Yes, just... then she was, but it’s fine.” I open my mouth to say more but lose all conviction one way or another. I shrug, not sure if I am actually defending myself or Diana. I don’t know what I want anymore, and I used to know exactly what I wanted. I know that I did. Somewhere along the way that changed. And I know exactly when.’ There are two voices inside of me. One of them is the truth-teller. The one who sees things how they are and tells me, whether I like it or not, what I cannot admit to myself. The other is the liar. The one who acts on fear and anxiety. The one that tells me to stay scared because I will fail and who tells me not to take a risk because I’ll fall. They speak the same language but seem to have an almost imperceptibly different dialect. It makes it hard to tell which is speaking.” Well, I don’t know—how am I supposed to read that? In my head? Whose head should I be in?” He doesn’t answer before I rail on. “Maybe it’s just that she hates me, and it’s really that simple.” Heather couldn’t help but notice it was a very nice ass … even by ballet standards, sitting high and round above hamstrings so defined they looked like bridge cables under his tanned skin. Whoever this guy turned out to be, she’d never be able to forget that under those sweatpants he had a perfectly sculpted butt.”

First Position - Kindle edition by Hamrick, Melanie First Position - Kindle edition by Hamrick, Melanie

I can smell him. Is it cologne or just him? The notes are clean, maybe a little woodsy or smoky but not aggressively so. It could be soap and body heat. What?” Then I remember that I had laughed out loud. Like a crazy person. “Oh, that. No. Nothing is funny.” Coupled with that pretty cover, this would be a great beach read for this summer. Whether you’re headed on vacation or just headed outside on a walk, First Position is worth adding to your summer TBR. All I can say is that I really enjoyed it. I listened to it in one day. The narration was done really well. I loved both narrators. One was vulnerable, one was bitchy and ambitious. I loved it. Jocelyn’s POV was mainly in the past. Sylvie, we get past and present. While the characters were fascinating, they author could have gone even deeper, especially when it comes to how to resolve the ending.

I can tell you have passion,” he said easily, clearly unaware of—or undeterred by—the turmoil of reactivity thirteen inches away from him. “I watched you for only a little while up there, not even alone, and I know you can be much better than you are. Even better, I should say.” The dual narrative of Sylvie and Jocelyn was fantastic, with incredible pacing! I so badly wanted to know what happened between all the characters and how Sylvie’s fall from grace came to be. I had moments of both fiercely loving and hating both the FMC’s and wanted so badly to be proud of where they ended up. This is definitely more of Sylvie’s story but it is ultimately about their relationship and what happened to and between them. For some reason, my default is to defend her shit as reasonable. “It’s rehearsal—she’s got to be hard on us.”

Melanie Hamrick on her steamy novel that 50 shades of ballet? Melanie Hamrick on her steamy novel that

She did not tell you that you don’t have passion. Not at all. And neither did I, by the way.” He remains expressionless. “She said you’re in your head. This is not a damning insult.”

AP: Back to the sex clubs for a minute — is this really a thing in the ballet world?

From New York to Vienna and Paris, Sylvie is caught between the glamorous and dark side of ballet. Challenged, both professionally and personally, her ambition sparks a journey of redemption and sexual awakening as she embarks on an intense and passionate relationship that could be the making of her... or cost her everything... Sylvie came across as highly unlikeable and selfish. I understand the issues that she had, but the way she treated people throughout the story just rubbed me the wrong way. I thought surely there would be some sort of growth in her, or the author would try to redeem her, but that didn’t happen. She was the same old Sylvie until the very end when I am supposed to root for her because she decides to stop drinking and treating everyone badly. An] addictive novel perfect for those who love their story with forbidden and steamy elements for a romance book' She slid off him and knelt between his legs, relishing the view of his taut, muscular thighs. God bless every ballet teacher who ever made this man do pliés, she thought.” The heat from her body comes at me like an assault. Her energy is always like that … I feel like prey in the wild. When she’s around, I can feel her there. As if she’s waiting to pounce.”

First Position: A brand-new spicy summer romance of forbidden First Position: A brand-new spicy summer romance of forbidden

So edgy, so different, with a constant undercurrent of tension whether on the stage or in the bedroom… Raw and addictive. I loved it.’ She was] exactly where she was supposed to be. The thought fuelled her muscles, buoyed her jumps and made her feet faster and more precise than usual, her body anticipating each note and clinging to every balance as if it was unbearable to let go … She had been broken and betrayed, but she’d found the courage to break free, and that’s what she was now: free, whole and more powerful than she’d ever known.” She must see something more in you. If I had to guess, I’d say there’s a lot more to you than what I just saw.” But this book felt more at home with the likes of those describing, uh, certain OTHER positions....if you catch my drift... and voyeurism of this kind is a BIT more R rated than the vision I had of toe shoes and tutus (not to mention one that was also supposed to be peppered with thrills!)There's one really good scene here--it's when we see a ballerina injure herself mid-pirouette and the main narrator basically says internally "awful, but great. now the rest of us have a chance"--and I found that tension to be delicious, and I wanted more of THAT. But instead, for most of this book, we follow Sylvie (mostly, sometimes Jocelyn) while she trains, does drugs, goes to sex clubs, doesn't feed herself, etc, etc--and maybe this IS a realistic portrayal of ballet life, but it does not a novel make. This NEEDED a through-line, some sort of plot, and it just didn't have that. Jocelyn joins the North American Ballet Company at the same time as Sylvie. She is a much different dancer, though – not blond or classically trained from when she could walk. Jocelyn's talent shows through her ability to emote rather than her unfailing technique. Sometimes rivals with Sylvie, and sometimes friends; she is always present in Sylvie's life.

First Position - Goodreads Jo (Spain)’s review of First Position - Goodreads

Specifically - I wanted more detail from the ending regarding the relationship going forward of Sylvie and Jocelyn, as ultimately that relationship and what happens to and between these two girls, who become women in this story, is what we’re really reading about. Also there was a character I really wanted to dig deeper into who was very important to the story, and I felt this could have been teased out more. This is probably one of the best representations of ballet and the ballet world I have read in a fiction book.’ This book was flat out entertaining! I could not stop listening to it and finished it in a day! I was obsessed, I devoured all the details that made up the behind the scenes of the fictional North American Ballet Theatre knowing it was written by a former Prima Ballerina. His consonants slur together slightly from his accent. “The worst kind of passion is the kind that is fighting to get out but is being barred by something its owner thinks is necessary. As if to be passionate is to be weak, or to be foolish, or to be uncivilized. As if passion is not the only thing that has ever made it possible for brilliance to be translated from one to the other. Passion is not a detail of talent. It is the synthesizer, the vehicle, the translation, the magic drug that makes it possible for talent to not only be seen but to be felt.” This is probably one of the best representations of ballet and the ballet world I have read in a fiction book.'

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Asked if she ever saw herself married, Melanie said: “I don’t know, I’m kind of like, a live-in-the-moment type of person, so who knows.”