Book Review: When the stars go blue

When the stars go blue by Caridad Ferrer


A dancer driven to succeed.

A musical prodigy attempting to escape his past.

The summer they share.

And the moment it all goes wrong.

Dance is Soledad Reyes’s life. About to graduate from Miami’s Biscayne High School for the Performing Arts, she plans on spending her last summer at home teaching in a dance studio, saving money, and eventually auditioning for dance companies. That is, until fate intervenes in the form of fellow student Jonathan Crandall who has what sounds like an outrageous proposition: Forget teaching. Why not spend the summer performing in the intense environment of the competitive drum and bugle corps? The corps is going to be performing Carmen, and the opportunity to portray the character of the sultry gypsy proves too tempting for Soledad to pass up, as well as the opportunity to spend more time with Jonathan, who intrigues her in a way no boy ever has before.

But in an uncanny echo of the story they perform every evening, an unexpected competitor for Soledad's affections appears: Taz, a member of an all-star Spanish soccer team. One explosive encounter later Soledad finds not only her relationship with Jonathan threatened, but her entire future as a professional dancer.

Reviewed by: Sandra Lopez, author of Esperanza and Beyond the Gardens

Rating:

Review: After reading Adios to my old life, you can bet how much I was looking forward to the next thing from Caridad Ferrer; so you can imagine how I felt when When the stars go blue finally came out.

Soledad is your typical aspirational dancer with an a-typical body--curvaceous and hippy as opposed to flat and stick-like. I've always wanted to know what it was like to lead the dancer's life. Watching movies like Center Stage and Honey helped, but I found them to be a bit too flashy. I liked that this book dealt with the serious, more emotional side. It was theatrical boot camp mixed in with the traveling circus.

Although the story started off kind've slow for me, this book does not dissapoint. The real story doesn't begin until Soledad starts her training on the road after she soon starts dating new boy, Jonathan, who rooked her into this whole thing. At first, I really didn't feel the spark between them, since they've never really talked before; but they end up developing a sweet, summer love between them. You can't help but feel engaged in Soledad's world as she struggles with the awkwardness of being the new kid while trying to start a relationship with a new boy with both his parents right there, especially when the father dissaproves of it all. In fact, Jonathan and Soledad almost have kind've of a Romeo and Juliete thing because of that.

Tensions and jealousy begin to accumulate when Soledad meets Taz "Soccer Boy." Now she's more confused than ever. It made me wonder many things. Will Jonathan and Soledad make it? Will Jonathat defy his father's orders, risking everything he's ever worked for, to be with Soledad? Will Soledad throw away what she has with Jonathan to pursue Taz? This story will have you guessing all the way to the end.