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First Position  By  cover art

First Position

By: Melissa Brayden
Narrated by: Katrina Holmes
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Publisher's summary

Anastasia Mikhelson is the rising star of the New York City Ballet. She's sacrificed creature comforts, a social life, as well as her own physical well-being for perfection in dance. Even her reputation as the Ice Queen doesn't faze her. Though Ana's at the peak of her career, competition from a new and noteworthy dancer puts all she's worked for in jeopardy.

While Natalie Frederico has shown herself to be a prodigy when it comes to ballet, she much prefers modern dance and living on her own terms. Life is too short for anything else. However, when the opportunity to dance with the New York City Ballet is thrust upon her, it's not like she could say no. Dealing with the company's uptight lead is another story, however. When the two are forced to work side-by-side, sparks begin to fly onstage and off.

©2016 Melissa Brayden (P)2016 Bold Strokes Books Inc
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: LGBTQ+

What listeners say about First Position

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Background noise and kind of flat

Throughout the book there is a high pitched background noise that is very distracting. I found I had to turn the book off several times because the noise was so distracting and bothered my ears. The characters did not have the same fun interactions that her previous books had, but I think this may be the narrator, previous book's narrator added a lot of playful banter and more emotion in the way she read it which really added depth to the characters and their interplay.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Bravo

Melissa Brayden hits another one out of the ballpark. This might even be her best. I'm no expert on behind the scenes of the NYC Ballet, so can't speak to the accuracy, but I enjoyed the setting and the tension of the competitive environment. If I had to find some small fault, I'd have liked a scene or two more of Natalie's suffering during their separation. Overall, an entertaining listen and an excellent narrator.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely love the book!

Melissa Brayden did it again! She has a way of making fictional characters seem very real and easy to fall in love with. it was great seeing other characters from the Soho Savvy universe pop in there and say hello.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

AMAZING

spectacular, wonderful another kick ***(butt) book. loved everything about it. melissa brayden you ROCK! Funny and serious great story line. only one problem.... it ended too soon.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Narrator wasn't great but love the story

Would you consider the audio edition of First Position to be better than the print version?

No, With a different narrator it could've been so much better

Who was your favorite character and why?

Anna I related more with her

What three words best describe Katrina Holmes’s voice?

Young, inexperienced & alright

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes despite the narrator I adore Melissa Brayden her book are always enjoyable

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Must Read!

I absolutely loved this book. I've been going through a romance stint (specifically lesbian) and this book takes the cake.

The dialogue is natural and often funny. The characters act their age and nothing so far fetched happens. The drama in the book is real and the ending is sweet and beautiful and makes sense.

Basically this book is great because it's not filled with stupid stereotypes or unnatural dialogue and unbelievable events. I felt like I was listening to a close friend. Loved it!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A Lovely Oil-and-Water Romance

First off, I'd forgotten so much about being a Scooter. I loved the touches throughout this story about what goes on behind the scenes for major theatre, and how easy it is for the people involved to place too much above their own well-being.

This was a really enjoyable audiobook, but a minor warning: if injury descriptions make you queasy (as they do me), it's worth being forewarned. It also was unflinchingly honest about how many dancers (and dance managers) are willing to often push those dancers too hard when injuries happen (you can totally feel Brayden's background in the theatre world here, she knows her stuff cold).

Brayden does banter so darn well, and First Position has little cameos offered like presents to her readers. The narrative itself—a kind of just-shy-of-enemies-to-lovers with oil-and-water approaches to art—was layered and nuanced and entirely entrancing. The modern dancer character clash with the classical ballerina felt completely natural.

The narrator was lovely, and I'll look our for more of her performances, too.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Lovely story, weird record

love the story, but the recorded audio is really bad. Even though I recommend it because cuteness overloaded!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Nice romance, but Waiting in Wings was better

It was a nice romance and I read it quickly, but quite frankly the parts I liked the most were the ones when The characters from Waiting In The Wings made a cameo. I loved seeing them again. That should probably tell you something... Waiting in the Wings is a better book in my opinion, but if you've read it already, this one is nice too, even if a little angsty! The production of the audiobook wasn't very good though, you can notice all the cuts and additions they made, they're not smoothed out. But I recommend it anyway!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Today was a day that I most certainly did not want to watch anything on TV. I didn't even want to be on a channel adjacent to one that might be showing the inauguration. So, I decided to protest in my own way.

I turned off the TV, cuddled up with a blanket and my cats, and I read a book. A book written by a woman. A book about women. A book about (*gasp*) lesbians.

Today, I wanted a love story. I wanted a happy ending. I wanted it to last.

I chose First Position by Melissa Brayden (Bold Strokes Books). I've had the book for a while and hadn't gotten around to it quite yet. I thought today was a good day to read it. A lesbian romance. Yeah, that's what I needed.

I think this just might be Brayden's best work to date. If you've read my reviews of her previous work, you know that I enjoy Brayden's novels. I think she is one of our most prominent voices in Lesbian Romance. But First Position has gone to a new level.

I love the characters in this book. Ana and Natalie are delightfully different. One uptight, one laid back. One who is a technical perfectionist, one who dances what she feels. One introverted and focused, one extroverted and kind of winging it. Real opposites. But, as the saying goes, opposites attract. What's really delightful, though, is that this is a "slow burn" attraction. They don't hit it off right away. They aren't secretly lusting after each other right away. Brayden allows the relationship time to build and grow. They find a path from grudging respect to friendship to attraction. As they travel that path, they also grow as individuals. Brayden really upped her character development game here.

As always, the secondary characters are just as richly developed and used well to advance the story. I admit that I wanted a bit more resolution for Jason. Without giving anything away, let's just say that I wanted to know more about where he landed at the end of the novel. This was not a big thing, certainly not a deal-breaker. But he was the one character about whom I thought, "Where is he now?"

Overall, First Position was tightly written and sharply edited. I noticed a real honing of the language. Favorite words and phrasings were significantly reduced when compared with Brayden's previous novels. But Brayden's unique voice as an author was not lost in any way. Instead, I think it was more clearly revealed. I think there is still room to improve with future books, but, again, this was in no way a deal-breaker. Character voices were distinct, the narrative was clean, and the dialogue was crisp. All-in-all, excellent.

I've become quite the fan of audiobooks. So, I listened to First Position as I read along. I studied and practiced the performance of literature when I was in college - undergraduate and graduate schools. So, it's something that's pretty deeply set in me and close to my heart. While there is definitely a big part of me that likes to just sit back and listen, there is another part of me that likes to "see" the narrator's performance choices. Reading and listening at the same time let's me do this.

In my review of Firework, I praised Kristin Barnes as the narrator. I said that she was one of the best narrators I've heard to that point. I hold to that review. But, I've got to say, Katrina Holmes really hit this one out of the ballpark! Holmes brought life to the narration in wonderful ways. Each character was distinct without being a caricature (my pet peeve). Sure, she missed a word or two here and there. But it did not change the meaning of Brayden's writing. Overall, it was spot-on narration. Now I think she and Barnes should just take turns narrating for Brayden.

So, whether you like to read or listen, you're not going to go wrong with First Position.

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