Dance in Heather [Paperback]

Heather Beard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1998

Lady Tess Farnsworth bitterly accepted the royal decree to wed the man whom she detested above all. The gloriously handsome Earl of Easterby had failed her in a desperate time of need, and her only solace in wedding him was the promise of vengeance. First, Tess plotted to seduce the Earl. Too late, she realized that the man she sought to seduce was himself a master of seduction.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The forceful repression of the Lollards in the 15th century makes an unlikely backdrop for this ultimately rather gentle medieval romance. After her father is burned at the stake by order of Henry V, Lady Tess Farnsworth is betrothed to the Earl of Easterby, the King's Man who refused to save her father's life. Bent on revenge, the naive and inexperienced Tess plots to seduce the handsome rogue and kill him. Too late, Tess learns that the earl is a master at this game and has a few seductive plans of his own. Stronger subplots and characters might have added dimension and suspense to the story, but for the reader who enjoys lots of togetherness and lively sex scenes, Beard's (Lady and the Wolf) endearing protagonists will suffice.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Lady Tess Farnsworth finds herself forced by royal decree to marry Richard Avery, Earl of Esterby, despite loathing the very ground the handsome man walks on. She cannot forgive Richard for ignoring her appeals for help at the time her father was burned as a Lollard heretic. Given their past relationship and the economics of this betrothal, their path to love is fraught with conflict. Despite his outgoing manner, Richard is tormented by political betrayals, which do not always elicit our sympathy, while Tess has a deep-seated fear of sex and childbirth because her mother died having her. Beard (Lady and the Wolf, Diamond, 1994) offers a nice interweaving of medieval British history, pageantry, and love.-MKC
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Berkley (May 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425164241
• ISBN-13: 978-0425164242
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,805,017 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Unlikeable Characters., August 4, 2009

By 

FaithOryx "Always Searching" (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dance in Heather (Paperback)

Let's see....

This book had a very promising beginning.

Then you meet the characters. Lady Tess loses her resolve within about, oh, a day of getting to her "enemy." She pretends to struggle for a few more chapters. She constantly thinks one thing and does another.

I never really saw where her "enemy" won her over-- she claims to hold him responsible for her father's brutal death, yet she seems to get over it quickly. I didn't follow where he won her heart over. He does literally apologize but that seemed rather simple.

Lord Richard is a huge turn-off. He's basically a 15th century frat boy. He parties, overindulges, and treats everything with a joke. He even has fat drunk friends who hang on his every word. He likes to have "fun" which seems to be spending every dime to the point of being totally broke. He nearly snubs a church friar living on his lands but yet he installs opulent glass windows. There are countless examples like this that make Lord Richard a very unattractive prospect. Tess is totally aware of his flaws (plus the brutal history) yet she is still falling for him.

Tess finds him devilishly handsome, of course, and her resolve to hate him is fleeting. Her inner monologue constantly is pining for him to look at her or give her attention and this is even while she supposedly hates him.

Also, the steamy sex scenes are best when Richard was with his mistress. In fact, I actually believed that relationship. Elsbeth was the perfect mate for him- superficial, blond, loose, wanting his money and his sex and nothing more. She was just like him!

I couldn't believe in the characters or even like them. I really wanted to like this book. I read Beard's "Lady and the Wolf" and LOVED it. But this novel just made no sense to me.

I really had a hard time with the last 50 pages. I found what Tess was going through to be ridiculous and it was torture to read. Also, the foreshadowing was so strongly set up in the beginning with the overemphasis about her mother.... anyway...

I can see how someone could like characters like these. But I constantly wanted to slap Richard and I never did learn to like him. And Tess just seemed 2D. I couldn't see any woman falling for him and I never saw her grow or change as a character. She was angry and then inexplicably she was in love and then again and again.

On the plus side- Beard is a beautiful writer with description and detail. That was familiar. Order a copy of her book "Lady and the Wolf" and enjoy complex characters that you feel like you get to know.

3.0 out of 5 stars Very unusual "love" story., February 3, 2010

By 

Romantic Glutton (TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dance in Heather (Paperback)

Lady Tess is an admirable woman- loyal to those she loves, good daughter, good friend, kind, passionate, beautiful... When her father dies a tragic death she is anguished. Only to end up betrothed to the very young lord who denied her father sanctuary.

Richard, the earl, is a spoiled young man. He loves to laugh, loves to drink, loves to entertain his friends and throw lavish dinners. He is loyal to a cruel king because he has no choice, or so he thinks. When Tess enters his life, she makes him question his loyalties.

Can this boy grow into a man?

This romance reads like a contemporary romance. I could easily imagine these characters in a modern day setting around the pool at Melrose Place. Richard was too immature for my liking. Even though he was "charming" I found it doubtful that Lady Tess could really be attracted to him. He does eventually evolve into the correct direction, but it was quite a journey to get there. I did find myself falling for the pair towards the middle to end of the story and found their love fun, but it was a struggle to get through the beginning!

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Beard's best, December 6, 2008

By 

Melissa (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Dance in Heather (Paperback)

I have enjoyed novels by Julie Beard but this is not one of them. It did not even sound like Julie Beard, maybe because it was an older novel but this book was on the melodramatic side without the charm of really likeable characters.

The opening scene of this novel is quite startling, Lollards, a religious sect, are being hung and burned for their beliefs. In this terrible scene, Sir Richard is approached by Lady Tess Farnsworth, she begs him to help her father who is about to be burned. Knowing there is nothing he can do for the man he brushes her aside.

Almost two years later these two meet again. Richard is now an Earl and Tess is his betrothed. She despises him with all her being and has decided to kill him when he beds her. Richard is aware of her deep anger and promises he will change her opinion of him. He is a jocular man and finds humor and fun in many of life's circumstances. Tess on the other hand is bitter and resentful, and very different from her pacifist father.

Slowly she falls in love with him through his charm, he is amusing and surprisingly he is deep. Tess though holds him to some pretty high standards and when push comes to shove they both look out for their own self interests, Tess's values are a more noble than her husband's.

Tess is emotional in the extreme, she runs hot and cold with her husband, she loves him and hates him, there is no middle ground. She rants about wanting to kill her husband literally, then about how much she loves him, especially at the end. The writing here tends to be a bit repetitive when she expresses her feelings for her husband. She also jumps to conclusions quite a bit. Richard is calmer but is slow to understand his own feelings, he is more mysterious and in some ways more likable than his wife with her mercurial temperament.