Shimmy for Me: A Novella

California Belly Dance, Book 1

By: DeAnna Cameron

Narrated by: Sarah Beth Goer

One passionate night. Two lost souls. A whole world of trouble.

Juggling two jobs to keep her belly dance studio afloat keeps Abby Anderson's mind off her shattered love life - until a reawakened pain sends her into the arms of an anonymous stranger she plucks from the audience of her tribal belly dance show. No names, no strings, no romance. She tells herself it's a harmless hookup.

Until he turns up at her day job.

Derek Collier, the sexy heir to the Collier media dynasty, just landed everything he's always wanted: the publisher's seat at the Orange County Herald. Except his first order of business is to sell the newspaper. Reeling from his family's betrayal, his only comfort is the memory of that mysterious belly dancer and the perfect night they spent together.

He won't rest until he finds her again.

She'll lose everything if he does.

©2014 DeAnna Cameron (P)2015 DeAnna Cameron

Good start to the series :)

3-3.5 stars

This was an enjoyable story. I like Abby and Derek and liked their story. This is the first book I've read by this author and I liked it well enough that I'd consider trying more of her work in the future.

Abby is a temp at a Newspaper when the story begins but that's just the job to bring in money. Her true occupation (and love) is a belly dancing studio she took over a year ago when her teacher decided to retire. It's been tough and Abby has had a hard time making ends meet. Abby had a boyfriend but they broke up a year ago when he made her chose between him and her studio and she's been single ever since.

Derek is the son of the current publisher of the newspaper he's taking over. His family actually owns other communications businesses and Derek had wanted to take part in building his family's business, specifically the newspaper. Unfortunately, by the time he got into a place where he was told the truth about how the business is fairing, things are so bad that the rest of the family wants to sell the company. Derek decides to see what he can do to stop the sale of the company before it's too late.

TBH, the book description pretty much tells it all and the story is short enough that if I tell much more, it'll just end up being spoilers. I will say that the love is pretty much insta-love, one night and they're both hooked. I could understand why they both did what they did, when they did it but it was too bad that it caused issues that almost made a reunion impossible. Abby and Derek do work things out though and the story ends with a nice resolution and a HEA for Abby and Derek.

This was an enjoyable story. Abby was a good heroine and I liked her. Derek was a good hero overall. He seemed like a jerk at work but considering the situation Derek found himself in, I could kind of see how he wouldn't be Mr. Nice guy at work. I'm glad he was able to figure things out and come through in the end. Overall, this was a good story with characters I liked. :)

* FYI - the last 21 minutes of the audio is a preview for book #2 in the series.