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?

“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

The Dance of Desire is the second in a series, but you don’t have to read them in order, as this reads as a stand alone. I have read both, however, and they are both charming.

The story is based on the beauty and the beast fairy tale. The male protagonist, Sunny, does not become beastly until is offer of marriage to the beautiful Angela , his good friend, is turned down. Even when he becomes beastly, his kind and generous heart is not compromised. After an unexpected marriage of convenience, the two eventually rekindle their friendship before the slow burn of their romance.

The characters are well developed, and I actually sympathized with Sunny more than Angela, and eagerly awaited his HEA.

A delightful read!

Tropes: friends to enemies to lovers; sunshine MFC/grumpy MMC; marriage of convenience; forced proximity
Steam level: 2-3
Part of a series, but works fine as a standalone.

This is a sweet HR with plenty of humor, strong world-building, sharp dialog, and homages to "Beauty and the Beast" throughout. Although it starts off in hectic, comedic mode, and dances along the expected plot-points, in its quiet moments it's really a slow-burn romantic tale of two friends realizing they've loved each other all along. I wasn't a big fan of Sunny from the previous book, but here he transitions from bumbling fool to surly tough guy to warm cinnamon roll. He's been trying to find his way for his entire life but has been plagued by bullies and insecurity, and now must finally make a stand. I love that he's not your stock perfect-looking hero, btw.

I had a little difficulty with Angela at times, as she's a bit oblivious and a touch martyr-ish until the final chapters, but she does have her character arc as she and Sunny find their way to their HEA. Supporting characters such as Helene and Luke Ward verge on stealing key scenes, although I would have rather the MC's spent time with each other reconnecting instead of opening up to them and leaving notes for each other during the middle chapters. There was a point when I was rooting for Sunny to go his own way, as he and Angela struggled to resolve their communication issues. A tense dueling scene helped move things along, thankfully.

Bottom line: this is another winning book by this author.

I read an advanced reader copy of this book and this is my honest, voluntary review. Thanks to the author and publisher for this opportunity.

The first word that came to mind was "tortured" or should I say "torturous"? The male protagonist had very real human hangups. The lead female had issues of her own. Even the support characters challenged me as I slogged through the early stages of our story here. So many questions to be unanswered.
Imagine my surprise and relief as the author skillfully transforms seemingly impossible situations into credible resolutions. Initial opinions changed and I was happy for that fact. I don't want to spoil your own adventure but I will admit that I felt a mixture of sadness and relief that the stories ended. Do not misunderstand me here; the sadness was that the book ended and maybe true love can conquer all! Well done Delphine Ross.

Book two in “A Muse of Scandal” series, “The Dance of Desire” was as charming and engaging as the first book. Ross writes with an easy grace and seduction that will sweep you into the story, compelling you to read through to the end with its Victorian-era style and wit. This friends to enemies to lovers retelling of “Beauty and the Beast” boasts several nods to the fairy tale of old (and the subsequent Disney movies) complete with a gothic chateau, a swoon-worthy library, a secret passageway, five adorable kittens, a jilted engagement, a beast-like male main character, and a light-hearted seemingly innocent and downtrodden female main character. Sunny, the beast, offers a marriage of convenience in a “I need to have my revenge on you for breaking my heart” sort of way to Angela who is forced to accept after a disastrous, albeit very funny for the innocent observer, first foray down the aisle.

Told with slow simmering passion, yearning, and all heart, this is definitely a series I will be continuing. Read in order or as a standalone, I appreciated that I’ve read these in order for the backstory it provided about Angela’s family, though it wasn’t necessary.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Delphine Ross, and Muse Publications for this digital copy. I thoroughly enjoyed this romance reading it in less than a day!


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Genre: historical romance
Paris, 1873

Angela Bartham broke Sunny’s - the Earl of Sunderland’s - heart when she declined his marriage proposal. But as she prepares to marry someone else to help clear her family’s name from scandal, something goes terribly awry at the wedding… and she finds herself suddenly in a marriage of convenience with Sunny himself. But he’s changed in the months since she rejected him, and their relationship is nothing like the friendship they once had.

This had a really strong setup, kind of faded in the middle, and then ended stronger. There are a lot of sweet moments, but I also felt like there were a lot of threads that convoluted the romance. Also, she was trapped Beauty and the Beast style in a castle in France in this marriage of convenience with her childhood best friend, but stubbornness on both their parts kept them from communicating via anything but notes for a third of the book. There is Another Woman and Another Man plot line, both of which contribute to conflict, resolution, and growth of the overall story arc, but take away from the relationship development on page between Angela and Sunny.

There’s a lot to enjoy about Ross’s writing style, and this series has a lot of fun moments, but this wasn’t as strong for me as the first book. I still recommend picking this up, especially if you like childhood friends to enemies to lovers and locked-in-a-castle close proximity scenarios! It’s an overall pleasant romance, and despite the stakes stays fairly low angst.

Dance of desire by Delphine Ross is a charming beauty in the beast adjacent marriage of convenience! I really enjoyed Sunny‘s character and I agree with some other reviews that he is not very beastly, but his nobility and devotion make him special!

It’s fast paced but I didn’t feel like it was too much. I enjoyed the romance and the tension but I since I did not read the first book in the series so I was a little thrown off by the plot that he had already proposed to Angela. I think it’s decent as a standalone minus that part!

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC. Overall, the story was entertaining and generally quick-moving. There were some repetitive parts throughout - she wishes she didn’t write the letter, his mom doesn’t like France, etc. There were so many elements in this book that needed to be fleshed out more regarding the various storylines. It felt like the author gave just enough detail and backstory to Angela’s former love, Helene’s personality and story, and the earl’s reason for remaining in the chalet in France, so the reader knew roughly what was going on, but it fell flat. I feel like I only superficially knew the characters, and I think it’s because there were too many competing stories to do any of them justice with a book of this short length.

This was a delightful historical romance, From the moment I started reading, I was captivated by the intricate dance between Angela and Sunny, whose marriage of convenience evolves into something much deeper and more passionate.

The characters were compelling and well-developed. Angela and Sunny's relationship was fraught with tension and complexity, yet their chemistry was undeniable. I found myself rooting for them to overcome their differences and find happiness together.

Ross's writing style is elegant and evocative, perfectly suited to the time period in which the story is set. Her prose flowed effortlessly, drawing me deeper into the story with each turn of the page.

This book has a captivating romance, rich historical detail, and engaging characters. It's a book that will sweep you off your feet and leave you longing for more.

𝗧𝗥𝗢𝗣𝗘𝗦: Historical romance, grumpy/sunshine, friends to enemies to lovers, marriage of convenience, opposite attract, forced proximity

I really enjoyed this Beauty and the Beast retelling. It's perfect for sunshine/grumpy trope fans and I loved the music/dance themes.