Review: Grand Jeté

Title: Grand Jeté
Author: Diana Copland
Publisher: Silver Publishing
Publication Date: 11 December 2010
Reviewed Format: ebook
Length: 170 pages

Rating: 4 out of 5

Review: Jordan first sees Davis while attending a performance of The Nutcracker. The next time he sees him is under less pleasant circumstances: the dancer is brought into his ER with a career-ending torn miniscus. Even with Davis high on painkillers, there's no mistaking their instant connection. The problem? Davis lives on the opposite coast and they can only be together until he catches a flight home. With a country between them, is there any way that their connection will last?

Jordan is a teddy bear, still hurting over the failure of his last long-term relationship to the point that he sleeps on the couch rather than in the bed he'd shared. He enjoys his work as a triage nurse, despite difficult doctors and relationship-killing hours, and adores his family, even when they're driving him nuts. It's terribly easy to root for him.

Davis is getting over his own break-up, though it was rather more recent; he was dumped the same day his career ended. Suddenly single, unemployed, and injured, he needs someone to rely on. He's charming when blitzed out of his mind on painkillers, and sweetly vulnerable once he's off them.

Jordan and Davis fit each other quite well; Davis needs someone to look after him and Jordan needs someone to nurture. Not that medical services are all they share; in the short amount of time they spend together, Davis is adopted by Jordan's family, and Jordan has someone to hold him in bed again. Even the sex is sweet, for all that I spent the entire scene wondering about Davis's knee.

The supporting cast is varied, including Jordan's coworkers and family as well as people from Davis's dance company. Not many of them are particularly well-developed, but they are mostly warm characters with just enough variance to keep things interesting. (The main exceptions here would be the ER doctors when Davis is first admitted--personalities I've unfortunately experienced, which made them that much more aggravating, if believable--and Miles. Although assholes, they're not so overblown as to be caricatures.)

The story itself moves along surprisingly quickly; once I'd started reading it, I was sucked in to the point that I was suddenly on page 96 before I looked up. The progression is easy and natural, and what drama there was was resolved quickly enough as to be satisfying without it being so quickly that it lost its impact.

Between the likable characters and the sweet story, my time spent reading this was quite enjoyable. I crossed my fingers for Jordan and Davis the whole way through, and was quite satisfied in the end.