Lauren Gibbons Paul, a Boston-area writer with more than three decades of experience as a business and technology journalist, makes a compelling shift into fiction with her debut novel, The Steps Between Us. Featured at the RV Book Fair 2025, the book offers readers a stylish, suspenseful journey into the high-stakes world of competitive ballroom dance.
Lauren’s move to fiction was inspired by an unexpected passion: ballroom dancing. What began as dance lessons soon became a fascinating window into a world filled with ambition, beauty, cultural contrasts, and unspoken rules. That setting becomes the perfect stage for her novel, where themes of belonging, visibility, reinvention, and danger unfold beneath glittering lights and polished floors.
Described as Dirty Dancing meets Big Little Lies, The Steps Between Us follows Ava Thompson, a woman seeking excitement and renewal in midlife. Instead of just learning a few elegant steps, Ava finds herself confronting a missing husband, a dead dancer, and a web of secrets hidden behind sequins and smiles. As she digs deeper, the ballroom transforms from a place of escape into a maze of suspicion where one wrong move could be fatal.
Praised by readers for its fast pace and intriguing premise, the novel has earned strong ratings on both Amazon and Goodreads, resonating with thriller fans who appreciate emotional complexity and a unique setting.
At RV Book Fair 2025, Lauren Gibbons Paul invites readers to listen closely, step onto the dance floor, and discover how far someone might go to feel alive, and what it can cost when the music turns dark.