The Dancing Floor

Rating:
Summary: Save the next dance for me
Review: "The Dancing Floor" is not one of Barbara Michaels's best novels. Most of her books are compulsive page-turners (I've been reading her ever since "The Master of Blacktower"), but the plot of this one gets literally lost in the maze (the `dancing floor' of the title). The heroine gets lost in the maze too, but fights her way out and makes a dramatic entrance into the lives of her future employer and his disdainful son.

The son, Jordan doesn't believe the maze exists. He is also suspicious of the heroine, Heather's semi-accidental precipitation into the middle of his breakfast. However his father is intrigued by a woman, self-described as pudgy and plain, who has the same unusual surname as the seventeenth-century landscape artist who had designed his newly-acquired manor's gardens. The rich old man persuades Heather (who happens to be an avid student of seventeenth-century garden designers, or `florists' as they were then called) to stay on and help him renovate his gardens.

Heather is a very pugnacious heroine who fights with almost every other major character in the book, including a very nasty little boy and his equally nasty mother. She even gets physical with the boy after he causes her to wreck her car, and again when she catches him torturing his sister. She also falls for the nasty boy's father, an Ashley Wilkes clone who suffers nobly, and conveniently leaves the scene when Heather figures out whom she really loves. This book isn't quite as long as "Gone with the Wind," but it still takes Heather four hundred and fifty pages to ditch the Ashley character and announce her true feelings.

The maze wanders in and out of the plot. Heather discovers that a local coven is using it as a meeting place. A body is found within. The reader learns a bit about the history of mazes and labyrinths. Most of the supernatural activity, unlike previous novels by Barbara Michaels, occurs in Heather's dreams---a bit of a cheat, if you ask me. The maze was getting such a big build-up, I figured there was going to be a shuddery, occult denouement within its shrubbery. Not a crazed murderer who seemed to lack motivation for his or her heinous deeds, and who was hoist on such a convenient petard.

If you are a new Barbara Michaels reader, try one of her earlier novels (I was particularly fond of "Sons of the Wolf"), or else wait for her next dance.

Rating:
Summary: Save the next dance for me
Review: "The Dancing Floor" is not one of Barbara Michaels's best novels. Most of her books are compulsive page-turners (I've been reading her ever since "The Master of Blacktower"), but the plot of this one gets literally lost in the maze (the 'dancing floor' of the title). The heroine gets lost in the maze too, but fights her way out and makes a dramatic entrance into the lives of her future employer and his disdainful son.

The son, Jordan doesn't believe the maze exists. He is also suspicious of the heroine, Heather's semi-accidental precipitation into the middle of his breakfast. However his father is intrigued by a woman, self-described as pudgy and plain, who has the same unusual surname as the seventeenth-century landscape artist who had designed his newly-acquired manor's gardens. The rich old man persuades Heather (who happens to be an avid student of seventeenth-century garden designers, or 'florists' as they were then called) to stay on and help him renovate his gardens.

Heather is a very pugnacious heroine who fights with almost every other major character in the book, including a very nasty little boy and his equally nasty mother. She even gets physical with the boy after he causes her to wreck her car, and again when she catches him torturing his sister. She also falls for the nasty boy's father, an Ashley Wilkes clone who suffers nobly, and conveniently leaves the scene when Heather figures out whom she really loves. This book isn't quite as long as "Gone with the Wind," but it still takes Heather four hundred and fifty pages to ditch the Ashley character and announce her true feelings.

The maze wanders in and out of the plot. Heather discovers that a local coven is using it as a meeting place. A body is found within. The reader learns a bit about the history of mazes and labyrinths. Most of the supernatural activity, unlike previous novels by Barbara Michaels, occurs in Heather's dreams---a bit of a cheat, if you ask me. The maze was getting such a big build-up, I figured there was going to be a shuddery, occult denouement within its shrubbery. Not a crazed murderer who seemed to lack motivation for his or her heinous deeds, and who was hoist on such a convenient petard.

If you are a new Barbara Michaels reader, try one of her earlier novels (I was particularly fond of "Sons of the Wolf"), or else wait for her next dance.

Rating:
Summary: Another Barbara Michaels winner
Review: ---- THE DANCING FLOOR Barbara Michaels Harper Collins, Mar 1997, $23.00, 422 pp. When Heather Tradescent's beloved father suddenly passed away, the bereaving woman decides to see the British homes and gardens that she and her deceased dad had planned to visit. With her vacation almost over, Heather visits Troystan House, which is not open to the public, but somehow she manages to find a way inside where she meets the eccentric rich owner, industrialist Frank Karim, who makes her part of the family. At first, Heather has her doubts, but ultimately the warmth of the place makes her feel that she finally has found a place where she belongs. As she gets more comfortable, Heather falls in love with Franks's son, Gordon, but doubts he reciprocates her feelings. However, things turn bad when a child turns up missing and the evidence indicates that a coven is behind the event. Instead of finding a heavenly home, Heather may have placed herself in mortal danger. Barbara Michaels can always be counted on for writing an entertaining book and her latest novel, THE DANCING FLOOR, will augment her growing reputation. Heather and the support cast are all great characters, but it is Ms. Michaels' ability to increasingly build tension while tossing hints of potential supernatural involvement that makes this an exciting romantic suspense drama. Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Another Barbara Michaels winner
Review: ----THE DANCING FLOORBarbara Michaels Harper Collins, Mar 1997, $23.00, 422 pp. When Heather Tradescent's beloved father suddenly passed away, the bereaving woman decides to see the British homes and gardens that she and her deceased dad had planned to visit. With her vacation almost over, Heather visits Troystan House, which is not open to the public, but somehow she manages to find a way inside where she meets the eccentric rich owner, industrialist Frank Karim, who makes her part of the family. At first, Heather has her doubts, but ultimately the warmth of the place makes her feel that she finally has found a place where she belongs. As she gets more comfortable, Heather falls in love with Franks's son, Gordon, but doubts he reciprocates her feelings. However, things turn bad when a child turns up missing and the evidence indicates that a coven is behind the event. Instead of finding a heavenly home, Heather may have placed herself in mortal danger. Barbara Michaels can always be counted on for writing an entertaining book and her latest novel, THE DANCING FLOOR, will augment her growing reputation. Heather and the support cast are all great characters, but it is Ms. Michaels' ability to increasingly build tension while tossing hints of potential supernatural involvement that makes this an exciting romantic suspense drama. Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Its Good
Review: After reviewing THE REVIEWS here, I know I can't really top them. Let me sum it up for you: Its good. Yeah, its got some Wicca in it.Yeah, she forgets to tell us why Karim has it in for Heather, and yeah, its great that we have a heroine who looks just a little bit like a real person, so yeah, its a good book. Not great. Not horrible, just good reading. Historic gardens, Mazes, Historic Houses. Mythology. ENGLAND. ROMANCE. GARDENS. MICHAELS. GET IT NOW!

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and informative
Review: Barbara Michaels has a special talent for injecting both entertainment and interesting information (Gothic novels; politics; roses; vintage clothing; etc) into her novels. This one is no exception, offering the dual info caches of ancient witch-burning and the complex gardens in England.

Heather Tradescant is an intelligent, rather too-blunt heroine who has always dreamed of going to England with her father. Though her father is now deceased, a hefty wad of insurance money now allows her to go. While she sightsees, she stumbled into a massive maze of hedges and plants, and soon stumbles into the eccentric Mr. Karim and his son Jordon. Karim is intrigued first by her name (explanation in the book) and then by her, and invites her to stay awhile.

Heather soon discovers that the local village is a bit obsessed with the famed Pendle Witches, a family group that was burned for witchcraft centuries before. She also meets a group of odd people: Jennet, a kindly but reticient woman who fits into the role of "village witch"; Lindsay, a shallow, manipulative woman with a Barbie-doll body; Giles, Lindsay's handsome and long-suffering hubby; Lindsay's monstrous son Bobby and tormented daughter.

Mystery-readers soon grow tired of the usual, boring, gorgeous and immensely attractive heroines (Jacqueline Kirby doesn't count--she's quirky). Heather is none of these: She's a bit overweight, enjoys her food immensely, is rather plain in appearance, but with a sharp intellect and bluntly truthful manner. I found it highly enjoyable that the men around her found her interesting, because of her brain rather than her body.

Frank Karim, despite his little bouts of maliciousness, is overall a fun character to read about, the weird millionaire. His son Jordon is a little less interesting, as often he seems to be rushed into his interest in Heather. Lindsay is despicable from her first scene, screeching at Lindsay then putting on a facade of neighborly sweetness; Giles is likable from his first scene. As Heather does, it takes a while to warm up to Jennet, as she is so reticient, but she is a strong and likable character as well.

I was very pleased that though this book contains Jennet and other Wiccans, it was not gratuitous. It's actually connected to the plot and the villain, and to the massive maze of bushes and hedges. Though I could have used a teeny bit less of Jennet's expounding on Wiccan philosophies, it overall didn't affect my enjoyment of the book. (And I just LOOOOOOOVE the descriptions of her shop and the exotic merchandise in it. What I wouldn't give to buy some of the jewelry and clothing from there...)

The descriptions are good; I particularly liked descriptions of the maze, the house, and the aforementioned shop of Jennet's. The mild obsession with the old witches was well-made, such as the murder mystery. The only problems were that it is a bit too actionless for a stretch in the middle, and the relationship between Heather and Jordon feels a bit forced compared to other novels by Ms. Michaels. However, the portrayal of the spoiled-rotten, maliciously-bratty Bobby is spot-on.

Overall, this is a good mystery and immensely entertaining, as well as informative.

Rating:
Summary: From my bath, review of The Dancing Floor
Review: Barbara Michaels has led me astray again, thornily, subtly, wantonly, into her maze of intrigue in The Dancing Floor. A wish - in succeeding books, may there be hundreds - the supernatural weave darken even further into the ending. Write me for discussion, but no hints here! A superb read - my steaming bath water is tepid once again, as I finally, reluctantly, close this fine book.

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing to the very end
Review: Barbara Michaels is the rare author who is able to make her charectors have the appearance of regular, normal people who end up in strange circumstances. She draws us into the mystery and you can count on strange twists and turns in the plot throughout the story.

I think what I like best about this story is it is not about sex, however the underlying currents of attraction make her writing real and we know what the charectors feel without pages of it spelled out to us - finally an author who realizes we have an imagination too! I love a well told story and this is one that won't leave the reader disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Predictable, but still pretty durn good.
Review: Barbara Michaels, The Dancing Floor (Harper, 1997)

Well, it had to happen sooner or later: Barbara Michaels is winding down. After writing a surprisingly large number of witty, original gothic romances, Michaels is starting to get-- gasp-- predictable.

Our (spunky, not overly attractive, pits in the self-esteem department) heroine, fulfilling plans she made with her recently-deceased father, has traveled to Britain to tour the great gardens therein. At one, she is staunchly rebuffed and refused entrance, but she gains entrance anyway. Surprisingly, the lord of the crumbling demesne is overjoyed to see her, and invites her to stay in his home for as long as necessary. He (older cad, dashingly handsome, filthy rich) has both a son (standoffish, far more interested in his research than in the goings-on around him, needlessly harsh with his words when forced to interact) and a servant (who looks and acts something like Pan) who are both around heroine's age. Add in some seemingly-supernatural goings-on and... hmm. Bet you can't predict how THAT one's going to turn out.

Still, Michaels is Michaels. The plot moves along at a fine clip, the characetrs have just enough depth to make her work stand out from the pack, and everything is quite satisfactorily put to rest at the end of the book. It's pure escapism of the most guilty kind. Good for turning one's brain off. But if you're looking for real quality, earlier Mchaels novels are the way to go-- Prince of Darkness, Houses of Stone, Black Rainbow, etc. ** 1/2

Rating:
Summary: A total masterpiece, riveting, a true accomplishment!
Review: Every book that I have read written by Ms. Michaels has been wonderful. This story grabs you ,as do her other works. I love the fact that she has started to use non-typical heriones, it lends freshness that many other authors lack. This is one writer I will always be a fan of.