Dance Only for Me

Dance with the Devil, Book 4

By: Megan Derr

Narrated by: Michael Stellman

Jackie is a sorcerer of no small skill from a family of renowned sorcerers. He is frequently called upon to track down lost items or deal with paranormals others can't, and those that don't fear his magic do fear the alchemist-made revolvers at his hips.

Tired of living several states away from his lover Roman, Jackie decides to surprise him with a move to Roman's city - only to find himself the victim of an unhappy surprise and suddenly alone in the city he'd wanted to call home. Then he's unexpectedly hired by a paranormal detective who could use his help and finds himself dragged into a fight that started in the midst of the Civil War.

©2013 Megan Derr (P)2018 Less Than Three Press, LLC

Good but

I loved the story, loved the main character, and the narrator was great for his voice, but I can't help but admit that I missed the sultry tone for Sable and the accents for Antonio and Rasteslav. I'm not sure how I felt about Ned being the love interest though. The way they came to be felt sort of strange for me, and I don't think I liked that Roman was both so involved with the plot while simultaneously having nothing to do with it. also the last fight was just kinda.... underwhelming? But the more I listen to her works the more I appreciate her writing, so don't think I'm hating on it. Not every boom can be a solid 5 stars. On to the next one!

Cowboys and Demons

Glad to see more of this series coming out in audio format! If the idea of a gunslinger with dual pistols firing alchemical bullets appeals to you, you’re probably going to like this one.

Jackson’s a likeable main character, and the supporting cast are mostly interesting, too. I adore Meghan Derr’s books, and this one and Midnight are probably my two favorites in this particular series (I like Chris & Sable a lot as characters, but their books, the first two in the series, were just a little too disjointed).

Michael Stellman’s always a good, solid narrator, but with this one I had a little trouble telling who was speaking whenever it wasn’t Jackson. This isn’t a problem I’ve had with any of his other narrations, so I think maybe he was having some difficulty telling who was supposed to be saying each line (which is a minor issue I’ve seen in some of Megan Derr’s other earlier books). With that said, he still does good work, there were just a handful of, “Wait, what?” moments.

Definitely worth a credit!

Love the whole series. Plus it’s Megan Derr

Megan Derr is an instant buy for me. She is a master of world building and engaging characters. Yes, the editing could be better, but it rarely distracts from her works to the point of bother, and I’m pretty much guaranteed to fall in love with her works so much so that I don’t much care about editing mistakes. As for this series, well, I am in love with all of the Dance with the Devil works. Derr does a wonderful job of making the reader fall for the main characters and cheer them on. I believe I actually read through the entire series and was on my second read through of Midnight before I realized that the main characters I was rooting so hard for weren’t necessarily good people. Hmm. I had to stop and reconsider a few things based on my morality and not the morality of the Dance with the Devil world. Then I shrugged it off and went back to blissfully cheering on Midnight’s ruthless protectiveness of Devlin and ignoring the fact that Devlin is very much not a white witch for a reason.

I am rambling about the other Dance with the Devil works in my Dance only for Me review deliberately. See, I love this series. Like truly love. Johnnie and Grim will always be amongst my favorite characters of all time (alongside Prince Allen, High Commander Jader, and Lord Kamir from her High Court series). Now Jackie. He just isn’t my type - as in the type of character I like to read about. I typically avoid all things cowboy like it’s my job. Dance only for Me was the last book in the series I bought and that was mostly because I ran out of Dance with the Devil and Tales of the High Court and was going through serious withdrawals. So I caved and bought Jackie’s story. I’m glad I did. I remained skeptical the whole read through and didn’t enjoy it as much as I did the others. Then I read it again with a little less [completely undeserved] prejudice against Jackie. This time I fell for his Wild West charm. So much so I broke my rule of only buying audio books that have whispersync because audio books are expensive, and I have a kindle addiction already. Got to limit the spending somehow. Considering how often I play audio books in the background while I’m working, it’s been well worth the expense. Michael Stellman makes Jackie come to life and every time I put his story on my affection for Jackie and his posse grows. Do what I did and give Jackie a chance. He’ll win you over too.

favorite

this is one of my favorite in this series so glad it's now on audible