The Dance of Desire by Delphine Ross

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley for review. My opinions are my own.

5/5 stars

I cannot express how much I LOVED this book. I remember loving “Poetics of Passion” but I may have loved this book even more.

Angela is such a positive and warm character. She wants what’s best for her family but also her own happy ending.

Then there is Sunny - loving Angela despite her scandalous background. As friends since childhood, he wants her as his wife.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be a good story if things went exactly as planned. Angela is about to marry someone who isn’t as he says and Sunny rescues her at the altar, ultimately saving her from scandal. They decide that they will annul the marriage in a year. Unfortunately, Sunny is not the sweet friend that he once was and Angela is stuck in a fake marriage… in Paris… with one bed…

5 stars

Very good story. It's the second book in the series but doesn't really require you to have read the first. If you know the pre-raphealites then some of the themes are common to them, Originally Sunny and Angela were childhood friends....think a bit beauty and the beast, Sunny proposes but Angela rejects him. Next time she sees him, his turned up at her wedding and is looking fitter. He has a bad case of unrequited love and she's coming out of a couple of relationships. One good, one disappointing. Sunny marries her to prevent her ruination but because he's still angry about her rejection it's going to be unconsummated and then annulled in a years time. He takes her off to his chateau in Paris. I enjoyed the book and was rooting for their HEA. There'a a contuining story of her parents. The seies in about Muses so Angela is a dancer as Musa her elder sister was a poet...wonder who is next !!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A great book . Terrific both our main characters . Angela and Virgil met when they were kids and even though her parents scandaous marriage they became best friends she even called him Sunny because of his red hair . Sunny always felt ungly because of his weight , his red hair . His parents always saw him as the spare and loved his older brother the heir of the Earldom . The only person who liked him for who he was was Angela but when he proposed to her she declined . Now few months later she is getting married with another man and he is invited at the wedding when the groom turn out to be bigamist . Sunny who wants to gets his revenge marries her so she will no create more scandal for her family . He offers to stay married for one year and then to have an annulment but they must stay away from gossip and scandal so they travel at his chateau in Paris . While he wants to hate her he still loves her but he also has promised to a very good friend of his that he will marry her . Angela starts to understant that the feelings she had for her first love wasn't what she feels about Sunny now that they are married and have shared some passionate kisses . Will they be able to be a happy married couple ?
I received this book from netgalley and the publicer as an ARC . Thank you . All thoughts and opinions are my own .

A fun sweet amusing story about The Duke and Angela, childhood friends who get together again under unusual circumstance.
A good amusing read with a little angst and a sweet romance.
Voluntarily reviewed.

I could not read this. Honestly, I think the premise is intriguing but overall I did not enjoy the writing or the characters.

First things first: a huge thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review. ♥

Friends to enemies to lovers in a marriage of convenience! Kittens! A gorgeous greenhouse! Dramatic French duels! What more could you want?

This was such a sweet, sexy read. As much as I can appreciate the passion of an insta-love story, <i>The Dance of Desire</i> takes the reader on a beautiful journey as Angela realizes throughout just how much she loves Sunny. Angela, complete with her own baggage and self-doubt, is afraid to truly love again; meanwhile, Sunny is supposed to be the damaged, heartbroken beast -- but you understand where he's coming from and his hurt is so palpable. Even though this is the second book of the series and I've yet to read the first, I found myself fully invested in all of the characters and Ross's writing was compelling from the start. I'm excited to read more from her!

(And listen...me personally? I'm patiently waiting for a book about my sapphic badasses Hélène and Julie.)

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publishers for providing me with a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

After being shunned at the aisle, Angela thinks her entire life is going to blow up in scandal. She is saved at the last second by her childhood friend Sunny, who she has not seen in 6 months, since she turned him down. He is completely different from how she remembers him, becoming more uncouth and cruel than she ever believed him capable. To avoid his mother, reporters and the general gossip of London Sunny takes his new wife to Paris, to stay in a property his father owned. The only problem is that there is only one bed, and he can't stand to be in the same room as his new wife. He can't decide if he wants to hate her or desire her, making his actions angry, dominating, and downright rude at times.

Combining the one bed trope and with friends to enemies to lovers, this historical Beauty and the Beast retelling was a delight to read. To my knowledge, it was historically accurate, with the setting throwing me into the characters era. Sunny was a socially anxious bean, completely adorable but hiding behind the facade of a man who cares not for society or peoples opinions. Angela was an angel, a dancer who wanted nothing more than to protect her families reputation. Together, they made an unlikely team against the forces of gossip, blackmail and hurt. The redemption arc between them was swoon worthy and happened slowly, believably. The author included sapphic representation between a couple of the leading secondary characters, which I loved. I want to see more books that approach the subject of LGBTQIA+ in historical fiction as gently and sensitively as the author did here. Whilst there was some confusion surrounding the mian characters and their feelings, most of these were resolved by the end of the book. I loved the character development, especially in Sunny. I love a book that had characters that I can truly relate with and love - this book did exactly that.

There are some mild trigger warnings for suicidal thoughts, sibling death, and amputation. The author covers these subjects sensitively and with a grace that is often missing in books. I would put the age rating of the book as a 17+ as there are some explicitiss sex scenes. They weren't the most explicit I have ever read but are definitely not appropriate for younger viewers. The romance in this book was very slow burn, with the sexual cone=tent only coming at the end of the book. There was a bunch of sizzling tension, and I was on the edge of my seat, gasping at some of the plot twists. Combine that tension with exceptionally good writing, you have a recipe for a perfect book. (There were some grammatical errors, but I did read an uncorrected proof, so I'm hoping that when it is released, they will no longer be a problem.)

This book was an easy four stars for me.

this is my first book by this author AND I NEED TO READ THE FIRST BOOK STAT!!! I NEED MORE FROM THIS AUTHOR STAT!! i am so excited that i got to read this early! it was so fun and lovable and really nothing was out of place!

oh my gosh, i am absolutely DEVASTATED that it took me so long to read this arc. I went into this story blindly as i couldnt remember exactly what it was about but knew that i needed to review asap and I AM SO HAPPY THAT I CHOSE TO START THIS ONE.

The very beginning is immediately gripping, the chance meeting inside the armoire was so well written and then when it moved into the wedding and all the events that ensued, i was HOOKED. I am literally weak in the knees for Sunny, i love a good red headed MMC and he was truly devastating!!!!

Delphine Ross has secured a place on my list of favorite books with this one.

The Dance of Desire is the second book in the Muses of Scandal series by Delphine Ross. I recommend reading them as a series as you are introduced to the main characters from this book in the first one. You get a bit more of the background of what Angela did to Sunny...don't get me wrong, you get the overview here too but if you don't read book one, you're missing out on Musa's story and I think I enjoyed that one slightly more.

Angela and Sunny, The Earl of Sunderland, go way back but when she turned down his proposal last year (for reasons), a trip abroad has turned him into someone she almost didn't recognize attending her wedding. But Angela is determined to have an uneventful life married to someone she can get by with but when everything goes wrong...while she is standing at the altar on her wedding day, Sunny is the one who offers to save her. He offers a startlingly generous proposition: a marriage of convenience that will last exactly one year. Long enough for society to stop gossiping. Long enough for the press to lose interest. Then they’ll quietly annul their unconsummated union to go their separate ways.



Heartbroken and trapped in a fake marriage with a man who can't stand the sight of her AND stuck in France far away from her family, Angela doesn't know what to do with herself. As they try to navigate their feelings for one another while also trying to figure out how to survive a full year of living in a one-bedroom chateau, they come to an agreement of sorts and start to become better with one another. That said, there are some secrets floating around that will eventually come to light and if they aren't honest with each other, may mean the difference in their happily ever after.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this book. It was a great continuation of the series and I liked getting to see the rest of the Bartham crew again as well as get more of Angela's story this time around. If you're looking for a new historical romance, consider picking this one up! I'll be looking forward to more from Ross in the future.

The Dance of Desire was a charming follow-up to The Poetics of Passion. Delphine Ross pulled inspiration from the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale though this is mostly limited to the romantic hero being rather beastly (despite his Sunny moniker) and sequestering the romantic heroine, appropriately nicknamed Angela, in a French chateau. The book starts out strong with explaining the couple's background. Sunny and Angela met as children and became close friends, but were estranged after Angela rejected Sunny's proposal. Immediately, I was hooked wondering why she had rejected him and what he had been up to post-rejection. In the book's present, it is Angela's wedding day (to someone else) and Sunny has come to attend with his own plus one. Events transpire preventing Angela's planned wedding and to save Angela and her family from scandal, Sunny offers to marry her on the spot. He then absconds with her to Paris to escape London's prying eyes.

As much as I enjoyed the start of this book, I felt like the reconciliation between Sunny and Angela was lacking. I also thought that Angela's love of dance would play a more important role. There were a lot of interesting places this story could have gone that were just abandoned or neglected.

4 stars. I enjoyed The Dance of Desire and look forward to reading the next in the series.

Many thanks to Muse Publications for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

The Earl of Sunderland (AKA Sunny) met Angela Bartham when they were both children and became great friends for 13 years….then Sunny asked Angela to marry him and she said no. Sunny had always felt that he wasn’t worthy…of his title gained when his older brother died…and Angela had proven that he wasn’t worthy of her either. A year after his failed proposal, filled with a huge amount of drunkenness in Paris, Sunny is back in London. He attends Angela’s wedding to prove to himself that he is no longer in love with her but leaps to her rescue when her groom proves to be a bigamist. Now married to avoid the scandal that would ruin her and her already notorious family, Sunny informs Angela that they are no longer friends and that he can barely stand her presence. They will not consummate their marriage and it will be annulled in 1 year after the news of their unorthodox wedding day subsides. They flee to Paris to stay under the radar of the press and to live in the chateau that SUNY’s father built after the death of the older son. Many convoluted plans to end the marriage happen but Sunny and Angela still haven’t signed the annulment papers. Will they or won’t they stay together and under what type of relationship….love or ambivalence?

The Dance of Desire was an utterly charming and enjoyable read. It was sweet. There was a whole lot of pining, angst, moments of pettiness and unrequited goodness. I loved it despite there being things I generally didn't care for and thought were a bit ridiculous. I enjoyed Angela and Sunny's journey. It kept my attention and had me wholly invested. I loved the writer's style and look forward to reading more of her work.

Thank you, Muse Publications and NetGalley, for the advanced copy of The Dance of Desire, book 2 in the Muses of Scandal series.

If you're looking for a fun and light historical romance, you need to check out The Dance of Desire. While this can be read as a standalone, it is book 2 in the series, Muses of Scandal. This novel was charming and amusing. I loved both our FMC and MMC. This novel had friends to enemies to lovers, grumpy/sunshine, and the only one bed tropes. If you're looking for a great historical romance beach read, this is it!!

Angela Bartham's family is no stranger to scandal, but finding out your betrothed is a bigamist while you are standing at the altar isn't going to help matters. Luckily, her old friend Sunny, the Earl of Sunderland, is there to rescue her. If only she hadn't turned down his marriage proposal originally. To make matters worse, the woman he does intend on marrying is there by his side as well as his mother who is no fan of the Barthams. What else could go wrong? Don't ask. Just read!!

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this ebook and this is my freely given opinion.

This is book 2 of the Muses of Scandal series and while it probably can be read alone, it would definitely be better to read it after book 1, since this story occurs after book 1, and book 1 sets up the family background and a progressive storyline about the parents that is ongoing.

I was caught from the prologue of this story because it started so very sweetly. The story starts 13 years before the present of the story, in 1859. We are introduced to an awkward, shy young boy named Virgil Sydenham, the Viscount of Sunderland, who ends up locked in the closet of the artist, Neil Bartham, who was commissioned by his father, the Earl, to paint his wife. This did not please his wife, the Countess, who disdains the family for their scandal. As the couple argue, Virgil escapes and hides in the closet, to find himself locked in. He is stuck and alone. But soon he hears the Bartham children playing outside and suddenly finds himself trapped in the closet with one of their daughters, who chooses to hide there for their game of hide and seek. They are stuck together until they are found by their parents. But during this time, Virgil becomes enthralled by Angela, the second eldest Bartham girl, and they become fast friends for years. Angela and her family help the young boy to have a sense of family and confidence that he does not have with his own family and Angela renames him Sunny, and it sounds like they had a sunny, idyllic childhood and friendship together. It was such a lovely beginning...

Everything is lovely and sunshine for the dozen or so years...

Until she rejects his proposal of marriage and breaks his heart.

This goes from being a beautiful friendship and with Sunny obviously loving Angela and worshipping her, to Sunny running away, spiraling down into a dark place and his love and friendship is replaced by hatred for her.

In the mean time, Angela becomes becomes engaged and contracted into what she thinks is a good respectable marriage that will help heal a bit more of her family's scandalous reputation. But that ends up blowing up in her face at the alter, and as a witness to this is the newly returned dark, and brooding Sunny. Deep inside, his feelings for Angela are confused and conflicted, but he still does not wish to see the Bartham family suffer as well, so he steps in and offers a marriage of convenience to Angela. This is a spur of the moment decision that throws all his carefully laid plans into chaos and both their families in the middle of scandal and the gossip rags. Bartham whisks Angela away to France, and plans for them to annul the marriage within a year out of the eyes of the media and London Society.

They live in isolated forced proximity, with seething anger and resentment overlaying his deep attraction and unrequited love on Sunny's part, and Angela full of regret for their lost friendship and love, and forced to face her own past and mistakes, but also facing a Sunny that is new to her. She is also confused and confounded by her feelings for him.

This is a friendship gone terribly awry, with heartbreak on both sides, but they are given a second chance to find each other. Perhaps in suffering their loss of each other to begin with, they are given a chance to grow, and learn and appreciate new depths and nuances in each other.

Very grumpy-sunshine (and that is all within Sunny himself!), and definitely with that Beauty and the Beast vibe in their interactions in Sunny's french hideaway. Lots of emotional highs and lows, and the added complexity of third party to the relationship, and Sunny's own complex family relationships and interference as well.

4.5 stars out of 5

An Enchanting love story of a beauty and a beast forced together in a marriage of convenience that will sweep you off your feet and leave you breathless🔥❤️🔥❤️. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
13 years after their first meeting Angela will break Sunny's heart and he will not forgive her for it. One day, at her wedding when he rescues her from a scandal and offers to marry her on one condition,, they must annul their marriage in one year.🙈

Escaping from everyone, our Earl takes Angela to a palace in Paris away from the lingering eyes and journalists for no one must know about their marriage and then they can continue their lives where it stopped. Easier said than done right..? 😏😏😏

Because our Earl cannot help but think about her and remember his feelings. Angela starts to see a side of Sunny she didn't let herself think about before.🥰

Will this marriage turn into a real one?
Can Sunny Forgive her?
Will Angela fall in love with him?
Read and find out 😉😉😉

I loved this book so much. I literally devoured it in 2 days.
All The Beauty and The Beast vibes while even making it better.
Angela's character was so sweet and her being a ballerina made her more sensual and passionate which I really loved about her.
As for Sunny, being an Earl and all the responsibilities that come with it he was having a hard time especially when he views himself as a beast.
There was a lot of depth to the characters which was written beautifully and made me understand them, love them and root for them all the way to the end.

In a nutshell, it was amazing and I highly recommend it BUT even though it can be read as a standalone I encourage you to read the first book "The Poetics Of Passion" so you can enjoy it more.

Xoxo💋

Book 2 in the Muses of Scandal series kept me rapt in this charming retelling of Beauty and the Beast, played out in the relationship between Angela, a ballerina, and Sunny, a once kind now surly "beast" of a man. Will their marriage of convenience succeed?

This was a strong sequel in the Muses of Scandal series, it had everything that I was hoping for from the first book. The concept was wonderfully done and enjoyed the historical feel to this. Delphine Ross has a great writing style and enjoyed going through this story again. It uses the Beauty and the Beast elements and enjoyed how good everything worked. It uses the romance element perfectly and I enjoyed how realistic is was.

“𝓐 𝓶𝓪𝓻𝓻𝓲𝓪𝓰𝓮 𝓸𝓯 𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓿𝓮𝓷𝓲𝓮𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝓫𝓮𝓽𝔀𝓮𝓮𝓷 𝓪 𝓫𝓪𝓵𝓵𝓮𝓽-𝓭𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓫𝓮𝓪𝓾𝓽𝔂 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓪 𝓫𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓽𝓵𝔂 𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓵 𝓲𝓼 𝓪𝓫𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓰𝓮𝓽 𝓶𝓮𝓼𝓼𝔂 𝓲𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓖𝓻𝓾𝓶𝓹𝔂/𝓢𝓾𝓷𝓼𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓮 𝓱𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓸𝓻𝓲𝓬𝓪𝓵 𝓻𝓸𝓶𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝓻𝓮𝓽𝓮𝓵𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓸𝓯 𝓑𝓮𝓪𝓾𝓽𝔂 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓑𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓽.”

There was dancing and blackmail and kittens and a grumbly MMC and misunderstandings and secret passageways and a dual… Though I found the first half of this book to be slow, I ended up falling for these characters and their love by The End.

QUICK THOUGHTS 💭
🩰 This book is fraught with “good intentions” that aren’t actually good for anyone.
🩰 Sunny’s character is… well… not sunny. He’s grumpy and rude and mean. I found him not very likable for the first half of this read and grew tired of his grumbling.
🩰 Angela is a sweet FMC who will do anything for her family (again - those “good intentions!”). She is young and a bit naive and her secret past has left her feeling like she’ll never love again.
🩰 Their pasts influenced their future; both characters had some healing to do before they could find happiness together.

Thanks so much to Delphine Ross and Muse Publications for the ARC of this book!

"The Dance of Desire" by Delphine Ross is a captivating installment in the Muses of Scandal series, offering a fantastic and overall lovely reading experience. The story revolves around two main characters who are deeply compelling and endearing, drawing readers into their world with ease. Ross skillfully weaves a tale filled with emotional depth, seamlessly blending moments of laughter and tears. The narrative keeps readers engaged from start to finish, making it difficult to put the book down. With its perfect balance of romance, humor, and heartfelt moments, "The Dance of Desire" proves to be a must-read for 2024