4.5 stars.

The Unexpected Waltz by Kim Wright is a captivating novel of healing and self discovery that is incredibly moving. This touching story is poignant but uplifting and I found myself utterly charmed by Kelly Wilder's honest reflection of her past, her relationships and her enduring friendship with Elyse, the one person who has been by her side through all of her life's various ups and downs.

"Nothing has to change." A statement from one of Kelly's lawyers as she is wrapping up the final details of her late husband's estate that continues to reverberate in her mind and eventually becomes the catalyst for her to finally move forward. But it is Kelly's inadvertent stop in a local ballroom dance studio that brings the biggest changes to her life. With her energies focused on her newfound passion, Kelly finds unexpected friendships with her fellow dancer enthusiasts and as she reflects on the mistakes of her past, she finds the courage to step out of her well-ordered life and fully embrace her future.

Kelly is a wonderfully flawed, imperfect character who has lived a safe, comfortable life. After an affair ends badly, Kelly indulges in string of casual encounters that eventually culminates in her marriage to a much older, wealthy man. She then turns her attentions to creating a beautiful home for her late husband and devotes her time to serving on various charities. Her beautiful tablescapes are a staple of the charitable dinners she attends, but she finds real fulfillment as a volunteer at a local hospice. Sitting by the bedside of the terminally ill, Kelly learns as much about life as she does death and her connection and friendship with cancer patient Carolina adds another dimension to this multi-faceted and likable character.

Much of The Unexpected Waltz takes place in the dance studio and as Kelly learns new dance steps, she finds the confidence that always has been sorely lacking. As she reflects on her sometimes ill-fated decisions, she begins to clearly see where she settled in life instead of taking a chance. Kelly begins the arduous task of learning to speak up and ask for what wants instead of accepting what is given to her. She fully recognizes her failings, regrets not giving more to herself to her marriage and accurately assesses her strengths and weaknesses.

The Unexpected Waltz is a beautifully written novel with a richly developed cast of characters and a unique plot. Kim Wright's lyrical descriptions of the various dances bring the story vibrantly to life. An engaging and heartfelt novel that I greatly enjoyed and highly recommend. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. I liked 52-year-old Kelly who is trying to survive after her husband has died a year ago. She has no direction, she has a big house and really has no purpose as she has no job. She stumbles into a dance studio owned and operated by three Russians and she decides to take a dance lesson. That lesson turns into another one and another one and next thing she knows she is sucked into the place. She is also a hospice volunteer and meets Carolina who is a firecracker even though she shouldn't live long.

As a 50-year-old who has had breast cancer and a boss who recently died in hospice, I really related to this story, except I'm not rich and my husband is alive. I felt I could understand more of what was going on with Kelly. My husband is alive but he works WAY long hours and my daughter is an adult and has her own life so I'm on my own a lot. So how do you fill your time?

I really liked the different characters in the book and how even though they are all from different backgrounds and personalities, they really became friends and a family.

Very wonderfully written and really enjoyable. I would really recommend this book.

I won this book on Goodreads. ( )

This was a new author for me. The story started off slow for me, but the pace did pick-up. I sometimes struggled with how the author described the character, Nik. There were times while I was reading that I felt very sorry for the character, Kelly. I can not decide why I struggled to believe this story, but I found it to be really unbelievable. I did read the complete book, but I did not connect well with any of the characters. Not sure if I will give this author another try or not. ( )

I have always been fascinated by the idea of ballroom dancing, despite not exactly being the embodiment of grace and poise myself. There's something elegant and classic about spinning seemingly effortlessly about the floor, shoes sliding and dress flaring. When my husband and I took a few lessons leading up to our wedding, we showed less than zero aptitude though and so I will be content to watch from the side as others swoop and twirl gracefully. The heroine in Kim Wright's novel, The Unexpected Waltz, doesn't just watch though, she immerses herself in the welcoming community and culture of ballroom dancing.

Kelly was widowed about a year ago and since the death of her husband, she's really been floundering. Over the past year she's come to realize that the person she was in her marriage is perhaps not an entirely honest reflection of who she really is. As the younger, second wife of a wealthy older husband, she has played her part as a society wife quite well, serving on committees, lunching with other wives, decorating her home and garden, participating in fund raisers, and so on. But in doing so, she's lost touch with the woman she once was, trading her once passionate life for stability and contentment. She is the woman who creates elaborate, if clichéd, tablescapes to grace every party and event she hosts, a clear metaphor for her own life--unoriginal but expected just the same. When she inadvertently walks out of a local grocery store with an apple she hasn't paid for in her hand, she turns around to make it right but accidentally walks into the ballroom dance studio next door instead of the grocery store. And just like that, her life changes.

Agreeing to lessons, Kelly is drawn to the discipline of ballroom dance, to the kindness and acceptance of the community she finds in the studio, to the trials and tribulations of her fellow dancers, and to the person that dance allows her to bloom into being. Her newfound love for dancing coupled with her volunteer work for Hospice and her interactions with Carolina, the young mother dying of breast cancer she visits there, helps Kelly slowly learn to make the life she wants, embrace moving on, and gives her a chance to find out who she really is both by visiting the unresolved past and looking to the future.

Kelly is a quiet character, not one given to flash, but her journey to discover the woman she's suppressed for so long is an appealing one. She takes honest stock of herself, facing her mistakes and failures as she does her soul searching. Only by accepting everything about herself, including the truth about her marriage, her age, and her previous stagnation will she be able to find the confidence in herself to go against her lawyer's words to her after her husband's death: "Nothing has to change." For Kelly, thanks to her reevaluation of life in middle age, things do in fact have to change. There are a lot of secondary characters in the book, many of them fellow ballroom dancers, but they mostly remain quick sketches with only brief touches on their lives. The description of the dance steps that Kelly tries to master can bog down some, especially for readers with no dance experience behind them. It's hard to capture something so physical and visual for the uninitiated. The pacing is generally slow, deliberate, and measured like the classic dances until the end when it becomes almost frenzied in its rush to wrap up. This is a sweet tale of unexpected interests, embracing change, and learning that it's never to late to move forward in life. ( )

This was a good book. It was about a woman Kelly who never really experienced the joys of life. She is in her early fifties and her husband passed away a year ago. It was a marriage of convenience. She is also a very wealthy woman. She inadvertently steals an apple from the grocery store and ends up in a dancing studio. Sh signs herself up for ball room dancing. The story takes off from there. The characters are likable, most of them anyway. The story can be slow at times, but I really liked it. It was different from what I've been reading. It was bittersweet. ( )