Archer is passionate about dance. He comes to dance camp, expecting a dream experience--just to find Matteo, sultry, too perfect, and a transphobe. (Or so he assumes because of an awful remark Matteo made once.). Matteo is also very, very attractive as well as gay...and we see what's coming!

The dance setting was terrific. The author absolutely nailed the crazy, inspiring, tiring, drama-injected fizz of summer theater for teens, in this case a summer dance camp. In fact, the setting was so very well done that it kind of detracted from the character development that such a complicated plot needed (Archer is dating someone else while totally eyeing Matteo).

But that's a small creeb. It's fast-paced, with some great scenes when Archer and Matteo do start coming together. Add in the filmic wish-fulfillment ending, and you get a gay-friendly feel-good romance for teens, with an emphasis on dance!

If you’re looking for ideas for your summer reads already, this is a great recommendation for you.

Archer has moved to Manhattan after quitting his accounting job in Ohio to pursue his dream of dancing on Broadway. Five months later, his savings is rapidly becoming depleted and he’s been turned down from every audition, losing out to younger competitors (Archer is 27). His one last hope is an audition for a summer position at an LGBT resort in the Catskills named Shady Queens (fairly certain the author is a Golden Girls fan, lol, at one point someone even refers to it as Shady Pines).

Miraculously, he gets the job. Once at Shady Queens, he discovers that his teenage idol, Broadway Star Mateo Dixon is also in the show. Why is he here of all places?

There seem to be some initial sparks between Archer and Mateo, but then Archer begins a relationship with one of his roommates, Caleb.

What follows is a lot of drama and a really great romcom story, with a lot of dancing in the nightly floor show.

I loved Archer’s character and his determination to follow his dream and change his life. He has a summer he will never forget at Shady Queens. His friend and roommate in Manhattan, Lynn, is an amazing side character, and I’d like to see a story featuring her now.

As I said at the beginning of my review, this is a great summer romcom that I wholeheartedly recommend you add to your TBR for this summer.

The main POV character and love interest and the setting of Flirty Dancing were highlights of this cute, lighthearted romantic romp. Any one who is looking for a gayer take on Dirty Dancing should check this out.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t resist a book that has this as its title! Thanks so much to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advance copy of this fun book.

Archer was an accountant in Ohio who quit his job to move to NYC and pursue his dream of being on Broadway. But the auditioning isn’t going well, and maybe his mother is right: 27 is too old to chase your dreams. Still, he goes on one more audition, vowing to head back to Ohio if he doesn’t succeed.

He lands a job as a performer at Shady Queens, an LGBTQ-friendly resort in the Catskills. It’s not quite what he was hoping for, but you never know where your big break can come from. Much to his surprise, he learns that one of his co-stars is Mateo Dixon, once a Broadway star and Archer’s teenage crush.

After Mateo’s time on Broadway flamed out in spectacular fashion, Shady Queens is one of the only jobs he can get. He’s not thrilled to have been the target of Archer’s teenage worship (which has maybe carried over into his 20s), but all he wants to do is dance. Maybe he’s a little standoffish, but he’s still sexy as hell in Archer’s eyes.

Archer tries to build a friendship with Mateo but always seems to say and do the wrong things. And when a relationship with Caleb, one of his castmates, turns sour, it adds to the drama and tension among the performers. The show starts to suffer, and it’s up to the performers to buckle down and try to leave their emotional issues offstage.

As a huge fan of musical theater and romance, I really enjoyed this book. The characters were fun, emotional, and overly dramatic, much like you’d imagine performers to be. I loved the chemistry between Archer and Mateo, and at times it felt like Shady Queens reminded me of Kellerman’s from Dirty Dancing.

The book will publish 5/27/2025.

I absolutely LOVED "Flirty Dancing" and recommend it highly. It had me up into the early morning hours to finish because I was so drawn into the storyline and the characters. I thought this would be a queer remake of Dirty Dancing and while i was down for that, I was happily mistaken. I loved the main character arc, how their respect for and knowledge of each other grew slowly as we got to know them. I can't wait to read what comes next from Jennifer Moffatt!

Archer is a very … go with the flow kind of guy. When a fellow dancer at Shady Pines starts flirting, he’s fine, accepting the attention and giving some very lukewarm responses. When Mateo, one of his first crushes and dance inspirations invites him to extra practice, he breathlessly accepts. But he never takes either advantage of or responsibility for either of these situations. Soon he finds himself dating Caleb without actually wanting to, simply because he couldn’t be bothered to say no, all while mooning over Mateo who flirts with Archer, knowing he’s hooking up with Caleb. Who hates Mateo.

And it’s a mess. Caleb keeps trying harder and harder to keep Archer, who doesn’t really seem to care. Mateo keeps flirting with Archer, who enjoys the attention and seems confused as to why Caleb might not be delighted with Mateo.

The thing is, Caleb has a point. Mateo was truly awful to someone, saying the only reason they got a job was because they were transgender, and has never apologized for it. He now comes to work at the camp Caleb has been working at for years, acting as if he knows everything, as if he has the right to critique, and to judge just because he was on Broadway. As far as Caleb knows, Mateo is a transphobe who flirts with someone else’s boyfriend, and Caleb wants nothing to do with him. And, while all this is going on, the guy Caleb is sleeping with has the hots for Mateo, and then chooses to be with this transphobe over him.

From there it’s a messy tying up of lose strings, of everyone getting a moment for a tearful apology and a feel good ending, including the “famous director in the audience” bit and a picture perfect epilogue. The writing is solid, the pace lingers a bit and I think could have been a little tighter in places, but overall the book is fine. A decent summer read. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC.

This BOOK!!! I LOVED everything about this book and more. The way the characters connected and interacted was truly something else. I can't wait to read more by this author.


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.

Am I a bad bisexual if I've only ever seen Dirty Dancing once?

Once was enough for me, to be honest, but this book? I'm definitely planning on going back for a reread. Flirty Dancing by Jennifer Moffatt is pure freaking chaos and I loved every second of it. Archer is a 27 year old dancer who is just trying to make it in New York City. His parents want him to come back to Ohio and become an accountant but he is determined to do what he loves. His best friend Lynn is a lawyer and she's a delight. But when Archer gets a job and sent to Shady Queens LGBTQ+ resort for the summer to star in their showcase (can we talk about that name? I love it LOL) he meets his idol: disgraced Broadway star Mateo Dixon.

There is a myriad of side characters, as well as a love triangle. Sort of. I hate Caleb and we shan't speak his name from this point onward. But the build up for Mateo and Archer was so delicious. The tension that was built up between them through every dance and small interaction was perfect. And the birthday gift Mateo got for Archer... STOP IT SO SWEET. I read this book over two days and it was honestly great. I just wish it would have been in dual POV because I am DYING for Mateo's side.

This is another one I’m conflicted on. Though I’m mostly leaning on the not great side. On one hand, I often try not to read too many MlM books written by cis women. So I was weary going into this.

One the other hand, it had such a fun premise, and I was excited for a Dirty Dancing-inspired romance, but overall, the execution didn’t quite work for me. Instead of focusing on Archer and Matteo’s relationship, most of the book was about backstage drama, which made it hard to get invested in the romance. Plus, Archer was dating someone else for a huge chunk of the book while clearly crushing on Matteo, which made things feel messy in a way that wasn’t fun to read.

That said, the dance setting was great, and I liked how it captured the chaotic, drama-filled energy of a summer dance camp. There were some cute moments between Archer and Matteo, but their relationship lacked depth, and a dual POV might have helped. The ending wasn’t super realistic, but it had that “love is love” feel-good vibe, which I suppose was nice. Overall, this was fine, fun in some ways, frustrating in others. If you like messy love stories with lots of drama, you might enjoy it more than I did.

Flirty Dancing is the gay contemporary romance twist on Dirty Dancing that you didn't know you needed. I personally wish there were many more Dirty Dancing retellings (or Dirty Dancing-inspired stories), so if you're the same, you're going to have to add this to your summer TBR.

I think this book struck a great balance in drawing its inspiration from Dirty Dancing, but then really making it into its own thing, with a contemporary setting. I had a lot of fun reading this, and thought the writing was really engaging, making me fly through it.

This is quite a messy story, though, so I know it won't be for everyone because of that. I have to admit I enjoyed the drama, but I did feel a little disappointed that we waste so much time in this book on the antagonist of the story, even seeing our main character date him for a good chunk of the book. I personally felt fed up with him very early on, so this did annoy me a little.

Such a cute book, it had its moments where I was like..... what? but other than that it had a good flow to it.

When I first saw Flirty Dancing and learned that it was loosely inspired by Dirty Dancing, I was extremely excited because that's my favorite movie of all time. Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I was expecting a cute romance story but instead this felt more like a general fiction book with a subplot of romance.

Rather than focusing on the relationship between the main character, Archer, and the love interest, Matteo, the book mostly centered around backstage drama among the dancers at the resort. In fact, for more than half the book, Archer was seeing Caleb, one of the other dancers. This is where my main issue comes in. I did not like that Archer was dating one guy while clearly lusting after another one. It was incredibly obvious from the start that Archer had a crush on Matteo and yet he continued to string Caleb along with little remorse which made it difficult to root for them. This kind of behavior also made it hard to care for Archer because he seemed so selfish. As for Matteo's character, he lacked depth and switched between being broody and stand-offish to being sweet and thoughtful at random intervals.

Despite those issues, there was definitely chemistry between Archer and Matteo and they did share some cute moments. However, I just couldn't get invested in their relationship knowing that most of the lead-up to it happened while Archer was dating someone else.

This wasn't a bad book. The writing was solid and I can see how other people might enjoy the plot even if the romance isn't the best. If you're looking for a story that features drama reminiscent of high school theater kids and a messy romance subplot, you might really love this. If you want a sweet romance and well-developed characters, on the other hand, this might not be the book for you.

Yessss!!!!! I really enjoyed this from start to finish. I loved that they played Clue and Monopoly and Jenga and had dancing as a setting/backdrop and you know it's good when a book makes me use run-on sentences!!

I read this at a good time, because I really needed something light and fluffy. It has its drama, for sure, but nothing stress-inducing. The dynamics between the characters was so fun, and I wish so had that this had a movie adaptation so I could see all the dancing scenes for myself. I really liked how the chemistry was described and reading about characters pursuing their passion.

Definitely quite a hit with me, and I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys the idea of light MM romance set at a dance camp. 8/10

Big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC!

What a fun premise to this book! I truly though that this had the best premise and was really looking forward to where this book was going to go.

Overall, the thing that fell flat for me was the belivablilty of the relationship between Mateo and Archer. We didn't get enough of Mateo's background because we never really saw what caused these 2 to eventually become a couple. I feel like this is where dual POV would have been beneficial for this story.

I enjoyed the side characters in the story, as they made this feel like a messy backstage at a show, and that brought believability to the setting! Overall, this had some strong parallels to Dirty Dancing, I just wish there was more behind the main characters!

Thanks to St. Martins Griffin and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This was my first MM romance. I enjoyed the story how how we saw vulnerable parts of the characters. I loved all the characters and the drama they came with. I was a little disappointed that the main character spent so much time with the protagonist and the ending came very quickly. But overall I really enjoyed it

Flirty Dancing is the gay contemporary romance twist on Dirty Dancing that you didn't know you needed. I personally wish there were many more Dirty Dancing retellings (or Dirty Dancing-inspired stories), so if you're the same, you're going to have to add this to your summer TBR.

I think this book struck a great balance in drawing its inspiration from Dirty Dancing, but then really making it into its own thing, with a contemporary setting. I had a lot of fun reading this, and thought the writing was really engaging, making me fly through it.

This is quite a messy story, though, so I know it won't be for everyone because of that. I have to admit I enjoyed the drama, but I did feel a little disappointed that we waste so much time in this book on the antagonist of the story, even seeing our main character date him for a good chunk of the book. I personally felt fed up with him very early on, so this did annoy me a little

Flirty Dancing by Jennifer Moffatt
Length: 336 pages
Source: NetGalley eARC
Publication date: May 27, 2025

When is it time to give up on your dreams?

Archer Read is an accountant attempting to follow his lifelong dream of being a dancer, despite constantly hearing that he’s too old (he’s 27). He has been auditioning in New York for months without success and finally lands a gig at Shady Queens, an LGBTQ+ friendly resort in the Catskills. When he arrives, Archer is surprised to find his childhood crush, Mateo Dixon, among the small group of performers. It quickly becomes clear that their on-stage chemistry is electric, but off-stage, Mateo seems to want nothing to do with him. Or does he? If Archer is mistaken, then why does Mateo keep putting up a wall between them when they’re so compatible on the dance floor?

The vibe of Flirty Dancing is, well, flirty. It’s sweet, touching, campy, and nostalgic. It’s enjoyable, feel-good, and just a little bit angsty (but not too painfully so). There are callbacks, certainly, to movies like Dirty Dancing and Wet Hot American Summer. It’s also predictably satisfying, and I don’t mean that negatively in any way. Flirty Dancing is well-written and fast-paced to keep you reading even though you can sense that Archer is going to get both the guy and a dance career in the end. Watching the main characters fall in love—even with a romantic rival blocking the way for the majority of the book—was charming and left me grinning several times.

The ragtag group of VERY dramatic fellow dancers provided moments of hilarity here as well. They sometimes felt a bit flat, though, like they were a one-dimensional plot device (i.e. a catty female performer, a couple that’s always fighting, etc.). I actually found myself wanting to know more about them. Maybe additional background or insight into the supporting characters would have dragged down the pacing of the book, or maybe multiple POVs would have cleared up some questions, but the glimpses we got of Archer’s friends were an opportunity to give the reader just that little bit more to understand why they acted the way they did, said the things they said, etc.

Now, our romantic rival—ahhhh, this man—needs a little paragraph to himself. When I tell you I actively disliked this man the entire time, I’m not exaggerating. From the moment he appeared on the page! (Most of my highlights consist of “I hate this guy.”) So, kudos to the author for writing him so well to make me dislike him that much. At the same time, he is a perfect example of what I am talking about above. Only at the very, very end of the book do we get any insight whatsoever as to why this character is the way he appears to be— a superficial, self-centered man-child—to the point you may ask yourself, “Why is Archer even interested in this guy?!”

All in all, this might be your book if you like:
🩵 Grumpy/sunshine
💙 Slow burn
🩵 Dance, musical theater, Broadway, etc.
💙 Childhood crush turned co-worker
🩵 Summer-camp shenanigans
💙 Love triangle (-ish)

Bottom line: Grab it, especially if this kind of contemporary romance is your thing. It was a quick read and kept me engaged, especially because Archer and Mateo were so endearing.

4 ⭐️
1 🌶️ (closed door, brief kissing)

— A

Thanks to St. Martin’s Griffin Press, Jennifer Moffatt, and NetGalley for an eARC of this book. All opinions are mine.

Flirty dancing is a gay contemporary romance spin of Dirty Dancing. Therapist drama, the angst, the witty banter are all fabulous and make this story enjoyable to read. If you are interested in a dirty dancing retelling, be sure to add this to your TBR.

Archer and Matteo’s story is absolutely adorable.

The story is interesting and has somewhat complex characters. I found it to be entertaining to read and hope you do as well!

⭐️mm romance
⭐️contemporary romance
⭐️Dirty Dancing retelling
⭐️theater/performance romance

Thank you for sharing this Arc with me!

27 year old Archer Read is desperately trying to prove his parents wrong by making his dreams of being a Broadway dancer come true. Unfortunately, after 5 months of audition rejections, he's failing miserably. After one last audition, Archer lands a summer gig dancing at Shady Queens in the Catskills. When he arrives, he learns that he will be dancing alongside none other than Mateo Dixon, former Broadway star, and Archer's teenage crush.

Obviously a queer Dirty Dancing retelling was a huge YES for me, but this book was so much fun to read, and was a perfect romantic comedy that had me ready to jump into summer already!

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was funny and cute, and I could relate to a lot of it, especially with my background in swing dancing and having been involved in community theater productions. The story hit a special spot for me. The characters were fun, and the author did a great job with the quirks of everyone involved. Caleb, in particular, was a standout—he was definitely a piece of work but felt real.

That said, there were some things that didn’t quite work for me. The drama in the book was a bit over the top at times, which makes sense in the theater world but felt a bit excessive here. The relationship between Archer and Caleb took WAY too long to resolve. It felt like that storyline could have been wrapped up earlier, giving more space for the developing romance between Archer and Mateo. By the time they got together, it felt rushed, and we were left with very little time to see them as a couple.

I also felt that Archer’s relationship with his parents deserved more closure. That plotline kind of dropped halfway through the book and then got a quick resolution at the end.

Lastly, I would have loved more of the steamy scenes—there was a lot of potential there, but we mostly got fade-to-black moments instead of anything more explicit.

Overall, it was a fun read, with great characters and a lot of heart, but a few aspects could have been developed more fully.