Author: Mabuse, Oti

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 11 September 2025 by Simon & Schuster Ltd in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 384 pages
234 x 153 |

Filled with scenes of sizzling passion, plot beats of swoon-worthy romance, anda cast of Black female characters that you’ll fall in love with, the unputdownable debut novel from Oti Mabuse brims with heat and heart. Perfect for fans of Talia Hibbert, Laura Jane Williams, Tia Williams, Farrah Rochon, Hannah Grace and Bolu Babalola.

For dancer Lira, Latin Ballroom is everything. Whilst her dreams of fame were cut short aged 19, she’s never forgotten the connection she felt dancing with a stranger at the Paris World Championship afterparty 13 years ago.

Now, with her younger sisters pursuing their own successful dancing careers, and the responsibility of running the family dance studio falling to her, Lira’s ambitious flame is about to flicker out. Until achance encounter sees her secretly auditioning for Slow Burn, a new dance show about to embark on a 6-week European tour, and coming face to face with a blast from her past that sends her reeling.

Gabriele is the quintessential bad boy of the Latin Ballroom scene. Slim of hip, with long, lean muscles that pop, a chiselled jaw, dark eyes, obscenely long lashes, and a mouth that just won’t give, it’s no surprise when he lands the principal male lead role on Slow Burn. But, with just a few weeks to go till the tour starts, he still hasn’t found his female co-star. All it takes is one audition to set his world on fire… On the dance floor they’re smouldering, off it, they’re on fire.