Review: Passionate, lighthearted, laughter-filled romance
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 23, 2012
Love in Three Quarter Time had me laughing and tearing up, and at many times simultaneously.Constance "Gingersnap" Cavendish has been in love with Robbie Montgomery since she first saw him at his plantation in Virginia. At one time she thought he loved her too. After all, they were practically engaged.Then, after her father swindles half the country and dies with a shadow over his name, no one of good society will have anything to do with the Cavendish family, especially not Robbie Montgomery. Now the Cavendish women, and Constance as the eldest sister, must work for a living.This doesn't bother Constance. She's proud to work. She'll do whatever it takes to cleanse her family name of her father's former sins.When a need for a dance instructor comes up, Constance is easily convinced to put her `Belle of the ball' talents to good use. She finagles a way to become the instructor to the young ladies of the Beaumont family, only to discover that this Mrs. Beaumont used to be Mrs. Montgomery, Robbie's mother.Constance goes off to the Beaumonts with a pray on her lips that she will not run into the man who broke her heart.  But Robbie discovers Constance in the bosom of his family, teaching his sisters how to dance, and all with a fake English accent. He'd been right all along to not trust anyone from the Cavendish family. In his mind, Constance is just as much a swindler as her father had been.Through this passionate, lighthearted, laughter-filled, romance with a strong spiritual thread, the characters learn to dance the shockingly risqué waltz newly arrived from Europe. Set against the backdrop of the relatively young United States, we watch Constance and Robbie fighting at odds over the same desires.Secretly, they are both abolitionists and want more than anything to free the slaves that worked their parents' land.Filled with characters that strut or dance off the page, I was entertained for several days with the likes of a buckskin-wearing preacher, called Lorimer, a host of Canvendish sisters, Patience and Felictiy, and the Virginia countryside filled with a mosaic of African/Americans, First Nation Indians, and an assortment of immigrants from Europe. This is the melting pot of the United States with all its fine, expansive, and inclusive, culture. And all based on the founding structure of the Christian faith.If you enjoyed Lasting Impressions by Tamera Alexander, Maid to Match by Deeanne Gist, or Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland by Roseanna White you will love Love in Three Quarter Time by Dina Sleiman.