When the Stars Go Blue by Caridad Ferrer
St. Martin’s Griffin, release date November, 2010)
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.
Praise for When the Stars Go Blue
“A fresh, new spin on a classic tale, Caridad Ferrer delivers a dreamy romance with all the necessary ingredients: a feisty heroine, an irresistible hero, and an ending that will make you swoon. Delicious from beginning to end—I devoured it in one sitting!”—Alyson Noël, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Immortals series
“With the grace of a ballerina and the fiery moves of a salsa dancer, Caridad Ferrer’s When the Stars Go Blue jetes into the reader’s heart in a story as romantic, funny, dramatic and moving as the best of So You Think You Can Dance?”—Lauren Baratz-Logsted, author of Crazy Beautiful and The Education of Bet
“For fans of drum corps or marching band, this novel is your automatic read of the year. For everyone else…Come for two hot guys in love with one driven dancer. Stay for the lyrical prose that captures spicy Miami and entices you on a young woman’s cross-country tour as she comes of age among a hundred and fifty men! Don’t miss this adrenaline-filled performance of a lifetime.”—Jennifer Echols, author of Going Too Far
“The rich descriptions of Soledad’s dancing are what first drew me in to the book. Her blazing romance with Jonathan got me hooked. And then curiosity about how this retelling of Carmen would play out kept me going through the rest.”—Abby (the) Librarian
“When the Stars Go Blue captures the best of YA romance and much like Adiós to My Old Life, it allows unique characters with incredible talents to reach out to the reader and sweep them away. The pace is fast, the writing is lyrical, and the characters are graceful and real. Soledad allows the reader to experience again the painful clarity and confusion of love through the complexity of her own perspective. Books like this are why I love YA romance.”—Sarah Wendell, Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and author of Beyond Heaving Bosoms