It is a truth universally acknowledged that a good story starts with a good first line. In TODAY’s “Cold Open,” authors tease their buzzy upcoming release by revealing and explaining its first line, paragraph or page.
Jasmine Guillory has become synonymous with swoon-worthy adult romances. Now, the author is using her talents to craft a love story that younger audiences can relate to.
The bestselling writer behind “The Proposal” and “The Wedding Date,” which is currently being adapted for the screen, is back with her first-ever young adult novel and 10th overall called “It’s Only Dancing,” out Oct. 6.
The opening of the book immediately thrusts the reader into the world of prickly high school student Kat, who is about to enter her senior year. For her last summer of freedom, her parents decide to whisk her and her younger sister to a camp in the Southern California desert.
TODAY.com is exclusively sharing an excerpt from Chapter 1 of the book, which begins with Kat, a former ballet dancer, expressing her frustrations as the family of four travel to the camp.
I turned the page of my book as loudly as possible, but my family didn’t seem to notice.
First line of ‘It’s ONly Dancing’
Guillory tells TODAY.com that she knew this scene was exactly how she wanted to introduce Kat: She’s a “grumpy” teen who is “the introvert in a family of extroverts.”
Despite her protests, Kat arrives and soon meets a handsome dance instructor named Jordan. He could make this a summer to remember, while also helping her rediscover her passion for dance.
“What’s interesting is that I always loved young adult books and sort of have gone back and forth in tapping into that. When I first started writing, before I was ever published, the first book I wrote was young adult,” Guillory says.
She noticed growing up there weren’t many books centered on teenage Black girls and their experiences.
“I think all of us who grew up Black grew up learning how to relate to people who weren’t us because there weren’t a lot of books about us,” she says.
The idea to pen her own Black young adult novel has been resurfacing for years, and “It’s Only Dancing” is dedicated to her younger self.
“To teenage Jasmine: You needed this book so much. You’re going to do great things,” the dedication page reads.
Like Kat, Guillory studied ballet as a child. And like her guarded protagonist, she didn’t always feel accepted in her dance community.
“I still love ballet, and I love going to the ballet. I’m thrilled to see so many Black ballerinas,” she says. “But it is different when you are a Black girl, and your body changes in ways that are often different from the ways that your white classmates’ bodies change.
“I wanted to explore that and see how Kat was doing a few years after her end with ballet. She pushed it all down and is trying to pretend (it’s) no big deal,” she adds.
Guillory’s YA debut aims to welcome a newer, younger audience who might currently relate to Kat’s story and insecurities. She hopes they feel validated when they read the book.
“A lot of people don’t give enough credit to teenagers. I think people think of teenagers as always hysterical, always making a big deal out of nothing,” she explains. “I think one thing that I want to tell teenagers is the thing that matters to you right now, it does really matter.”
In “It’s Only Dancing” Kat’s parents are understanding and compassionate about the teen’s personal struggles even though they don’t know why their daughter stopped dancing. It’s a different dynamic than the ones portrayed in some of Guillory’s favorite romantic dance films, like “Center Stage” and “Dirty Dancing,” which partly inspired the themes in her new book.
“I wanted to hit the most important, to me, beats of ‘Dirty Dancing.’ Which were the main character coming out of her shell a little bit (and) recognizing that there’s a whole world out there that isn’t just the world that she’s been in,” the author says. “The adults in her life aren’t always right about everything. I wanted (Kat) to have that experience of learning something new and feeling like, ‘Oh wait, I can do this!’”
When readers turn the final page, they should feel like Kat has grown since the moment they met her on her family car ride to the camp, she says. Guillory also teases a triumphant conclusion to Kat’s story similar to the feeling at the end of “Dirty Dancing.”
“That’s what I was really working towards,” she says. “But (how) we get there is different,” she notes.
See how Kat’s journey begins, below.
Read an Excerpt from Jasmine Guillory’s ‘It’s Only Dancing’
I turned the page of my book as loudly as possible, but my family didn’t seem to notice. Yes, whatever, there wasn’t a particularly loud way to turn a page, but couldn’t my parents and my sister see that I was trying to concentrate? Apparently not, because they kept doing their stupid sing-along.
Oh God. Mom put on Madonna.
“Come on, Kitty, sing with us!” Dad said from the driver’s seat as we sped south down Highway Five.
“Stop calling me Kitty! How many times do I have to tell you, my name is Katherine!” If this was what the next month was going to be like, I was going to lose it.
Obviously this was what the next month was going to be like; I already knew it.
My parents had sprung this stupid month long “family camp” on my sister and me; we had both tried to get out of it, but nothing either of us said made a difference. I even used that tried and true excuse that always worked for all high-achieving, type-A parents: But I need to get a lot done on my college applications before school starts in the fall! But that didn’t even work, which was truly out of character for my parents. They usually got so involved in everything Ella and I did (which was its own nightmare) and were sooo excited about me going to college next year. They’d both gone on and on so much about how they’d loved their college experiences and couldn’t wait for me to have my own and the lifelong friends they’d made and blah blah that it had made me want to die, so I was sure bringing up my applications would work. But they’d just said something stupid about how I needed one more summer of freedom and family togetherness before it was time to go away.
