but it reads as a debut with some cheesy lines. I'm sure Alexis has grown as a writer since 2017. I don't want to bash this book, it had good moments, there were just some problem areas with pacing and plotting.

BUT I did enjoy two reality shows in one book, with the main storyline being the dancing one, and I enjoyed both MCs. Being dance partners adds delicious tension and Alexis delivered on that and their chemistry. Their love grew naturally and I enjoyed their story.

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.