Review: A Midnight Dancy by Joanna Davidson Politano

 

About:

The best moments in dance are the unscripted ones

At their core, all theater romances are tragedies. Ella Blythe knows this. Still, she cannot help but hope her own story may turn out different than most--and certainly different than the tragic story of the Ghost of Craven Street Theater.

After a chance encounter with one of the ballet company's handsome dancers late one night, Ella is swept off her elegantly pointed toes. The dance they share and the promise he makes to her feel like a new beginning. Yet as she faces mounting challenges in the ever-shrinking ballet company, Ella cannot deny the uncanny feeling that her life is mirroring that of the ghostly ballerina.

Is she dancing ever closer to the edge of her own disastrous end? Or will the secrets that are about to come to light offer release from the unyielding grip of the past?

My Thoughts:

Author Politano has such a way with words and sweeping the reader into the stories of her characters. This was a story that pulled me through it's atmosphere and had me turning to the pages to get to the answers that Ella Blythe and I both had need of.

Ella is a dancer. She has the skill and it is in her blood. From the first pages of the book I was swept into her world of dancing, the darkness of it, the conniving of others, and the dark side of it. Taking place in the late 1830's in London we get a very vivid picture of what it might have looked like to make it in the dancing world.

And oh, the secrets and hidden agendas and a bit of a mystery as we saw through the eyes of Ella, who was trying to find her place in this world. And the romance. I want to say this was a little bit of a Gothic tale for me, reminding me of times of the Phantom of the Opera. If you are looking for a bit of different read I highly recommend this lyrical one.

I was provided a copy of this novel from the publisher. I was not required to post a positive review and all views and opinions are my own.

About the Author:

Joanna Davidson Politano is the award-winning author of Lady Jayne Disappears, A Rumored Fortune, Finding Lady Enderly, and The Love Note. She loves tales that capture the colorful, exquisite details in ordinary lives and is eager to hear anyone's story. She lives with her husband and their children in a house in the woods near Lake Michigan. You can find her at www.jdpstories.com.