Review: Finding Center by Katherine Locke (District Ballet Company #2)
Note: This ARC was provided by Carina Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Ballet brought us together. Ballet tore us apart. Ballet brought us back together. And now ballet will keep us together. I'd like to say it was sheer willpower, or all the love we have for each other, and maybe it's a little bit of that too. But I don't know if either of us is ever whole without ballet in our lives. And if we can't be whole for ourselves, then we aren't there for each other.
Two years after they found each other again, Zedekiah Harrow and Alyona Miller are enjoying domestic bliss, living together in DC while both continuing to live their respective lives--he as a teacher and she as a dancer. Yet beneath the love that never really died, but is once again reciprocated, both Zed and Aly continue to have their struggles--some that have been there for far too long, others that resulted from the car accident they survived but cost them a great deal. They soon receive a surprise that neither was expecting and with it comes a new set of challenges and changes. With everything that's happening and will be happening, they'll need to face everything together or end up spiraling downward and away yet again.
Finding Center is the second full-length novel but the third release in Katherine Locke's new adult romance District Ballet Company series. The story takes place two years after the events in Second Position and find Zed Harrow and Aly Miller happy as a couple. However, Aly finds her position as the company's unofficial prima ballerina threatened by a younger upstart who thinks Aly is past her prime. When Zed and Aly find themselves unexpectedly with child for a second time, Aly is the one who will have to undergo more changes, personally and professionally plus physically and otherwise. Knowing how tenuous Aly's hold on her emotional sobriety is, Zed desperately wants to be anything she needs him to be.
There are times in the series that I found myself wondering if Zed could be considered as an enabler of sorts when it comes to Aly's issues. He sometimes decides to not push or question her for fear of making her snap or distance herself from him. They also both have a tendency of keeping things from one another--Aly with her decision to move from the Philadelphia Ballet to District Ballet Company and now Zed with his return to the one other thing he loved and thought he had lost forever--though I can see why there was such hesitance, a lot of it stemming from their need to protect the person they loved most. Zed and Aly's relationship is very complex but they're in it for the long haul and their dedication is inspiring.
One thing I've grown rather fond of are the conversations Aly has with her therapist, Dr. Tom Ham. This is where we get to see Aly stripped of whatever facade she can come up. I like this unadulterated Aly we get in her therapy sessions, although she's more open and honest with Zed here than in the previous book. Even with all their struggles and issues, Aly and Zed are main characters who you cheer on because you want them to find happiness and peace of mind and you can empathize with what they're going through. I wonder if the series will continue, and if so, if Noelle Harrow will be up next because of the hints in the epilogue. No complaints if it does continue since it's now a favorite. Finding Center gets five-plus stars. ♥
Release Date: 17 August 2015
Date Read: 17 August 2015
Learn more about Katherine Locke here.
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