I wrote Shall We Dance? right after my husband, who was my boyfriend at the time, proposed to me. I was so full of love that I wanted to share even a little of it with my readers. I kept thinking about that famous line from Love Actually, that love is all around us. It sounds cheesy, but there's truth in it, and I felt it so strongly then.
My husband changed me, or maybe it's more accurate to say he helped me see the parts of myself that were already good but buried under my own high standards. I've always been hard on myself, always thinking I had to be better, do better, improve more. His love showed me that I didn't have to be perfect to be worth loving, and that made me realize I was already enough. I wanted to give him that same feeling, to embrace his flaws, grow alongside him, and show him that becoming better doesn't have to come from self-criticism. It can come from love, from support, from being on the same team.
So when I said yes to his proposal, it wasn't just I love you and you love me. It was deeper than that. It was a promise to grow together for the rest of our lives, to be one solid team through everything. I wrote this book to capture that moment, and I hope it makes someone feel seen and worthy of love.