Review: Interesting but with flaws
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 7, 2014
Reviewed by Ashiafor TheRomanceReviews.comA WARLOCK'S DANCE has an exciting premise. I was interested to see how Lucien would react upon seeing the aged Giselle, and how their relationship would be resolved. Another plus is that it's a fairy tale retelling, and I love those!Giselle was turned into an ugly hag on the day of her wedding by a jealous witch. To her dismay, her fiance turned away from her, unable to see her beneath the ugly and aged facade. Three years have passed, and Giselle has escaped from the witch. The only one who can save her now is Lucien, her ex-fiance...Like I said, I was intrigued by the blurb. Plus, any fairy tale retelling is an auto-read for me. So, I went into this book ready to like it.However, the writing felt choppy in places. I'm not sure if it's because it's a novella, but the prose didn't flow as I expected it would. Plus, the hero, Lucien, is hard to like. What kind of hero would not offer help to a woman in distress, especially a woman he professed to love before? That he had to be convinced by his valet speaks of a weakness in his character, which is not attractive. I am all for flawed heroes, but not this kind. (The valet seemed to make a better hero.)Giselle's character is sympathetic, and I like how strong she had become, how determined she was to be free of the curse and to go on with life alone, as it seemed Lucien had moved on. While this novella may be read as a standalone, I think it would've been better to be read as part of the series, as some of the characters seems to have a meatier role in other books and readers may then be able to connect to this novella better.