Leap Review

 

 

A sapphic romance focused on dancers? Two of my favorite things ever!

Leap by Simina Popescu is set in Romania. It follows a girl named Ana who goes to a prestigious dancing school. She is on the contemporary track and her current girlfriend, Carina, is on the classical (ballet) track. Recently, Ana and Carina have been struggling in their relationship. Ana isn't feeling as passionate about dance as she once was and skips class frequently, and Carina feels pressure to live up to her parents' expectations and is worried about her parents finding out she is queer.  

But then when Ana meets her new roommate Sara, another contemporary dancer, they become best friends really fast. Sara also happens to be queer, and she gets a little crush on their dance teacher, Marlena. Even though she knows they'll never end up with each other (luckily they don't!). Sara can't help but still show off her dance moves in class. 

The story ends up being about the girls trying to decide their futures in dance and dealing with burnout, while navigating everyday life is queer people in a not-as-queer-friendly setting. They do end up finding a community of people just like them at the end!

I am so glad this book ended up meeting my expectations! I used to be a dancer myself (although I mostly did ballet), so reading about characters doing dance felt nostalgic to me. Kind of like when I read Kisses and Croissants by Anne-Sophie Johanneau. It was also really interesting to read about queer characters in a country in Eastern Europe, something I haven't read a whole lot of.  In fact, I want to read more about queer characters in non-American settings. 

So I gave this book 5 stars!

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