ShadowDance by Anne Stuart

So, I have a new photo editor. I'm not really loving it so far, but to be fair to it, I'm still getting used to it all. I don't think my photos are turning out well in editing as it gets too bright or not bright enough. I've gone for less bright just because I don't want to wash everything out. I'll figure it out eventually. 

Shadow Dance is from one of my favorite authors, Anne Stuart. I'm impressed how she manages to jump around the romance sphere. This book is set around the year 1815, in Devon (UK). It totally has that 1990s cover (the Fabio-esque covers). It cracks me up but whatever works. Let's get to the recap/review thing then. 

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Title: Shadow Dance
Author: Anne Stuart
Page Number: 377 pages (paperback)
Genre: romance, historical romance, fiction
Publisher: Avon Books
Year: 1993

Wrongly accused of his father's murder, handsome Valerian Romney must flee his vengeful pursuers—ingeniously disguised as his older brother Phelan's "wife." But desire endangers the Romneys' brazen masquerade. For ruffles and lace cannot hide Valerian's fevered passion for the lovely and confused Sophie—while Phelan yearns for the tormented beauty, Juliette, who has dressed in man's clothing to escape a heartless abuser. And now both peril and ecstasy await them all as they move in a seductive dance of deception—where every false, protective mask must ultimately be stripped away...to reveal the true, radiant and rapturous love beneath.

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This is reminiscent of Shakespeare's As You Like It (or maybe 12th Night?). It also has one of Stuart's "bad boys" in the hero seat..although I prefered her other male lead a bit more. He's more fun. 

The two male characters are Phelan Romney, the only legitimate son of landed gentry, and Valerian Romney. Valerian is half-brothers with Phelan, and is a product on his father's affair. Whilst Phelan is away, Valerian is framed for the murder of his father (most likely by his father's wife). Phelan returns and he and Valerian go to the Devon coast in order to hide from authorities. 

In order to do this, Valerian dresses as a woman throughout most of the book, only dressing like a man at at the end and in his house. Even though Valerian is on the run and a murder begins the book, this is more of a romance (where the murder issues work out without much input from the characters). 

Valerian falls in love with a local beauty, Sophie de Quincey. Sophie is bookish, pretty, and not really interested in most of the men that are interested in wooing her. In Valerian (dressed as a woman), she finds someone to befriend. As their relationship deepens, Sophie is confused with her feelings towards Valerian (as Valerian flirts with her instead of just being friends). 

Phelan is different. He has no interest in staying in the UK, having spent most of his life abroad. He hopes to install Valerian at the estate and spend his time traveling. He discovers that one of his new staff is infact a woman dressed as a man. This person is Juliette MacGowan, on the run from her abusive, older husband. Juliette and Phelan begin a romance (of the darkish sort) as well. 

Sometimes this book gets shelved as genderqueer/LGBT I totally understand why, we have two characters dressing as the opposite sex, but it might not be what someone looking for LGBT fiction would want. Just to note. 

Phelan is one of Stuart's dark heros. He has every intention of keeping Juliette away from him (whilst also saving her from her abusive husband) but is heavily attracted to her. It's the nineties so all the ladies have to be virgins (very normal in this era of romances), even Juliette (her husband is impotent). Phelan is really pushy and abusive. He's always pushing into Juliette's space, not listening to when she says "no", and putting her in situations with him that she wouldn't choose. By any standard, Phelan would be a total creep. For a nineties romance hero...he's not the worst! Faint praise! I usually like Stuart's dark heros, but Phelan was not my favorite to be fair. 

Valerian and Sophie have a much calmer, much more emotionally mature (considering all the cross-dressing) relationship. Valerian might steal a kiss or two, but he's not kidnapping Sophie, sneaking into her bedroom, or threatening her. I enjoyed their romance much more. It was sweeter. 

The romances were fairly equal. So you could speed read one over the other (which I kinda did with Phelan's story. 

There is a new Kindle (ebook) cover, with less chesty men! Less Damsels-in-Distress! Less flowers, etc. It's above this paragraph. 

Anyways, I did enjoy the book quite well. It wasn't as engaging as other Stuart books, even with the cross-dressing characters, undercover lovers, secret rendezvous, and slight murder plot...mostly because the focus was on each romance and stayed away from any deeper topic. We know that Juliette's husband is sneaky, fishy, and impotent...but he's a shadow character for most of the story. We don't really get into her fear (unless it's something that drives Phelan to be a dick). We also don't get much introspection into Sophie's confusion over her interest in Valerian (as a woman) verses Valerian as a man. I wasn't expecting that from this era of book...having read quite a few when I visited my grandma in the summer (that woman had a full on romance subscription and book swap in her town going...she had hundreds of chesty covered romances in her back room). Since I slept in the backroom, I absolutely devoured the books. I've read all sorts of nonsense.  My point is, this is interesting for the time frame it was written (I don't recall a lot of men dressed as woman in these books, only a few woman dressed as men--usually aboard a ship?) but I wasn't expecting her to go beyond the base here. It's meant as a romances between two foiled pairs. I think it achieves it quite well. I rated it around four stars.