Review: Phantom's Dance by Lesa Howard

Title: Phantom's Dance
Author: Lesa Howard
Series: Stand Alone
Published By: Boot in the Door Publications (April 6, 2014)
Source: Purchased
Genre: Modern Day Retelling
My Rating: Undetermined


Book Description:
Christine Dadey's family uprooted their lives and moved to Houston for her to attend the prestigious Rousseau Academy of Dance. Now, two years later, Christine struggles to compete among the Academy's finest dancers, her parents are on the brink of divorce, and she's told no one about her debilitating performance anxiety and what she's willing to do to cope with it. Erik was a ballet prodigy, a savant, destined to be a star on the world's stage, but a suspicious fire left Erik's face horribly disfigured. Now, a lonely phantom forced to keep his scars hidden, he spends his nights haunting the theater halls, mourning all he's lost. Then, from behind the curtain he sees the lovely Christine. The moldable, malleable Christine. Drawn in by Erik's unwavering confidence, Christine allows herself to believe Erik's declarations that he can transform her into the dancer she longs to be. But Christine's hope of achieving her dreams may be her undoing when she learns Erik is not everything he claims. And before long, Erik's shadowy past jeopardizes Christine's unstable present as his obsession with her becomes hopelessly entangled with his plans for revenge.

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I debated on whether or not to even post this review because honestly, how many times have I ever posted a review for a book that I just can't rate? Umm, probably never, at least not on my blog. But the fact is, this book was good and yet, it had it's bad moments as well. 

Let me explain.

I love a good solid retelling of any classic as much as the next girl, which was why I was excited to start this as soon as I saw the great cover and even better blurb. And while I did like this, I have to be honest and say, I didn't love it as much as I really thought that I would.

It was a great story and the life, schedule and hard discipline that is a ballerina's world, has always fascinated me. And while I loved that whole aspect of the story, there were minor nuances that kept me from truly loving it.

A slow beginning and rushed ending were just one of them. 

The idea of a young girl sneaking off to meet a creepy stranger in the middle of the night, especially after being warned by someone she trusted that he was unhinged, was just something that never sat right with me. Maybe because I would want to believe that there aren't really girls out there like that. Girls that aren't that desperate or that stupid to risk their life like she constantly did, even when the warning signs of Erik's mental stability were staring at her right in the face. 

Throw in an event that happened towards the end of the story that was sort of glossed over by almost everyone in Christine's life, including herself, and by the end of the story, I found myself disgusted with everyone involved,

It is hard going into detail without spoiling anything but this book covered some serious matters and I didn't care for the way they were handled and ignored at all. What kind of message does that give young girl's that may be put in a similar situation?  

I really really wanted to love this, or even like it but by the end it was hard to swallow and I think because of it, it is affecting my judgment about the whole book.

I think for now, I am leaving this one unrated, at least until I can gather myself enough to look at it differently as a whole instead of just looking at the parts I didn't like or agree with.