Title: The Midnight Dance
Author: Nikki Katz
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult
Date Published: October 17th 2017
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Goodreads Rating: 3.29
Synopsis:
When the music stops, the dance begins.
Seventeen-year-old Penny is a lead dancer at the Grande Teatro, a finishing school where she and eleven other young women are training to become the finest ballerinas in Italy. Tucked deep into the woods, the school is overseen by the mysterious and handsome young Master who keeps the girls ensconced in the estate – and in the only life Penny has never known.
But when flashes of memories, memories of a life very different from the one she thinks she’s been leading, start to appear, Penny begins to question the Grand Teatro and the motivations of the Master. With a kind and attractive kitchen boy, Cricket, at her side, Penny vows to escape the confines of her school and the strict rules that dictate every step she takes. But at every turn, the Master finds a way to stop her, and Penny must find a way to escape the school and uncover the secrets of her past before it’s too late.
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Hiya bessies!!
How are you all?
Wow! It’s been so long! I miss you bessies! I still have no internet connection right now. It sucks, I know! But I know the internet will be reconnected soon. 😀
Anyway, welcome to my stop of the Midnight Dance book tour!
Let’s get started!
The story is about a girl named Penelope who got her memories tampered with by a man they call Master. She thought she’s just an orphan girl who’s studying ballet at a dance school owned by Master. But then one day, she discovered that she is more than that. That she doesn’t actually love dancing. And because of that, she started seeking answers. With the help of a few people and despite her random shift of memory, Penelope seeks out answers to her questions.
Okay. First thought of this book, I forgot the blurb of it. Haha! This time I was sure I read the blurb but for the love of me I could not remember what it said. Still I read the book. And because I forgot what the blurb said, I had no idea what was going on. But when I reread the blurb, I finally got the whole gist.
First let’s talk about the characters of this book.
The main character is Penelope. I don’t know what her last name is because it did not say. Well, all the characters have no last name because they weren’t mentioned in the book. All they have are first names. Anyway, in the blurb, it said that Penelope, or Penny, is a 17-year-old girl. However, as I read the book, Penny doesn’t felt like a 17-year-old character. She seemed younger, like around 15 or 16 years old.
And I don’t know what to feel towards her character. I somewhat felt nothing towards her. Maybe because there weren’t that many emotional descriptions in this book? That’s what I felt while reading. She’s the main character but I am not hooked to her the way I always got hooked on other main characters.
Then let’s go to Cricket, the cute kitchen boy. In Penelope’s description, Cricket is cute and caring and it seems like there’s already a clue that Cricket has his eyes for Penny. However, maybe due to the tampering of Penny’s memories, she couldn’t remember Cricket and she’s oblivious to his feelings towards her. But then I kind of liked Cricket’s character. Compared to Penny, I felt something towards Cricket. I felt happy and I appreciate his patience towards Penny. I kind of adore him but just like Penny, I am not hooked to him as well. But Cricket is a great character.
Let’s go to the one who started everything that happened in the book, Master, the head of the school and the one who controls them all. In Penny’s description of Master again, he is handsome and dashing. But I don’t know why every time I picture him inside my head he is a bit old. I don’t know how old he is exactly in the book because it wasn’t mentioned but because the story started where Master is young and twenty years later the school was built, I just assumed that he is old. I wish it was in the book though so I could picture him right in my head. Hehe.
In Master’s character, though, I felt a lot of emotion towards him. First is I do not like him. I don’t like him because what kind of person control other person. But then because of the flashbacks in the book, I understood why he is the way he is. However, what he’s doing was too much. Too much that it’s not already right. And then by the end of the book, I felt sorry for him. His last words to Penny before Penny left him was that he must make Penny understand. He’s doing it for a reason. But Penny didn’t hear any of it and she left him. I felt sorry for him in that part.
Now, let’s go to the story of the book.
There are chapters that were set on different years and that confuses me. I kept asking the question why does it to jump 20 years back of the present year of the story. What’s the point? Then as I read the book, I realized that the flashbacks were clues as to what was going on, on the present time of the story, which is in the year 1879. The flashbacks helped a lot in understanding the story.
I actually like the story of the book. A mind controlling story but it’s not actually a sci-fi feel. It’s a great story! The mind controlling concept was different on other mind controlling stories I’ve read. And to think that this happened in the year 1879 where even cell phones were not that good is a great work.
I like how there are parts in the story where Penny would hide to avoid getting caught getting information about what’s really going on and then when she thought that she’s in the clear, Master would pop out or say something that says he knew Penny is there. It’s crazy!
The ending though. This book has awesome story, but it has an ending that will not give you a satisfaction. Like seriously! What kind of ending was that? The climax of the story was still lingering in my head when I suddenly flipped to the next page and found that it’s already the last page. Like wtf. I feel like I need more!
And there’s that part where Master kept telling Penny that he must make her understand. Understand what exactly? It wasn’t explained. I would understand the hanging-ish ending of the book if it has a sequel to it. But this is a standalone! Now how am I going to have answers to my questions???
What happened to Master? Is he dead? Did Bianca died with him? Did Primo? Would they live happily ever after? What would happen to the rest of the girls that escaped? What happens to Penny and Cricket?
I still have questions. But because the ending fell short, they won’t be answered.
To wrap this up, the book is good. It has a good story with nice characters and nice concept. It has a bad ending for me though. And it still has typo and grammatical errors. I hope that it was edited thoroughly before it was published. Aside from the ending and the typo errors, this is a great book.
If you are the kind of reader who loves characters chasing answers and there’s a risk of getting caught in every turn of the page, then this book is perfect for you. It doesn’t have that heavy romance. So if that’s a plus for you, then go and read it. Again, I would recommend this. You should try reading it bessies.
GIVEAWAY
US/CAN
Prize: Print copy of The Midnight Dance
Nikki Katz is an author and editor living in sunny San Diego with her three children. With a BS in aerospace engineering, Nikki first put her writing skills to use publishing four nonfiction books. She moved on to writing young adult fiction, her favorite genre to read as well. TheMidnight Dance is her debut novel.
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If it weren’t for the ending, I would have rated it higher. But the ending somewhat ruined the whole book to me. There are still questions left unanswered.
What are your thoughts bessies? Do you like endings that end abruptly? Let’s talk in the comments!
Thanks for reading up to here bessies! Love you all?
The Booknerd Dragon 
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