Review: Fine as a standalone, so-so prequel
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 26, 2013
For a reader who enjoys short stories in general and romances in particular I'm sure Snow Dance will appeal.I have an intense dislike for short stories, as well as a distaste for ghost stories, so I normally would not have read Snow Dance and obviously am biased.  The reason I did was because I read and enjoyed Kiss Me, Dancer and Stars, Love and Pirouettes and looked forward to reading about Casey's mentor.  As a prequel read after reading two of the three books in the series, I was disappointed.  Yes, the characters of Russ and Amanda develop and a relationship is established, and as I recall they had only a passing mention in Kiss Me, Dancer, so it is nice to read "their story" but there sure isn't much of it.  Neither is there much to the mentoring relationship between Amanda and Casey.  The story really doesn't give any more background about the Richardson children and their lives prior to the other three books than what was presented in those books.  If I had read Snow Dance before the other two books I might feel differently.  I know I would have if it had been a full length book that went into detail about Russ and Amanda and her mentoring of Casey.