Review: Second Position by Katherine Locke (District Ballet Company #1)
In the moments when the stage fails to save us, we've always sought to find the bottom of the well where things are magical again. We're each other's fairy tales. Maybe that's why we always come back to each other. Our story's not finished yet.
Zedekiah Harrow and Alyona Miller were at a turning point in their lives, but everything was snatched away from them in the blink of an eye. The car accident they were involved in led to part of Zed's leg being amputated, ending his promising career as a ballet dancer, and led to Aly suffering a miscarriage. Now, four years later, their paths cross again at a café in DC and the awkwardness they feel is foreign to both. There are feelings of guilt and grief but the curiosity gets the better of them and pull to one another is still ever-present. With ballet no longer something that connects them, they try to navigate their way into this unplanned and never ventured phase of their rekindled relationship, but can they face the past together?
Second Position is the second release but first full-length novel in the District Ballet Company series from author Katherine Locke and picks up four years after the cliffhanger of the prequel, Turning Pointe. I loved the prequel but this full-length book simply blew me away with its prose and the writer's ability to put into words both the beautiful and not-so-beautiful parts of the artistry of ballet. Zed and Aly were only nineteen when readers were introduced to their story and while the four years they were apart is not explicitly told in this book, there are enough hints as to what they both endured during that time. There are certainly heartrending moments in this second chance story but the hopefulness is never too far away.
Both Zed and Aly have undergone changes in their time apart but there remains parts of them that still feel familiar to the other. While they tap into what remains, they also have to deal with what isn't there anymore and what is new and yet to be discovered about each other. It would be difficult enough trying to rekindle a relationship after a period of separation, but how much more when the separation was preceded by such devastation and loss? Zed has spent four years away from ballet and has created a new life for himself, but Aly is suffering from separation anxiety, believing that she has no life away from the world of dance. The accusations and are painful to read, the silent declarations of love far more soothing.
I've always been fascinated by the world of ballet slippers, pointe shoes, and tutus and have read books that have been set in them, both fiction and non-fiction (specifically biographies and autobiographies), but what Katherine Locke has done with her series is present the world of ballet in its glory and its gore. We get the good with the bad, as all worlds are, and it makes it easier to understand because readers aren't locked on just its mystifying elements but on what makes it a challenging and all too real world for the people in it as well. I am writing my reviews after having finished this addictive series and it's definitely one of my best finds this year. I highly recommend you read Second Position and give it five-plus stars. ♥
Date Read: 17 August 2015
Learn more about Katherine Locke here.
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