Another sweeping southern hemisphere tale from Jenni Ogden. Spanning years in the life of Gaia who along with her brother Bron lives on the Coral Coast of Australia. where their mother a former principal in the American Ballet theatre schools them intensively in the art of the dance. One fateful night, their lives forever change which sets Gaia on an entirely different and difficult path.

Alone on her isolated property for some years her only friends are Mary and Eddie, an Aboriginal couple who work on the neighboring property and the beautifully coloured Seadragons she befriends while snorkeling.

One fateful day, Jarrah, Mary’s 11-year-old orphaned nephew sees Gaia dancing on the beach is both captivated and enchanted. A friendship between two lonely souls blossoms.

A story of dance, struggle and ultimately survival.

This book takes place in 1970, in the western Australian Coral coast. It is mostly about a teen girl Gaia who was taught ballet, by her mom, a professional ballet dancer. Her dad, a farmer, taught her to love the land and sea and respect for the environment. Gaia, loves snorkeling and one day she sees the dance of a pair of delicate sea dragons. She loves them. The same day a tragedy strikes and her life which changes everything.

She leaves and returns 2 years later to live off the land. She forms a friend ship with the aboriginal couple who are caretakers of the farmer next door who is a racist. She is dancing on the beach and meets their nephew Jarrah who is 11 yrs and disabled. They are two lonely people who form a lifetime bond.

The book has many issues including, forgiveness, friendship, tragedy, and love. But, the challenge is to face the world when you look and are brought up different than those who are deemed , normal.

I totally enjoyed this book it is written so well and easy to follow right thru to the end. Give it a read!

I found Dancing with Dragons filled with both hope and tragedy. It's an exploration of resilience and an enjoyable book. Well done.

I was sold by the cover and the blurb, unfortunately the novel itself was nowhere near as good as the description suggested. The writing itself was clunky, overly simplified, and a little poorly edited in places (tail is often written as tale for example) with the dialogue suffering the brunt of it - I appreciate Gaia grew up off grid, but I’ve never heard a human speak like the characters within this novel do.

It isn’t just Gaia, the other characters (particularly the Irish and Aboriginal characters) all speak as though they’ve never interacted with another human before. With the Irish characters casually slipping into Gaelic (but just for a word or two) and the Aboriginal characters, particularly Mary, speaking in a poorly written accent that feels more than a little bit insensitive.

The plot was okay, there was a lot and nothing going on at the same time. Mostly it was the main character navigating through the trauma of her past (only, she was too distracted with the present to really address anything that happened four years ago during the fire), the brother is conveniently written out only to resurface a few pages before the end, and the villain just goes off to conveniently die in the desert.

Perhaps I’m not the target audience for this book, but I feel as though Dancing with Dragons needs running by another editor and a sensitivity reader before it is published.

From the author Jenni Ogden, “Dancing With Dragons” is another wonderful read from her.
This story is about a teen girl, Gaia, raised off grid in Australia. Learning to dance classic ballet with her older brother from her mother who was once an American ballet dancer. Her father, an Australian farmer, taught her the love of the land and reef. This story is about her most memorable day spent snorkeling on the reef watching the courtship of seadragons only to have it become the most tragic day filled with pain and deep loss that sets the course for the rest of her future.
If you want a good read with commentaries about racism, friendship, resolution, forgiveness, and taking a stand when something matters this would be the book to read.
*** I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sea Dragon Press for providing this book, with my honest review below.

Dancing with Dragons was a beautiful story, exploring many themes from young tragedy to the challenging plights of those who look different or grew up differently from the ‘majority’ of society. Heartbreaking at times and absolutely beautifully written, I encourage anyone wanting a more meaningful read to pick this up - it will take focus but be well worth it.