"Dancing with the feet is one thing, but dancing with the heart is another." ~anonymous Jean-Baptiste St. Michel has been searching all his life for approval from a father he hardly knows. His mother's bitterness has etched itself into his mind and for years, he's nothing more than her son. Michel's destiny is forever altered when his renowned father opens up the world of dance to him. A prodigy in the making, the young boy's fire captures the interest of many eyes, except those of his invisible father. When his successes fail to bring him that acknowledgment, he loses hope and in so doing, loses his fire. Yet something deep inside will not let him quit.

So stodgily, Michel continues like a parody to dance. Hope comes from the feisty Nadia Petrovna, a legend in her own time. Her muse sees something within his rebellious frame that no one else can see. Daringly, she offers him a scholarship to apprentice with her company, the Islington Ballet, headed up by the famous and tempestuous Charles Crown. The group becomes more than a place for Michel to dance, it becomes his family. After inheriting a flat, it's his home the dancers migrate to, the place where they unwind. Quirky and all highly emotional, they dance life's ballet together offstage, when not actually performing on stage.

Jonni Kendal, a vivacious English rose, wants nothing more at 19 than to be a full-time working actress. Battling the odds, as well as the aged leading man in the weekly series she's landed, is an emotional job in and of itself. Jonni is forever changed when a party brings her face-to-face with the very enigmatic Michel. One night of exquisite passion opens the door to his little family of dancers. Soon, she's living and loving Michel, becoming a part of his very unconventional life. However, Jonni is the odd girl out, an actress and not a dancer. And there are those whom Michel has grown up with who find her very much the thorn in their little family garden. Jonni's love for Michel becomes more important than acting. Yet in life's greatest pas de deux, how can you truly love one whose heart does not know how to embrace anything but the ballet?

Rebecca Horsfall has created an epic romance of deeply moving proportions. She's written a book as beautiful as a ballet, where words serve as the intricate steps of the dance. Welcome to the world of the ballet, where you feel each wince of pain and each note of passionate music. Welcome to a world ignited by the fiery passion of youth, where dreams are but the impossible made into tangible reality for those who dare. Every character manages to touch the emotional heartstrings. Deeply moving, this story is like a back stage pass to one of life's greatest dances. Full of passion, depth, trials and tribulations, DANCING ON THORNS is destined to be a timeless classic. This story is one simply not to be missed, one you can return to time and time again.