The Ballerina and the Sheriff

I'm not sure why I chose to review for AAR Slow Dance with the Sheriff by Nikki Logan.  In it, two people who've fled New York City for Larkville, Texas, after being scarred by traumatic occurrences are drawn together.  They both resist the pull, but in the end come together.  This is a romance, after all.

Logan writes some truly inspired scenes in the book, one of which has stayed with me all these weeks after having finished reading and reviewing it.  Jed, the sheriff, takes former ballerina Ellie to see bats leave their cave at dusk.  As she watches them soar, she starts moving and finds her joy in movement that she lost right before she came to Texas.  It's a lovely scene in which readers get to experience broken Jed give Ellie a gift that's more priceless than any he could buy her in a store.

It's scenes like that that make me feel wonderful and are found so rarely in other genres.  Romance, I've found, doesn't necessarily have anything to do with sex, but rather how we interact with others on a personal level.  Standing in the near dark and holding another person's hand as bats fly from a cave isn't sexy, but it's pure love.