This book was disappointing. Like many others, I was attracted to the book based on the cover, but that was the only good thing I have to recommend about the book. The cover is beautiful; the book is awful and full of misogynistic, outdated tropes.

"The Midnight Dance" by Nikki Katz is set in 19th century Italy. It follows the story of Penny, a ballet dancer, at a dance boarding school, as they are gearing up for the big dance of the year. The Master of the boarding school, is a mysterious man who exerts control over the dancers, including what they wear, how much they eat, and what classes they take. Penny does not remember much of her time before the boarding school, but when she does start remembering, the memories do not match her other memories from after being at the boarding school. When Cricket, the kitchen boy, begins talking to Penny, she realizes his touch brings back more memories of her previous life. Why does Penny have conflicting memories? What does Cricket have to do with them? And why does Master seem so insistent that Penny's alternative memories are wrong?

The premise of the book is promising, but the delivery falls flat. While the pace of the book is adequate for a thriller, the story twists and turns with no clear direction. The mysteries and motives of the boarding school are never explained. The romance between Cricket and Penny is forced, while the romance between Master and Penny is disturbing. In the age of demanding books with strong female characters, this book goes the opposite direction: Penny is helpless without the strong men in her life to give her direction. Even the kitchen boy, Cricket, who is portrayed as a weak boy, is stronger than Penny, and gives her guidance as she begins to remember more and more of her past.

In summary, I would not recommend this book to anyone. The stereotypical characters are harmful, especially to impressionistic teens.

Thank you to Macmillan for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Midnight Dance probably has one of my most favorite covers of 2017. It is just stunning! This is a YA historical fiction; and though I had heard it was inspired by “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” I found it doesn’t seem to have much in common with the German fairytale at all. I liked the story and didn’t struggle with the writing – the plot itself is still intriguing: twelve young ballerinas in a creepy boarding house under the rule of the nefarious “Master” – but this book also didn’t blow me away like the beautiful cover did, either. And I think I know why.

First, I want to discuss the things that I really did enjoy: There are young adult books that push the boundaries of young adult. This book does not. It is exactly what I think of when I think of a young teen reading, and I would absolutely put this into the hands of a young reader. It is clean; it has a sweet butterfly-spawning romance without overdoing it or going too far. The story lends itself to a bit of excitement but nothing that would be too scary or intense. Just the right amount of dark for its target audience. The young heroine Penny is brave; and not once does she give up, even when all hope seems lost. Her admirer Cricket is courageous and devoted. These two are incredibly sweet together, as well.

So, what was it that didn’t work? Me. The reader. I honestly can find no fault with the story or the writing. I haven’t been a young adult for a very long time; and while I do enjoy some YA, it is usually those that push the boundaries I mention above. I am also a lover and reader of adult thrillers and mysteries so my mind hatched huge dastardly plots, abundantly deceitful characters, and unforeseen twists… and those things didn’t come to pass for me.

All in all, I’m giving this book a solid three stars. It reminds me of the books I loved when I was a young girl. I couldn’t help but fall for Penny and Cricket. Their relationship is extremely endearing. Though I wish there had been more dancing and that the story was a tad more thrilling, I can still wholeheartedly recommend this for its target audience. And you know what? I’m buying a copy for my personal library anyway, not only because the cover is stunning but because this is a great addition to my YA section and I’ll be able to lend it out to several fellow readers that I know will love it.

The Midnight Dance is a creepy romantic thriller with a dash of historical fiction. For fans of Gothic stories such as A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. Sadly, despite the promising premise the book falls flat due to a predictable and rather bizarre love triangle, a nonsensical plot, poor pacing and an inept protagonist. Look to Cat Winter's book The Cure for Dreaming for another historical romance with elements of the supernatural.

Katz, Nikki The Midnight Dance, 320 pages. Swoon Reads, 2017. $18. Language: G (3 swears, 0 ‘f’); Mature Content: PG (innuendos only); Violence: PG (some blood and fighting).

Penny loves the dance. She works so hard at her boarding school to excel and be the prim ballerina for the Master’s midnight dance in front of the important people. Cricket is the waiter, a part of the furniture of the boarding school, despite how handsome he is. Then Penny’s memories start changing. Does she really love to dance? And she hears an odd conversation between Master and her Grandfather, who works on the estate. And then a touch from Cricket causes even more strange memories to surface. What is this place? Who is Master and what does he want from Penny and the other girls? Is there any possible way she can escape? Something is very wrong all around Penny and only if she is bold and trusting does she have a chance to regain her real self and perhaps save the others.

While I see the need for a little bit of backstory in Katz’s take on the Phantom of the Opera, this is not quite enough to build a strong purpose for the Master’s cruelty and manipulations. Penny’s story is thankfully the star here and is intriguing enough to compensate for the backstory’s weaknesses. And the cover is brilliant! It is sure to beguile enough readers to pick this up.

MS, HS – ADVISABLE. Cindy, Library Teacher

A slightly "steampunk"* historical mystery that quickly switches away from the ballet hook. After the first 1/3, there's not much boarding-school girl interaction, it becomes more about one woman's quest for the truth. A few Mary Sue elements, but I'd recommend to young mystery readers who want something a little different

An interesting tale with a haunting premise, The Midnight Dance follows the tale of Penelope, a dancer locked away in an isolated mansion with the elusive Master and her sorellas, sisters in dance. When Penelope notices inconsistencies in her memory and her perspective of her life in the mansion change, she scrambles to find the truth of her own identity and of the people around her.

Katz weaves an intricate tale that left me on the edge of my seat and craving more.

Brava.

I tried so hard to like this...I really did. Because ballet! and because fantasy! and because thrillers!

No. No. and No.

I quit after 40%, because I knew if I made it to the halfway point my OCD brain would justify making me finish it, and I just can't do that to myself.

Here are my major issues with it:

1) The constant use of italics. Like, I get it. You do that for foreign words. But like, it's all the time. Even on words that we all know what they are like crostini and spaghetti.

2) Not unrelated to #1 -- the ballet terminology. Jesus. It's like the author really wanted us to know that she had taken a few years of ballet and knew what different movements were called. As someone who has been dancing for 25+ years, it annoyed the hell out of me. Seriously. The movie Center Stage doesn't say the name of dance terminology as much as Katz did. Major eyeroll. And don't get me started on the inaccuracies of the time period. The pointe shoe descriptions alone were 100% wrong based on the era when this book takes place.

3) And piggybacking off of #2, why was ballet in here in the first place? At least the part I read, it served no real purpose to advance the plot, other than to allow the author to continue to overuse italicized fancy words.

4) WTF was even happening in this book. The whole "Master" thing was just bizarre and I found myself not caring at all why he was doing what he was doing (and after reading other reviews, it doesn't seem like he had a good reason anyway). The other characters were boring, and I found myself coming up with 100 other options that the characters could have tried to use to escape rather than giving up and going back to bed hoping to try again tomorrow before their memories were erased. Maybe it gets better in the last 60% of the book, but I doubt it.

5) The jumping around between the "current" events and Master's upbringing is disjointed. It should make me more intrigued, but it really just makes me say "huh?"

This book to me feels like it doesn't know what it wants to be. I've seen it described as a YA fantasy, a YA thriller, and contemporary YA, and it is none of those to me. It's not thrilling (as is evident by the fact that it took me nearly a month to read less than half of it, and it's not particularly long), and the sci-fi/fantasy elements are not well thought out.

Hard pass.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

The Midnight Dance follows Penny a young ballerina who lives in a castle with 12 other young women all under the care of Grand Teatro and Master. Who control pretty much every part of their lives. (multiple ridiculous rules that don't make sense until later on in the book.)
Penny and the other ballerina's can't remember much of anything from their old lives and seem to be in an almost dream-like world most of the time. That is until Cricket touches her hand and she suddenly has a memory. After that, she is freaked out and starts questioning everything about the world she has grown used to.
With the help of Cricket, she is able to get over some of her fears and start having memories again of her family.

Overall I really loved this story. It wasn't at all what I was expecting considering it is published by swoonreads I was expecting romance to be the main part of this book, instead it was always in the background like it should have been for a change! Penny is one of my new favorite characters. Even though she had a lot to be afraid of she kept pushing through it to find out the truth. She knew something wasn't right and she wasn't going to let anyone stop her no matter how hard they tried. (looking at you 'master') Master is one of those characters that simultaneously terrified me and held my interest. I needed to know why he was doing this to them. (still a little confused on this part.)

Also, how was he even able to do this? It was partially explained but I need more understanding considering the Grand Teatro ended up being helpful I was really expecting some explanations and was a little disappointed when I didn't get them. As for Cricket and Penny, I really liked them and was so happy to see Cricket not take out his frustrations about 'master' on her. He knew she couldn't help it and he did his best all while letting her slowly come to terms with what was happening. They make such a good team together and I wouldn't mind getting a novel with both of them helping the other girls come to terms with what happened to them as well.
The side characters I absolutely adored as well, the last 25% of the book I couldn't get enough of and I wish there had been more! (Don't I always when I love a book. I can't help it I'm greedy for good friendships.)

This book is about Penny, a 17 year old ballerina who lives at a finishing school with 11 others girls. The girls eat, sleep, and breathe dance. The school is run by a man who the girls call Master and the social event of the year known as The Midnight Dance is fast approaching. But life is not all that it appears. Penny soon finds herself question what she thought was the truth and with the help of a boy named Cricket she will soon discover the dark secrete surrounding Master and his school.

I loved this book! It pulled me in from right at the beginning and I found myself trying to figure out what was going on right along with Penny. Katz does a wonderful job of creating an atmosphere of mystery and intrigue. Her description of the school and Master helped to set the stage. The flow of the book was perfect and didn't drag. It kept you guessing and rooting for Penny and Cricket. I highly recommend this book!

This book kept me guessing until the end. Great story, just enough suspense, just enough interesting plot twists to keep you coming back for more. Kudos!

The writing was lovely and I'm interested to see more from this author. However, I feel like I've read this story a dozen times before. There wasn't anything that stood out. I needed it to be special.

This book was dark, and creepy, and . . . I couldn't put it down. I just had to see what happened, had to see how the book resolved. I actually would have liked a little more of the resolution - what happens after the end.

<i>The Midnight Dance</i> was not a winner for me. Like other readers have mentioned the plot doesn't really hold interest, the title doesn't seem particularly related to the book and besides the main character all of the other characters were one dimensional. The other dancers are barely distinguishable from each other. There are so many good YA novels on the market right now this one just felt flat.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing an ARC of this book.

You all know that I have a special place in my heart for anything dance related. I was really hoping this book would take me back to my ballet years... in a strange way. Although the story was enticing, it lacked the dance element that I was hoping for. The story moved fast, a little too fast at times. There wasn't much world building to challenge the mind, but when I really got into the story, it was enthralling. The characters were ok and the writing was well done. I was just hoping for more.

The Midnight Dance was one of my anticipated reads for the year, and I have always had a soft spot for ballet, so of course I had to get my hands on it. So, I was so excited to get a chance to read it so soon. I will warn that there isn’t as much ballet as I would have hoped but in its place was a thrilling ride of twist and turns and I wasn’t disappointed at all.

The story centers around Penny who has been attending the Grande Teatro, where she is one of twelve ballerinas. This is the only place that Penny has ever know, but her memories start changing, and they don’t make sense. She sets out to find out what is going on.

Penny is the main character, who I just adored, had a strong will and determination, something that the other girls did’t possess. Penny’s journey to the truth was rocky, and certainly not pleasant at times, but she never stopped and for that I liked her even more. Now Cricket, the boy who lives there and helps her was a sweetheart. And yes, there is a budding romance between them, it did take a backseat to the story itself. Which was alright with me, but it was kinda sweet and I enjoyed their little moments together. There were a couple of other characters that I wished we have more interaction with, and some I could have done without. Snoody little ballerinas, but anyway, it was a interesting group of characters.

The world building was strong and everything was described so that we get this picture of this beautiful estate that is hidden away from town, but there were some seriously twisted things going on in this ballet school. But what exactly, is what kept me turning the pages. It almost seemed like the girl were obsessed with The Master, what he thought about each of them and each of them wanted his attention. They’d get all nervously giddy when he came to the studio. I get that he was gorgeous and mysterious to them, but it was all very strange. As the mystery begins to unravel, everything seemed to come together taking on a dark yet intriguing tale.

The concept behind this was compelling, and even though it ended up being a little different than I expected, it was a fantastic read. It had suspenseful moments, a dark mystery, a sweet romance and hint of ballet. What more could I ask for? Fans of ya thrillers will enjoy this one for sure.

Definitely creepy and far less about ballet than the cover promises. The biggest problem is that the suspense parts are a little muddy or perhaps poorly plotted, certainly far less so that the life at the school and the confusion Penny has about who she is and what's happening to her. It also would have been nice had more of the characters been fully fleshed out, but overall that matters less than the mystery of the Gran Teatro.

ARC provided by publisher.

Excellent novel. A bit reminiscent of The Stepford wives, but a great read. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel.

First, a caveat: This book has almost nothing to do with ballet, so if you're looking for a YA version of Black Swan, you won't find it here.

The story is well paced, the characters charming and likable, but the whole thing just feels messy and the dialogue is clunky. Tighter editing would have helped tremendously.

*I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

There's a little mad scientist in us all. There were elements of this book that were fascinating - contemplating what made Cricket so special, watching Penny be brave, discovering different machinations of the Master, and the idea that some scientists in the late 1800s could have achieved amazing scientific feats. However, half-developed ideas in the background, setting, secondary characters, and motivations left me feeling like the Master's ultimate revenge plot was merely half-baked.