Dancing Barefoot

– Alice Boyle –

Text Publishing

Published 30 August 2022

♥♥♥♥♥

 

Dancing Barefoot is an utterly delightful YA novel about friendship, love, self discovery and fitting in. Authentic, richly detailed and genuinely just good fun, I loved every page of this novel and can’t wait to add it to my school library shelf.


Patch just needs to survive high school. And maybe survive the crush she has on popular girl Evie. Since Patch isn’t out to even her best friend Edwin or her family, she’s unlikely to turn her crush into something… more. But life throws all sorts of challenges at Patch. Like having the chance to get to know Evie a little better, having to deal with mean-girl (and Evie’s best friend) Abigail, camp, and changing dynamics at home. It might not all be smooth, but it might just work out exactly as it needs to.

Dancing Barefoot is such an uplifting and yet realistic book. Life is hard for Patch. She is bullied, outed and is trying to be a supportive best friend while also dealing with a lot of changes in her life. She makes mistakes, owns up to them, and faces the challenges with some reluctance.

I adored so much about this book. Patch’s family – brother and father – are wonderful. From their music, record shop and Sound of Music obsessions to their love and support of Patch, they made me smile. Edwin is a great best friend and needs lots of Patch’s support as he transitions and deals with all the emotions and feelings that go along with that. He’s not afraid to tell Patch when she needs to be a better friend. I really enjoyed the camp scenes. They reminded me so much of my own high school camp experiences (except for the tent scene. That did not happen on our camp!!).

Dancing Barefoot is such a delightful novel. I can’t wait to share it with my readers.

The publishers provided an advanced readers copy of this book for reviewing purposes. All opinions are my own.

More information

Category: Young adult fiction

Genre: Realistic fiction

Themes: Relationships, friendship, high school, LGBTQIA+, bullying, music, identity, family.

Reading age guide: Ages 14 and up.

Advisory: Sexual references, sex scene with some details. Frequent coarse language, f*** (64), sl** (1), sh** (80), ars***** (1), bi*** (7), pi** (19), di** (8).

Published: 30 August 2022 by Text Publishing

Format: Paperback, ebook. 320 pages.

ISBN: 9781922458711

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