Monday, August 4, 2014

REVIEW: THE UNEXPECTED WALTZ



I was prepared not to like Kelly Wilder.

Widowed at age fifty-two, the Southern belle and trophy wife learns that her dead husband Mark has put her on an allowance of eleven thousand dollars a month. Grateful but frustrated with the “high-class problem” of too much time and money on her hands, Kelly chafes when Mark’s lawyers deliver multiple assurances that nothing has to change.

Kelly wants things to change.

On a whim, she signs up for ballroom dancing and slowly rebuilds her life with help from Nik, a young Russian dance teacher; Carolina, a cancer-stricken woman in hospice; and Elyse, Kelly’s quirky best friend.

As Kelly embarks on a long-delayed journey to a purpose-filled life, she re-evaluates her twenty-year marriage where she pretended “to be a whole lot more conservative and stupider and nice” and kept the “safe man” happy. No longer content to hide behind the picture-perfect tablescapes she once delighted in creating, Kelly learns to apply one of the primary lessons of dance: “You have to lose your balance in order to find it.”

Kim Wright's writing flows beautifully and rhythmically in this well-crafted novel about the transformative power of second chances. Forty something and fifty something women who find themselves at a crossroads will enjoy reading The Unexpected Waltz.

After retiring from a 31-year teaching career, Joanne Guidoccio launched a second act as a writer. Her articles, book reviews and short stories have appeared in newspapers, magazines and online. In September 2013, Soul Mate Publishing released her debut novel, Between Land and Sea, as an eBook on Amazon. You can visit her website at www.joanneguidoccio.com

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