A Midnight Dance by Lila DiPasqua

Hmm, steamy retelling of one of my favorite fairy tales, Cinderella...check!  I have been eagerly waiting for Lila DiPasquas newest Fiery Tales to come out and I was surprised when my library notified me that it was in already, last Friday, four days before it was supposed to come out.  Naturally, I hurried over to check it out and then proceeded to devour it over the weekend.  Did it live up to the high hopes I had for it?  Absolutely.

Sabine Laurent is desperate.  Her family needs to pay taxes or they will be thrown into the debtors jail.  She comes up with an outlandish plan to steal chests of silver from a camp of men...by posing as a whore and hopefully getting the men to drink some tainted wine before anything should happen.  Sabine is floored when she shes who is in charge though.  It is her childhood crush, her Dark Prince, one of the reasons her family is in the desperate circumstances, Jules de Moutier.

Jules de Moutier is desperate as well but for a different reason.  His father was falsely accused of a crime and hanged for it and his family lost their titles and lands.  For someone who grew up as an Aristo, this is unacceptable and he needs all the silver to find out who set up his father and get the title and lands reinstated.  He initially doesn't trust Sabine but he can not get this blond fairy and the two start a very steamy, hot relationship.  Jules is amazed at the feelings he feels when with Sabine, it is nothing like he has ever felt before but that all comes crashing down when Sabine finally succeeds in stealing his silver.  Then he is bent on revenge on her as well but still...he can't quite shake his feelings and when it is revealed that Sabines beloved missing twin may have been involved in his fathers death, they set out to find out the truth.

Sigh, what a book and what a story.  I mean the villain of the story, whoa, whiplash, I did not see that one coming and he is just an evil man. We have the stepmother, who really isn't that evil, two stepsisters, who are just a bit silly, some special glass slippers and a fabulous ball.  Sabine was a wonderful female, strong, independent and she went for what she want.  Jules, now he took a bit for me to warm up too as his nose was stuck for far in the air I was surprised he could walk.  I don't think he completely redeemed himself but he did change enough to make me happy.  I loved watching Sabine and Jules fall in love.  Their lovemaking was scorching hot but it was also special.  And the ending!  Oh, I can not wait for the next book!  Overall, 5 stars and a definite keeper and reread.