Sunday, March 17, 2013

Review: Dance Of Shadows (Dance Of Shadows #1) By: Yelena Black



Title: Dance Of Shadows (Dance Of Shadows #1)
Author: Yelena Black
Published: February 12th, 2013
My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Goodreads Summary:

Dancing with someone is an act of trust. Elegant and intimate; you're close enough to kiss, close enough to feel your partner's heartbeat. But for Vanessa, dance is deadly – and she must be very careful who she trusts . . .

Vanessa Adler attends an elite ballet school – the same one her older sister, Margaret, attended before she disappeared. Vanessa feels she can never live up to her sister's shining reputation. But Vanessa, with her glorious red hair and fair skin, has a kind of power when she dances – she loses herself in the music, breathes different air, and the world around her turns to flames . . .

Soon she attracts the attention of three men: gorgeous Zep, mysterious Justin, and the great, enigmatic choreographer Josef Zhalkovsky. When Josef asks Vanessa to dance the lead in the Firebird, she has little idea of the danger that lies ahead – and the burning forces about to be unleashe
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My Thoughts:

I was really hesitant to read this one only because I had seen some not so great reviews of this one, this review is hard to write only because I did enjoy the overall plot of this book but , there was so many things that didn't get fleshed out in the plot for me to give this book a higher rating. Yelena Black has created a creepy and haunting story full of mystery and dance. Now  I have to admit that I am a sucker for ballet. I have always wanted to be a dancer but, I was gifted with enough coordination or moves for that to be possible unfortunately. But, growing up my dad and my step-mom took my sister and I to The Nutcracker every Christmas. We got to get all dressed up in fancy dresses and went out to a nice restaurant and then went to the ballet. So for me, ballet is special and I was really looking forward to reading a book where it was involved. 

Vanessa Adler has gotten into the prestigious New York School of Ballet, she is following in her sisters footsteps and is definitely a lucky girl. But , Vanessa motivation for getting into the school may not be because she wants to become a ballet dancer but because her sister disappeared from this school and she wants to find out what happened to her. Her parents are overprotective of her and rightfully so, they already lost one daughter to New York they don't want to lose another. Vanessa has an amazing ability when she dances, whenever she dances the steps just right the  world changes. Soon after starting classes Vanessa becomes attracted to the mysterious and gorgeous Zep, also catches the eye of Justin who knows about her sister and keeps leaving her with mysterious comments about her, and Josef the choreographer who is in charge of choosing the dancers for the spring performance. Mystery, danger, and the paranormal mix together to create a interesting story that unravels  before your eyes.

Vanessa was a main character that throughout most of the book I really didn't like all that much but, by the end of the book I was starting to come around towards her. Vanessa character really didn't have anything that made me want to root for her or care about her finding out what happened to her sister. When she began crushing on Zep the mysterious and good looking ballet star I had to try not to roll my eyes, maybe not because of her character per say but , because of the insta-love and how their relationship developed, she was in love with him after like a week and he was ignoring her calls and texts but, would randomly show up with some excuse and she would just accept it and ignore all of the creepy signs coming off him and that was definitely frustrating. But, once she finally started realizing things weren't quite right I could begin to like her just a little bit more. 

The one thing that really made this book only 3 stars for me was the secondary characters. They weren't bad characters but, Vanessa came to NYABA with nobody and was a complete stranger to all of them and they became best friends right off the bat and there was no basis for many of the relationships except that they all were freshman at the same school. That was a disappointment for me I wanted to like the characters and get into the story but, I couldn't even remember which character was which and would get confused over that aspect which turned me off a bit to the book. 

Overall, this book could have been awesome but it just fell short. I enjoyed the plot that kept me engaged and wanting to know what happened next but, the character development was lacking and the friendships and romance were too unrealistic for me to be able to fall in love with this story but, if you enjoy a creepy paranormal read you just might enjoy this one. 

Want to learn more about Dance Of Shadows? Check out the links below!

2 comments:

  1. I love the cover and idea for this book but had so many problems while reading it. The characters weren't very good, the plot could have used some tightening, it just lacked that oomph factor. Wish the insides could have lived up to the lovely outside!

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  2. Aw that's unfortunate you didn't really enjoy it. I have problems with books that lack character development and that have a slow plot.

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