Charlie Wong, 22, is the backbone of her small family. Her mother, a ballerina, died when Charlie was 14, so Charlie became a stand-in mom to her little sister and washes dishes at a noodle restaurant to help her father pay the bills. When she lands a new job as receptionist at a ballroom dance studio, Charlie hopes her fortunes might change. Impressed by her warm personality and natural talent on the dance floor, her employers offer her a position as instructor.
Soon Charlie is teaching and training for a competition with her handsome student Ryan. But when her little sister suddenly loses the use of her legs due to a mysterious ailment, their father refuses to let a Western doctor examine her. Certain he also won't understand her new vocation, she lies and says she works for a computer company. Charlie and Ryan are falling in love, but acting on her feelings would mean sacrificing her new career (thanks to her studio's non-fraternization policy), so she's hiding the truth at work, too.
Jean Kwok (Girl in Translation) has created a charming heroine into whose dance shoes readers can easily step. Charlie faces many of the same dilemmas that plague modern young women: balancing the demands of family and career, choosing whether or not to pursue love when it may mean giving up a fulfilling work life. Kwok has a gift for conveying the passion and sensuality of ballroom dancing in her energetic prose, so after Charlie's story ends, readers may feel inspired to sign up for their own mambo lessons. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads