Ilhem

“Dance only for me” is the 6th installment in the “Dance with the Devil” series and somehow comes full circle, bringing us back to Sable Brennus’ territory.  Besides the fact that the series’ got a very rich lore that was built and explored in all the former books, a great part of the appeal is in the guest appearances of characters met in “Dance with the Devil”; so I recommend reading the books in order even though each one could be read as a stand-alone. Familiarity is enjoyable if not absolutely necessary.

Allow me a little flashback before getting down to the review.

Ever since I encountered her for the first time with “Prisonner”, I got into the habit of going to Megan Derr when I want to be ‘fluffed’ without being bored to death.

This author has a way of casually scattering creative details throughout her fantasy worlds that often had me shaking my head and smiling at her fertile imagination.  Her stories are lively and entertaining, her settings are imaginative (I insist) and even when I’ve felt a little bit underwhelmed, I’ve always ended up liking them, if only for the undercurrent joy and enthusiasm. They are quite potent charms, I assure you; it’s a bit like sprinkling the books with dusts of contentment. Truth be told, I have high suspicions that Megan Derr is a fairy…

This time however, I was bored. I shook my kindle...Not one speck of fairy dust.

After building a demonic Las Vegas, giving her take on fairy tales, zombie love and dragon shifters, Megan Derr introduced us to country music.

Very well. Jackie is a gunslinger and I’m not at all opposed to the gruff, lanky, narrow-eyed  type with a golden heart who always gets into trouble for a just cause. But Jackie is a pale gunslinger. His characterization is flat and all the “howdy ma’am” were more evocative of Woodie in Toy Story than Clint Eastwood. Jacky is neither sexy nor intense and alas! He was supposed to be. That’s my first niggle.

His romance with I-won’t-tell-who is rushed and I didn’t feel the intense anguish the other character was loaded with, nor the intensity inherent of their relationship. That’s my second niggle.

Jackie plows through the story resolving small mysteries while the main plot line is developed, gathering up in passing his dream team of secondary characters. I barely followed the mysteries because my mind went gallivanting all around, the running joke didn’t amuse me that much, and I didn’t feel horrified when it would have been convenient that I did. To top it all, the resolution happened off scene. Nth niggles, I lost count.

All in all and in short, it’s a miss. I am pouting intensely (it’s a sore point, yes).

I’m not giving up on fairy dust that easily though; and I will keep on reading my way through Derr’s huge backlist.