Sparks fly in this summer romp for fans of Casey McQuiston when dancers at a Catskills resort try to pull off the perfect show, and find happiness and a place where they belong on the way.

Archer Read is 27 and desperate to find his place in life. Five months ago, he quit his soul-destroying accounting job in Ohio and moved to Manhattan with dreams of making it on Broadway. And now he has nothing to show for it but a string of rejections. Even for a ray-of-sunshine like Archer, hope can only go so far. A musical revue at Shady Queens, a queer-friendly resort in the Catskills, is his last chance to break into show biz—otherwise, it’s back to Ohio, broke and hopeless. He arrives ready to dance his heart out, only to find he’ll be working with his teenage celebrity crush, the Broadway star Mateo Dixon.

What is Mateo doing working at Shady Queens? Besides barking orders and glaring at everyone…when he’s not absolutely smoldering at Archer on the dancefloor. As Archer tries to forget his teen crush and get to know the real Mateo, he’s caught up in a romance with his hot, temperamental bunkmate, Caleb. Between Mateo’s baggage and the dance crew’s drama—partying, flirting, breaking up, getting back together, then breaking up again—it’s no surprise when the show starts to fall apart. Archer quickly discovers that when it comes to dance, sometimes you can’t leave all your problems backstage.

Filled with colorful side characters, about a million Broadway references, and enough drama for a high school summer camp, Flirty Dancing is a delightful romantic comedy that shows love, like art, is worth a little sacrifice.

I received an advance galley of this book courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.

As a general rule, I’ve started to shy away from M/M romances written by women—especially straight women. It’s not that I don’t appreciate LGBTQIA2S+ visibility, because I do. I just strongly believe that stories centering around queer lives should, ideally, be told by those with lived experience. We need authenticity. We’re more than just a fetish or entertainment. With the current administration and the way they are trying to erase us and our history, now, more than ever, we should be telling our own stories. That said, I received a copy of this book and an ALC from the publisher, and the Dirty Dancing-inspired title got me curious enough to give it a shot.

And I’ll say this: the book is cute. It’s light. It delivers on everything you’d expect from a rom-com. The tone is fun, the setting is summery and theater-kid adjacent, and the characters are largely likable. If you’re looking for a comfort read with a Broadway flair and just enough romantic drama to keep things moving, this fits the bill.

The story follows Archer Read, a 27-year-old who recently ditched his accounting job in Ohio to chase a dream of making it on Broadway. After a string of rejections, he finds himself auditioning for a musical revue at Shady Queens (insert eyeroll), a queer-friendly Catskills resort that feels like a cross between summer camp and gay drama boot camp. The big twist? He’ll be working with none other than Mateo Dixon, his former celebrity crush and Broadway legend turned grumpy dance captain.

From there, the book takes you through rehearsal chaos, flirtations, misunderstandings, hookups, heartbreak, and all the tension you’d expect from a story where characters share bunks and spotlight dreams. There’s also Caleb, Archer’s hot and hot-headed bunkmate, who brings his own fire to the storyline. Is it all a little predictable? Sure. But it’s delivered with enough charm that I still had fun along the way.

Now, here’s where I had a bit of a hangup—and it’s one I’ve run into with other M/M romances written by straight women: the reliance on tired gay clichés. One of the side characters is an aging theater director who’s dramatic, over the top, and obsessed with Judy Garland. I’ve seen this archetype so many times. Yes, some of us love Judy. And Liza. And Barbara. But reducing us to these one-note personalities feels lazy. We’re more than pop culture references and feather boas.

Still, the heart of the story: Archer’s earnestness, his journey to find himself, and his big, gooey romantic hopes, is relatable. And I will say that the audiobook narrator, Mark Sanderlin, did an excellent job bringing the characters to life. His voice work added a layer of personality that helped soften some of the more trope-heavy moments.

Would I recommend it? Yes. If you’re craving a light, queer rom-com with dance montages and Broadway banter, you’ll probably enjoy this. Just go in knowing it leans into the familiar—both the comforting kind and the cliché eye-roll-inducing kind. For me, it was a fun, low-stakes read. Not perfect, but certainly not without charm.