You don't need to be a Strictly fan to relish this lively read, its glamour, magic and colourful characters contrasting starkly with the privations of grey, war-torn London. I was immediately swept up into the glamour of the ballroom and the dramas of London wartime during the blitz. This is clearly part of a series, but does also stand alone as the reader is soon brought up to speed.

As the skies split apart and bombs rain down on London, it’s all the staff at the famed Buckingham Hotel can do to keep their guests in the luxury they’re accustomed to, and evoke the magic of the Grand ballroom for them each night. I also would have liked one more chapter on Raymond and Nancy starting the next part of their lives together but hopefully this has been saved for another book! I love the characters including the Buckingham itself and the book is so well written, I can picture the ballroom, the dancers and now the devastation of London in the Blitz. Not only from the real evil enemy and their bombings, but also closer to home from looters and profiteers.

Raymond De Guise is on leave from the army after Dunkirk and the distance between himself and his wife, Nancy seems to be growing. As Strictly's longest running professional dancer, and now Judge, Anton is the perfect author to lead the reader to the dancefloor as never before. I loved this one so much, I immediately went out and bought the one set before this and am making my mission to get all the others in this series too! There are several stories of staff being related and so events move from one perspective to another. With the fearless Raymond de Guise and his (poor suffering) wife Nancy, Vivienne who is left holding the baby and reeling from the events of Dunkirk.

It really did make me want to find out more detail of the characters back stories, so I can see myself reading the previous books in the series. They all have issues and most of the story involved everything from profiteering to mental health problems, poor family relationships and greed. I acc really enjoyed this fav one of the series so far, rlly hooked me in loved the story lines and stuff that focused more on background characters in other books, billy and his girl was interesting that whole story line and Cathy as well bit dark which makes a change a nice one tho, very good sad in some places but good sad for some things I won’t say as don’t want to ruin but would recommend looking forward to the next one coming out now. He’s struggling and doesn’t know what he can do, when he can’t go back to his unit or to his old life as a ballroom dancer. Sometimes it takes time for someone to find their groove and get going, it happens to the best of us.Unfortunately I was only able to give this book 3 stars because it was edited so badly that I almost couldn't read it. Surprised not only by the rich storytelling but by the way Du Beke’s charming writing is filled with glorious characters who you can’t help but feel emotion for. Raymond De Guise is home on leave from Dunkirk and is so busy helping out elsewhere, he’s not striking the right balance with his wife, Nancy.