Dancing on Broken Glass a Novel by Ka Hancock

I read a lot of books. Some I like, some I don’t like. But then there are the few and far between that completely absorb me, the kind that I can’t put down, or I feel like I’m reading about my neighbors, friends or families…they’re that good. Dancing on Broken Glass, Ka Hancock’s first novel is a completely compelling story that touches all your emotions about birth, death and all the moments that happen amidst those two points.

Lucy Houston and Mickey Chandler probably shouldn’t have fallen in love, let alone gotten married. They’re both plagued with faulty genes – he has bipolar disorder; she, a ravaging family history of breast cancer. But when their paths cross on the night of Lucy’s twenty-first birthday, sparks fly, and there’s no denying their chemistry. Cautious every step of the way, Mickey and Lucy are determined to make their relationship work – and they put their commitment in writing.

Mickey will take his medication. Lucy won’t blame him for what is beyond his control. He promises Honesty. She promises patience.

Like any marriage, there are good days and bad days – and some very bad days. In dealing with their unique challenges, they make the heartbreaking decision not to have children. But when Lucy shows up for a routine physical just shy of their eleventh anniversary, she get an impossible surprise that changes everything. Everything. Suddenly, all their rules are thrown out the window, and the two of them must redefine what love really is.

The book is named after this statement that Mickey’s therapist makes to Lucy when she is curious as to what her life will be like if she marries Mickey:

“…every marriage is a dance; complicated at times, lovely at times, most of the time very uneventful. But with Mickey, there will be times when your dance will be on broken glass. There will be pain. And you will either flee that pain or hold tighter and dance through it to the next smooth place.”

Underneath Mickey’s and Lucy’s stories Hancock has a message of coping with everyday life, leaning on friends and family. While the story is that which most people won’t go through themselves, it still feels the same when we get that diagnosis or that phone call that changes our lives, which is why I think I connected to the characters in such a personal way. If you don’t mind crying a bit while reading a book, love strong real characters in a novel, then I recommend Dancing on Broken Glass.

Disclosure: I received no monetary compensation for this post; I was sent a media sample for review. Opinions are my own.