Customer Reviews

Heart Dance (Celta)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love Robin Owens Heartmate stories and this one is excellent.

Saille T'Willow is the new matchmaker and leader of his family. His grandmother was a vicious, greedy, scheming old woman and is now in stasis until a cure for the virus that is killing her is found. She has hidden the Heartmates of most of her family including Saille. He however, has sent his Heartgift out to find his mate and now that he knows who she is he fears she will refuse his gift. It seems her father destroyed his home and killed himself while experimenting with time. The former D'Willow had ridiculed and persecuted his family.

Defleur Thyme is dedicated to finding out what happened to her father and fulfilling his commission to find a cure for the disease killing the former leader of the Willows. The leaders of Celta have decreeded that there be no more time experiments, so she has to hide her investigations. She was one of the people attacked by the Flair stealers in HEART QUEST.

She is strongly drawn to Saille, but is determined not to return his affections because of his grandmother and if she succeeds and can resurrect his grandmother will they have any relationship left.

I enjoy every visit to Celta and hope we never reach the end of the series.

Sixth in a series - Heart Dance is a delight.

The heroine, Dufleur Thyme, has a flair for controlling time. Unfortunately, such magic is illegal on Celta ever since her own father blew up his laboratory and himself with his time based experiments. Working in secret to clear her father's name and prove her own time studies, Dufleur has no time for romance, especially a Heartmate romance with all that nasty, overwhelming emotion.

Saille T'Willow has a flair for matchmaking, and insures everyone else is happy with their mate, but can't seem to find success with his own. Knowing that Defleur is his HeartMate, Saille makes a HeartGift and sends it out for Defleur to find, but everytime she gets her hands on it, she throws it out.

The entire book is a "dance" between the two as they slowly come to terms with each other, their families, their expectations, their pets and their magic. I loved the book. It was well-written and the romantic conflict was perfect - not overdone or drawn out. You watched the love happen between the two almost step-by-step. As a plus, secondary characters are supplied from previous Celta books, and the couples two Fams are a delight. Although I normally will NOT buy a trade paperback, I love Robin D. Owens, and this one is worth the money.

Once authors get to the five or six book mark in a series I am always a bit nervous. Many of my former favorite authors tend to fall off at about there. I don't know if they are bored or the ideas run out, or what, but they aren't as into the book.

Robin D. Owens, thankfully isn't one of those authors. Dufleur Thyme and Saille T'Willow were both engaging characters. I understand how they could have fallen in love and the plot, while advancing previous storylines neither went too far into explanation mode nor left new readers outside the magic circle of knowledge. This is well worth the cost of a trade paperback.

Dufleur Thyme feels compelled to continue her father's experiments, to learn how to control and even reverse time. Those experiments lead to her father's death and to the destruction of the Thyme house, but Dufleur refuses to believe that her father would have made such a critical mistake. One thing she does not need is the complication of a man. No man would let her continue her experiments, especially considering that they're illegal.

Saille T'Willow is finally the head of his house, with his evil grandmother in stasis while she waits for some cure to the virus that is consuming her. His flair (magic) is that of a matchmaker and he believes he can help people find their true loves--their heartmates, but his great need is to find his own heartmate. When he learns that Dufleur is that heartmate, he vows to do whatever it takes to persuade her to trust him, to become his.

Ultimately, Dufleur's experimentation leads her to a horrible crisis. To prove her father's sanity and to be allowed to experiment, once more, with time, she must do the one thing that will destroy Saille--bring back his grandmother.

Author Robin D. Owens creates an intriguing futuristic world where magic and science work side-by-side, where a strange aristocratic society has developed that seems highly reminiscent of Regency England, and where a magical bond creates a true love that cannot be broken, no matter how badly either party wants to break it. I would have liked to see a bit more of the social structure, particularly some concern for those who aren't nobles, who can't rely on extreme wealth, and find it hard to believe that a society with such advanced science/magic would be so reliant on servant labor, but Owens manages to make the fantasy compelling enough that such concerns lose their weight. Likewise, I would have liked Dufleur to suffer a bit more with the decision between love and her father's reputation. Still, Owens's strong sense of story engaged me and kept me involved. I look forward to reading more books in this series.

Heart Dance is the latest in the HeartMates series that for me has become an addiction. In Robin D. Owens' SF/F series, she has created a wonderful alien world of soul mates and a complex society for them to inhabit. Everything in her world has feelings, whether they are housepets or indeed, the house itself. Her latest entry is impressive.

Dufleur Thyme's father was a scientist whose flair (magic) was time experimentation. She has the same trait as her father, which was outlawed after their house exploded, killing her father. Society blamed him; after all, a person's residence is most sacred, and his disregard for his flair, which caused such destruction, is unacceptable. Dufleur and her mother now live with their cousins. She embroiders for money, but in her spare time secretly experiments with time, trying to determine what went wrong. She is bereft - her mother is now cold and bitter - and they barely have any money to survive. She wants to clear her father's name and be allowed to practice her flair openly, without fear of arrest or exile. After she discovers her father may have been murdered, she decides to investigate in order to learn the culprit's identity - and why he committed the murder.

Saille T' Willow is Dufleur's heartmate and a matchmaker. Saille was banished to another estate when he was younger by his MotherDam (his grandmother), a very powerful matchmaker for her time. His MotherDam is now in a coma from a debilitating disease and he returns to take his rightful place as the Willow heir and to help others find their heartmates. Salle's grandmother never revealed his heartmate; she is heartless and wanted him to suffer for really no reason at all. She is one of the most heinous villains I've read in ages, and since she's in a coma throughout the story, that's saying something. Her past actions continue to cause Saille considerable pain as he discovers the lengths she went to in destorying other people's lives and he prays that she doesn't awaken from her coma to cause even more heartache and despair. The one joy Saille has is that he now knows who his heartmate is and will try everything to convince Dufleur to accept him.

This story is rich both in in character detail and description of this alien world, with particular focus on the importance of a heartmate in marriage and relationships. Past world-building and the previous introduction of characters makes this one impossible to read on its own. And this word of warning pertains to the entire series: There is a constant presence of household pets called Fams. These are usually cats that can talk telepathically with their owners. If you are not a cat fan - or familiars - you may find yourself bored with their interactions. I find the Fam animals adorable and appreciate their rightful place in the story. They simply bring comic relief during times that would otherwise have depressed me.

The path to true love is never easy, and Dufleur and Saille are perfect proof of this. Even though Dufleur knows she has a heartmate, she feels she can not have him because of her dedication to her work, and the situation involving her father's death. Saille was so damaged by his MotherDam and her selfishness that he isn't sure he will ever find happiness and fix the wrongs that have been done to him, his own mother, and those innocent victims - which even include Dufleur.

I wholeheartedly recommend this wonderful journey into a fantasy world of magic, love, and yes, even those telepathic animals that will have you laughing.

Katiebabs

I began reading Robin D. Owens Celta's Heartmate series with dubious reservations, as up until that time, I had not been too impressed with futuristic/paranormal romances. I was so taken with the characters, the history and the idea of "flair" and "heartmates" that I didn't want the book to end. I anxiously await the books in the series as they come out, and Heart Dance was wonderful! Great character development, story arc and conflict! I truly love how she gives you a taste of supporting characters just enough to want to learn their story, and then rewards you in the following books. Robin if you read this....I hope there is no forseeable end in sight, as you must at least get to T'Vines story! I love these books!

6th in the Celta series, this is one of the best. I had been put off after Heart Choice (just not the HEA I had hoped) but have been encouraged again. This latest entry Heart Dance had some turns and twists and answered questions in the series. The heroine was a bit selfish and the hero was somewhat shallow as well. As the relationship progressed, they brought out the best in each other and had a wonderful ending. Appreciate the family tree and reminder of relationships in the beginning and the cover was beautiful. Love the series and would hope to see it eventually in audiobook format.

Ms Owens is one of those authors whose books I always count down till the day of release and who I always wish could write faster and more more more.

In Heart Dance, she continues to showcase her incredible world-building and creation of various Flairs and talents in the HeartMates series, and the conflicts that manifest in each book between the heroes and heroines, sometimes their families and/or their Fams, and Celtan society are believable and fascinating, not to mention detailed and intricate. With the exception of this 6th book (it's new), I've reread every book at least twice. All of the above hold true of Ms Owens's The Summoning series as well, although those have been read over four times each Guardian Of Honor (The Summoning, Book 1) (Luna Books) remains my favorite). I'm eagerly anticipating the next in both series, Keepers of the Flame.

The one thing that didn't quite work for me was what I thought to be too easy a resolution in the matter of T'Willow's MotherDam D'Willow, although I admit that there is a clear setup that leads to it.

Saille T'Willow was introduced in Heart Quest. He was the character that created his heart gift and sent it out in the world to find his Heartmate. Despite him having to feel the pain of every touch that did not belong to his Heartmate, he felt it would be worth it if it would bring him to the one woman that would complete him.

Dufleur does not want a Heartmate. She, also, appeared in the previous book, Heart Quest. Near the end of the previous story she was kidnapped by murderers and only just barely survived. She knows what is really hidden in the leather casing that her "cat dragged in," and flings it back out the door when it arrives.

This story was very cute. Watching the dance between Saille (trying to romance his love) and Dufleur (trying to escape at all cost) was lovely to read. Although, the pain they caused each other was not so fun. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and look forward to the next one and the return to this interesting, magical, and well-thought out world.

I really enjoyed this book, it was like visiting with old friends. If you want just an easy read this is the book for you.