Search - Dancing at Midnight (Blydon, Bk 1)

Not one of the Bridgerton series and slightly more obvious plot than the norm for Julia Quinn. You can tell this was one of her first novels. But Julia Quinn on a bad day still beats Nora Roberts any day.

I'm a huge fan of Julia Quinn but this book was a huge disappointment. For one, I was so tired of reading about how the "hero" was tortured over something that, in my opinion, he had nothing to really do with. I wanted to pull out my hair and scream, "Get Over It Already!!!" I had struggle to read the last few pages...in fact, I'm not sure I did read the last few pages. The story started out okay but quickly went downhill.

Julia Quinn is a goddess. This may not be her best effort, but then her mediocre is still a cut above.

Lady Arabella Blydon is staying at her cousin's home in the country when she meets Lord John Blackwood. Bella finds John intriguing. He is a wounded war hero who one minute is very cordial, and the next minute he is very cold. John, who blames himself for the death of an innocent girl, feels that Bella deserves a better man. Even though he finds himself falling in love with her, he keeps pushing her away.

I really liked both Bella and John and thought they were a great couple. The only drawback with this book was that I really didn't understand John blaming himself for the young girl's death. I think that is why I couldn't quite give this book 5 Stars. Otherwise, I found this book a quick, entertaining read. My rating: 4.5 Stars.

Loved this book! Belle is a strong heroine and never backed down from what she wanted or believed. John was wonderful-it was easy to love him.

I had read "Minx" previously which involves the characters that are in this book. So I read out of order which didn't matter at all, the characters are all fantastic!

Dancing is my favorite Julia Quinn so far, the second in the Emma / Belle series (Splendid first, then Minx is third) Belle's love John Blackwood is a very good, nicely-flawed hero. I would have liked his backstory to have been a little more tragic, or perhaps a little more fleshed out by the author, but Quinn was a new writer back then, so she may not have felt safe doing it.

Dont miss this one -- it is definitely my favorite in the series.