Dancing With Clara

Rating:
Summary: Not Your Usual Romance
Review: A beautiful man owing too much money to too many people hunts for a wealthy woman to bail him out. Old story, right? Nope. It's never the same old story with Mary Balogh. The willing woman turns out to be plain but discerning Clara, tied to a chair since a crippling childhood illness. Clara knows Freddie is only marrying her for her fortune, but a bleak life stretches ahead and she doesn't want to live it completely alone. Freddie is so charming, so good looking. His cheerful lies relieve Clara's grey life.

Freddie hates what he has become but doesn't know how to break the cycle. Clara's money has erased the looming threat of debtor's prison, but he still can't relax into a normal life. He doesn't deserve it. Does he? Clara can't really love him. Can she?

You might prefer to read "Courting Julia" first, as Freddie's desperate financial circumstances and extravagant behavior figure in the plot. Then read "Tempting Harriet" to see how happy Freddie and Clara's marriage has become.

Rating:
Summary: Painful. A low 4 Stars.
Review: I resent adultery in my pristine romance world. In "Dancing With Clara", Mary Balogh shatters my paradise with her fabricated "hero" Frederick Sullivan. Frederick Sullivan is a gigolo. He needs money to cover his serious gambling debts, and he searches for a pigeon. He finds his victim in Clara Danford, a disabled, unattractive, very wealthy woman. Yes, Clara Danford is a victim of life's cruel games. First her father smothered her with his undying love, and now Freddie will imprison her with his fabricated love.

However, Clara Danford is not brainless. She knows what Freddie is about. She knows Freddie is a fortune hunter. However, Freddie is beautiful and for once Clara wants a little beauty in her lonely life. Frederick Sullivan is so handsome, dignified and polite. Freddie is fun and adventurous and for one honeymoon week they have a wonderful time.

One week of happiness and then Freddie returns to London to his familiar world. A world filled with drinking, gambling, and womanizing. His pleasures are uncontrollable and although he feels some regret he still maintains a life of self-satisfaction, scouring through the gutter.

Clara accepts her new role as a married woman. She looks forward to Freddie's weekly letters. She studies them and presses them to her heart. She knows he is dallying and unfaithful. At night, she lies in her lonely bed wondering what the woman or women look like. She wonders if Freddie will come home again and give her just a little corner of his life. For Clara went into this marriage with her eyes wide open. Freddie wanted her money and she wanted his good looks and vitality.

As a reader, this is painful. Of course, in the end Mary Balogh whispers everyone will live happily ever after.

Grace Atkinson, Ontario - Canada.

Rating:
Summary: Painful. A low 4 Stars.
Review: I resent adultery in my pristine romance world. In "Dancing With Clara", Mary Balogh shatters my paradise with her fabricated "hero" Frederick Sullivan. Frederick Sullivan is a gigolo. He needs money to cover his serious gambling debts, and he searches for a pigeon. He finds his victim in Clara Danford, a disabled, unattractive, very wealthy woman. Yes, Clara Danford is a victim of life's cruel games. First her father smothered her with his undying love, and now Freddie will imprison her with his fabricated love.

However, Clara Danford is not brainless. She knows what Freddie is about. She knows Freddie is a fortune hunter. However, Freddie is beautiful and for once Clara wants a little beauty in her lonely life. Frederick Sullivan is so handsome, dignified and polite. Freddie is fun and adventurous and for one honeymoon week they have a wonderful time.

One week of happiness and then Freddie returns to London to his familiar world. A world filled with drinking, gambling, and womanizing. His pleasures are uncontrollable and although he feels some regret he still maintains a life of self-satisfaction, scouring through the gutter.

Clara accepts her new role as a married woman. She looks forward to Freddie's weekly letters. She studies them and presses them to her heart. She knows he is dallying and unfaithful. At night, she lies in her lonely bed wondering what the woman or women look like. She wonders if Freddie will come home again and give her just a little corner of his life. For Clara went into this marriage with her eyes wide open. Freddie wanted her money and she wanted his good looks and vitality.

As a reader, this is painful. Of course, in the end Mary Balogh whispers everyone will live happily ever after.

Grace Atkinson, Ontario - Canada.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and Intense
Review: I was not sure how this all would work out and indeed we are left with hope but not assurances of a happy ending. This is a dark, moving story of a very weak and disillusioned man and the strong woman who loved him in spite of his faults. There are only two positive notes about Freddie, his looks and his apparent wish to bring Clara some much needed happiness in her life. He succeeds with bringing Clara out of the cocoon her father wrapped her in. Clara brings him the absolution he so desires. This was a very realistic portrayal of a couple that marry for reasons besides love. A very interesting book!

Rating:
Summary: DISGUSTING!
Review: This was my first book by Mary Balogh and it certainly won't be the last. Freddie is very flawed and filled with self-loathing. He makes so MANY mistakes, but you can't help but adore the scoundrel! He is a handsome "rake" who marries the lame, plain Clara for her money. Clara is no idiot heroine (thank you!). She is well aware of why Freddie is marrying her. She marries him for his handsomeness and because simply looking at him brings some sunlight into her dreary life. Their story is highly original and develops beutifully. The writing is superb. I just loved this book! Very highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Creepy...
Review: Tis is by far one of the creepiest books I have ever read. I felt like I needed a shower after reading it. Yuk...Clara, an unattractive, crippled heiress agrees to marry handsome, fortune hunting Frederick, who lies and schemes, as she feels it is her only shot at a chance to marry. Frederick does not really have any friends left as he kidnapped a girl who he grew up with (that story is written about in a previous regency), before she was to marry his friend as he needed her money. Then he has to leave town and he runs into Clara, an easy target for Frederick to charm with his good looks. The scenes in bed were awful, Frederick is a creep, Clara is a fool. The book was one of the most unromantic books I have ever had the misfortune to read.

Rating:
Summary: Original!
Review: Wow, what a unique romance! Mary Balogh has the reputation of turning out stories with unlikely heroes and heroines and DANCING WITH CLARA is no exception.

Miss Clara Danford is a sickly, crippled heiress who desperately wants to have something healthy and beautiful in her life. And she has no scruples about spending some of her inheritance in order to get that. That is why when the virile, handsome rake-wastrel that is Mr. Frederick Sullivan offers for her, she decides to marry him despite her knowing him to be a fortune-hunter.

The truth is that Freddie, by which our hero is generally known to his family and friends, is deeply in debt at the beginning of the story. He needs to marry a rich heiress--quick!--to keep himself out of the debtor's prison and his father's wrath. So, yes, the premise of DANCING WITH CLARA is the conventional marriage of convenience, but this is definitely not the same old, same old you might be expecting.

Now, Clara is not the typical sort of ugly-duckling-in-disguise heroine. She does not undergo some major make-over or wind up a beautiful swine in the end. Clara remains, throughout the story, simply the same plain Clara, although Freddie comes to regard her in a totally different (and flattering) light as the story unfolds. I've heard some people complain that Clara is too much of a "push-over." To me, however, Clara is just being sensible, patient and understanding. Her willingness to forgive Freddie for his debauchery and unfaithfulness, off-putting as it may be to some readers, is reasonable, consistent with her personalities, and admirable.

Freddie, on the other hand, is just as lovable as Clara. It did not take much time for me to warm up to him. (I mean, he can be really charming and gentlemanly if he chooses) Although his intention to marry Clara is less than noble, he is not heartless or cruel in any way: he vows to treat Clara well and strives to bring whatever happiness he is capable of producing into Clara's lonely life. He does indeed do some unsavory things--gambling, drinking himself into oblivion, bedding other women--even after he marries Clara. Nevertheless, he engages in them with a stricken conscience and a deep sense of self-loathing. He tries, oh how he tries, to drag himself away from the corrupting mess of a life he's got himself into, but he is in for a bumpy ride. Watching Freddie struggles to cut off drinking and gambling, sometimes successfully, sometimes only to give in later, is heart-wrenching. And I held my breath for the moment when Freddie came to the realization that his reformation was almost improbable without Clara's love and support......

DANCING WITH CLARA is a great testament to the redemptive power of love and to why Mary Balogh is continued to be hailed as one of the best writers in the romance genre. I enjoy it really much, as, I believe, will you.