Codename: Dancer by Amanda Brice

Title: Codename: Dancer (Dani Spevak Mystery #1)

Author: Amanda Brice

Pages: 104

Reviewed by: Sabrina

Aspiring ballerina Dani Spevak is thrilled when hit TV show Teen Celebrity Dance Off comes to the campus of her performing arts boarding school. She trades the barre for the ballroom and gets set to cha-cha-cha to stardom with Hollywood wonderboy Nick Galliano.

At first their partnership is awkward, because Dani is in awe of her longtime teen idol crush. But soon their chemistry is heating up the dance floor and the attraction moves into real life.

Her excitement is short-lived, because someone wants her off the show. Bombs, poisoning, arson… Will Dani’s 15 minutes of fame be over before she reaches age 15? Dani and her friends are suddenly at the center of some serious sabotage. And if she doesn’t find out who is behind it, her next pirouette could be her last.

It’s like Nancy Drew in toe shoes in this light-hearted tween mystery, a finalist for Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart® Award for Best Young Adult Romance.

My Thoughts

Dani cannot believe that she has been accepted into Mountain Shadows Academy of Arts. What’s even more unbelievable is that she’s also been one of the few selected for Teen Celebrity Dance-off, a show that has decided to use the school for their next season. To top it off, she’s going to be dancing with Nick Galliano, the hot new teen actor of Hollywood! The good luck stops there as she learns that someone is trying to sabotage the show and everyone seems to put the blame solely on her. Before Dani can dance her way to stardom, she needs to unmask her culprit.

I love a good mystery and it’s been a long time since my last one. Codename: Dancer was a great start to get back to the genre! Codename: Dancer is a fast-paced novel that you will easily love and be drawn to. It's a wonderful combination of dancing, mystery and reality tv. It's not exactly middle-grade or YA. It's something in between.

I want to see how Dani and Craig’s relationship progresses. He didn’t seem like a good guy at first and didn’t show up that much, but he eventually had me rooting for him a bit in the end.

My favourite part (this is a spoiler, folks) would have to be when Dani kicked Nick to the curb. I was positively grinning when Dani gave him a piece of her mind. I never trusted him from the beginning, you know. Everything seemed like an act.

I have a few questions: (More spoilers. I am so sorry. I cannot break the habit.) One, they should have asked at pp. 49, “Who knew Dani’s phone number?” Second, how did the cops get there so fast at the end?