I think this was a cute little romance. I liked how the two main characters' backstories were fleshed out. There were also discussions of real-life things that have come to form the characters' personalities and feelings. I also liked how the characters' flaws were an important part of the story. I do not like romance novels that have characters who are just flawless and happy all the time. I need depth in my characters.

There were parts that I was not a fan of. I did not like the mini love triangle that took place in the book. I could have dealt without Caleb being such an important part of the romantic part for Archer. I also think the amount of miscommunication or lack of communication could have been lessened for this novel because it kind of infuriated me when reading.

Overall, though, Mateo and Archer stole my heart with this story so 4 stars!

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for an advance copy of the audiobook and St. Martin’s Press for the ebook so I could read along. Mark Sanderlin is a new narrator for me and he was a solid choice for this book.

DNF at 15%. This book would have made so much more sense if they were all aged down 5-10 years. He’s extremely concerned about his parent’s opinions on his career. He drinks like it’s brand new to him. As a stage manager in another life I would have hit the roof if one of my cast had gotten blitzed and missed rehearsal at 27 years old. Stealing someone’s clothes when they’re in the shower so they have to walk naked back to their (shared) room as a prank did not feel age appropriate for these characters.

So much tell and not enough show. I was told Archer and Mateo had so much chemistry and I wasn’t seeing it at all. Archer was missing social cues so hard which was probably to show he’s some naïve guy from Ohio brand new to the “big city” but it didn’t work for him. His earnestness came off as insensitive in a few places.

I really wanted to like this book. The premise was adorable and the setting was great; unfortunately it just fell flat for me. The book jumped from one scene to the next, making the characters not feel fully fleshed out. This book is doing a lot of telling instead of showing which also doesn’t help with the stories flow. It also felt like there were too many characters and subplots, which ultimately made you not care about any of them.

Flirty Dancing was a mixed bag for me. The premise was great-- a group of dancers performing at an LGBTQ+ summer resort in the Catskills (the template here is, of course, the movie Dirty Dancing). As an actor, I am a sucker for any premise involving the performing arts. The author does a nice job with creating the various members of the troupe, the director, Stewart (and Judy) and the long-time fan, Eileen, as well as with creating the backstage chaos that often does provide more drama than what happens onstage.

The writing is okay but needed, given it's subject, to be snappier. The sex scenes were either fade-to-black or described in generic over-the top romance fashion (involving planets and stars). and not really saying anything specific to the actual characters involved. The characters were also problematic. The main MC, Archer, started out as sympathetic--loved the "I'm too old" mantra. But from Day One, he should have been suspicious of Caleb (after all, he stole his clothes and towel from the shower--why?)and as Caleb's behavior became ever more egregious, Archer remained clueless about how bad a person he was. Archer also remains far too clueless that Mateo (the other MC) is into him. It took WAY too long for him to pick up the cluephone. Finally, in the relationship with Mateo, Archer suddenly becomes "the woman"--Mateo is described as hairy, muscular, strong. Archer is always the follower, whether they are dancing or singing a karaoke duet. The last third of the book feels like an MF rather than an MM romance. Finally, the ending was over the top--one minute, Archer is broke and headed back to Ohio and the next he's living with Mateo and has become a Broadway star. i am all for a solid HEA but this was too much..

All this said, the strengths were author's creation of a believable summer stock environment including the tensions and insecurities of the performers as well as the grueling hours of rehearsal that go into creating a performance, and finally the degree to which the performers' personal lives can affect their performances for both good and ill. Overall, a quick read with some fun backstage antics.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

LOVED THIS SO MUCH!! Following Archer's journey was such a fun ride, and even more fun was following his journey with Matteo. Flirt Dancing is so sweet and sexy and exciting! Can't wait to recommend this one to friends looking for a good MM romance.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of Flirty Dancing in exchange for an honest review!

Archer Read is on his last chance trying to make it big and achieve his Broadway dreams. Hoping to delay what feels like an inevitable move back home, he takes a job at a musical revue in the Catskills. The last thing he’s expecting is to find his teenage celebrity crush Mateo Dixon running the revue. If that isn’t embarrassing enough, Archer is assigned to be his dancer partner, and while Mateo is definitely hot, he’s also grumpy, and difficult, and sending death glares at just about everyone. There’s no doubt that Archer and Mateo sizzle on the dance floor, but will they spark off of it, as well?

Flirty Dancing manages to capture the broad elements of its inspiration, but never fully reaches the max potential of its leads, or their timeless romance. This is perhaps due to an overly meandering dalliance Archer has with fellow cast member Caleb, that begins to chafe long before it ends. Flirty Dancing is best when Archer and Mateo are finally alone, and can begin to get to know each other, though it takes much too long to get there. I think my biggest issue was that there were too many characters–friends, co-workers, Catskills vacationers–and not quite enough Archer and Mateo. Overall, it’s charming and syrupy sweet, and fans of Dirty Dancing will appreciate the queer retelling of a classic. I don’t know if it's bearing the brunt of the load, but it’s certainly carrying a watermelon.

this was ok! i think the summer dance camp setting was very fun (i love a book set a summer camp). i liked the writing and the main character, but this had that trope of the MC dating another person, who's kind of a dick, who they're clearly not that interested in, while realizing they're in love with the main love interest, and i find that annoying! that trope usually does not work for me, but especially when the MC is with the other guy for more than 70% of the book like in this one! so the main romance just felt like it was there? and it happened? and i wasn't invested?

Archer and Mateo are dancers in a music review at a place called Shady Queens in upstate New York. Each are there for their own reasons.

Archer, a struggling dancer in NYC, accepts a placement in a dance group after a serious of rejections. While there, he encounters his crush, the man who adorned his room on posters. Mateo blew-up his career, so here he his training dancers at a resort. While one is struggling to make it in the world of the dance, the other is hoping to step back into the good graces of the scene. What neither expects is to dance into each others heart.

A fun and relatively light queer romance.

Thank you, St. Martin's Press | St. Martin's Griffin

Flirty Dancing is one of those perfect summer reads - a quick, easy read, with plenty of heart. Archer has recently moved to New York to chase his dream of dancing professionally, but hasn't had any callbacks until finally a LGBTQ resort in the Catskills gives him a callback for their summer season. From there it almost feels like a summer camp vibe between the dancers, with shared rooms and "just for the summer" relationships and drama, as well as "this is just for fun" versus "this is a serious job" camps. There's all sorts of interpersonal drama, including one character who has messy relationships with almost every male character, leading to an almost love-triangle-esque situation with Archer.

I did really love how well the tension between Mateo and Archer was written and conveyed - whether they were dancing together or playing Monopoly, it was tangible, something that was important since they don't get together until quite late in the story. This does thankfully mean that between that and all the other drama from the rest of the cast of characters, there's no third act breakup, and most of the dramatic points that come up get interpersonally resolved fairly quickly.

I did think that the ending rushed by quite quickly, especially the pipeline of "I'm into you" "let's stay together after this" "together forever", but considering a subplot with Archer's roommate was her proposing to her girlfriend of six months, maybe that's just normal for this author. Overall, everyone was very cute and I enjoyed this actually quite a lot more than I was expecting, considering how tropey it felt like it was going to be, something that is owed to how human and well-rounded the characters feel.

I devoured this book!!!

The storytelling was great and I really loved the characters. Everyone had their own flaws and it was really interesting to see how they grew beyond them. It is such a fun summer read that I can't wait to get a copy of!

Dirty Dancing is one of my favorite movies, and this book hit the vibe so perfectly! Archer and Mateo are such great characters that are deep and complex, both working through their personal insecurities. I love the summer camp vibe of Shady Queens, and the side characters were all delightful!
I listened to the audio, and I absolutely loved the narrator's dry humor.

This book is a perfect fun and vibey book for people who love mm romance with dirty dancing vibes!! It was a fun read where I didn't have to put too much of my mind into it.

I really wanted to love this one . A Dirty Dancing inspired MM romance should have been a home run for me. Unfortunately it was not. I enjoyed the actual writing style, it was easy to read and smooth. However I can't get over the fact that our MC spends over half the book with someone other than the end game love interest. Personally this was way too much drama for my liking but I would see myself giving the author another read in the future.

I picked this book up on a whim based on the title and description. Being a fan of Dirty Dancing, I thought it would be a fun read. It was so much more than that! Amazing book, that brought the concepts of dirty dancing to a new generation. Highly recommend!

Flirty Dancing is a gay reimagining of the classic movie Dirty Dancing.

This book follows Archer, an ex accountant and aspiring dancer, and Mateo, an ex Broadway star who dissapeared from the face of the earth. They both find themselves dancing for the summer at a queer resort in the Catskills in NY.

This story was funny, messy, chaotic at times, sexy and full of drama. I really enjoyed it, it was different than anything I've read.

I loved the camp vibes of this book. All the dancers live in cabins on the resort property and do fun activities together, like game nights, midnight skinny dipping, parties, etc.

I loved seeing Archer and Mateo's relationship develop, even though Archer was dating someone else during a part of the summer, it made for a more realistic story in my opinion. If you don't like an MC dating someone else than the other MC you might not like this book but it didn't bother me (there is NO cheating don't worry).

This book was a silly fun time and it is super short so it is very bingeable. If you love drama, simmering tension, tender and sweet moments, dance and summer vibes, this book is for you!

As a person who went to school for theatre and has danced my entire life, I enjoyed this so much! The setting was perfect for a fun rom-com. Flirty Dancing is full of hilarious characters. I'll admit I found Archer a bit insufferable though. He was complaining about not booking anything after auditioning for five months?! Please.

BUT

Everyone else certainly made up for my annoyance with him. I adored complex Mateo and bubbly Betty.

Was this a bit unrealistic and silly? Yes, but I think it's a great book to read in between heavier books. It was fun and not high stakes which is a plus in my book!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press (St. Martin's Griffin) for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

dirty dancing is one of my favorite movies of all time so i was ecstatic to have been given early access to this book! other than the setting and that there is dancing, that's about where the similarities end. the writing is perfect for a rom com and is an easy read. all of the characters are easy to learn and incredibly fun to follow. i did want to throw the book a couple of times based on some choices that these guys made, but it all worked out in the end! super engaging and enjoyable read, perfect for going into summer!

Flirty Dancing opens with Archer. Archer is 27 and he is feeling old. He’s originally an accountant from Ohio, but he's recently moved to Manhattan to try and break into the Broadway scene. Unfortunately, so far there’s been no luck as he continues to be rejected from show after show. Out of desperation, he auditions for a dancing role at the adult gay summer camp Shady Queens, and surprising himself he gets chosen. Upon arriving, however, he meets the camp grump, Mateo. However he's also the Mateo Dixon, aka Archer's teenage crush and whose posters were all over Archer’s childhood bedroom. Mateo has been out of Broadway performances for over a decade, following a brief rise to fame and disastrous crash and burn due to his attitude and combativeness on set. So, understandably, seeing him here is surprising. But there’s a chemistry between them, no matter how grumpy Mateo can be or how young Archer is in comparison.

This is a pretty cute summer vibes romance that can’t be taken too seriously or else it’s internal logic falls apart. Starting with the positives, I have to say that Moffatt absolutely captured the genuine messiness and in-fighting of summer staff lodges at remote resorts - I know, because I’ve worked at one before. Only instead of being in a love triangle like Archer, Mateo, and Caleb (or like Beau, Ben, and Caleb - or like Caleb and really any man), I had a guy break into my room and pee through the window meshing hoping a bear would be attracted to the smell and bust in while I was sleeping. And no, I'm not talking about the gay bear kind of bear, it was Grizzly season. Anyway, I mention that example to show that, while the messiness of this book would be out of place and juvenile in other romance settings, the way the messiness is written here felt entirely accurate to me and my experiences. I also thought that the age-gap in this book was handled well and never really came across as creepy or inappropriate, which can too often happen when this trope is used.

From a critical perspective, since I always include at least one thing in every review I do, I will say that I wish the characters’ growth and development was handled a little better. Unfortunately I never really felt like Archer grew himself, instead it felt like others were growing around him which then led to him feeling less inadequate and less like he stood out negatively. Other characters had growth which felt like it came out of nowhere following a single event, which left it feeling like simply a plot device to move to the next part of the story rather than genuine growth (e.g., Caleb post-gossip magazine event).

“Flirty Dancing” was very cute! Archer is a little late to the game trying to chase his dream of being a Broadway dancer in New York at 27. He’s gone to 30+ auditions and gotten no roles in the six months he’s been in the city. When he gets the role of a dancer at a queer friendly summer camp style show in the Catskills, it’s better than nothing.
The camp setting was very fun and lighthearted and set the tone for a nice romcom. There was more unnecessary drama than I think was really needed… I don’t see how *anyone* liked Caleb all summer. Even though the characters are all supposed to be in their 20s, “Flirty Dancing” definitely read like a YA romance. There were a few incidents that didn’t really get resolved involving the drama with Caleb and the other dancers, and the last half of the book felt a bit rushed to get to the happy ending.
Overall, it was an enjoyable book, I just wish it had slowed down a bit, toned down the drama, and maybe spiced up a few scenes so it didn’t read like YA with characters nearing 30.

I was expecting a potentially cute, probably cheesy remake of Dirty Dancing, but aside from the cover photo, setting, and occasional references like carrying a watermelon, this book strayed far from the movie in a good way. No disrespect to Dirty Dancing, which I love, but I enjoyed this book for its originality. I love that the main character is an incredible dancer in his own right and challenges the star performer to be even better. A cute, fun, read with a hopeful feeling that it’s never too late to follow our dreams or fall in love.