This edition is a re-release of this title. I read it a couple of years ago and enjoyed it very much then. I re-read it when I received the ARC and enjoyed it just as much now.
This is the publisher's summary:
"Inspired by the tale of Cinderella, Lila DiPasqua weaves a steamy historical romance that offers a glass slipper, a dangerous deception, and an impoverished beauty determined to find her handsome prince…and make him pay.
Born into wealth, Sabine Laurent and her twin sister lived a life of luxury, their father’s prestigious theater frequented by royalty and aristocracy alike. And Sabine dreamed of her own prince charming—the devastatingly handsome Jules de Moutier.
That was before the loss of her sister and her family’s fall from grace—a disaster Sabine blames on the Moutier family. Now, with her father’s death, she’s inherited his sizable debt and the responsibility of caring for his spoiled long-time mistress and her two wastrel daughters. But with the help of Sabine’s eccentric friends—the balance of her father’s acting troupe—she plans to get very close to her old infatuation, seduce the rake—and make away with a fortune.
Resisting Jules’s skillful mouth and tantalizing touch is not as easy as Sabine supposed. And soon she must decide whether her desire for vengeance is greater than her desire for her one and only prince"
This is an erotic historical romance. In that particular sub-genre, it has been my experience, that strong story lines are few and far between. A Dance at Midnight is the exception. The story is loosely based on the Cinderella fairytale. But, I think that most true romances are (see Jane Austen) in the sense that the girl least likely to catch the eye of the prince (replace with billionaire, movie star, star athlete to make it relevant to today) not only catches his eye, but captures his heart as well.
Our heroine, Sabine suffers a lot in this book and our Prince doesn't seem so charming in the beginning. But, as the story progresses we see that Jules is really just a product of his environment with a deep sense of duty and honor. He also truly loves Sabine and struggles with the tension between those two polar opposite emotions. This story has a surprising amount of depth and Ms DiPasqua does an excellent job transporting you to the time the story is set in. That helps the reader forget the rules and social norms of our current time and really see things through the eyes of Jules and Sabine. This makes their decisions understandable and makes them both very sympathetic characters.
This book hits a lot of high notes and the epilogue is excellent...make sure you read the entire thing! I am looking forward to reading more work from Ms. DiPasqua!
