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Dance for a Stranger
Rae studied him from beneath her lashesHe was handsome, but with an unmistakable hint of ruthlessness. "I wouldn't have expected a... hostess to blush and chew her lip the way you do," he said.Did he really think she was as tacky as her surroundings! Rae was used to dancing in top-class venues--not in seedy nightclubs, somewhere in Southeast Asia. But then, she'd never been a victim of bungled con-tracts and circumstances before.Should she trust this satanic stranger to help her escape--or did his arrogant assumption mean she'd be jumping from the frying pan straight into a fire ... ?
192 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1991
About the author
Susanne McCarthy
102 books74 followersI'm a Londoner, though now I live in Devon, a twenty-minute walk from the sea. I love nothing more than walking my pretty Cavapoo on the beach in the rain (well, OK, I don't object to the sun, but when it's raining we usually have the whole beach to ourselves.)
Back in the day I had 25 novels published by Mills&Boon. After a long gap doing other things I found my love of writing again, and self-published three new novels.
But I knew that to reach more readers I needed an established publisher. Step in Joffe Books. They were top of my list so I was delighted when they accepted the first novel I sent them.
This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Back in the day I had 25 novels published by Mills&Boon. After a long gap doing other things I found my love of writing again, and self-published three new novels.
But I knew that to reach more readers I needed an established publisher. Step in Joffe Books. They were top of my list so I was delighted when they accepted the first novel I sent them.
This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 21, 2012
Re Dance for a Stranger - Susanne McCarthy continues Sept 1992's theme of the whacktastic.
She has the International merchant bank owner H rescue the Can-Can girl dancer h from forced prostitution on a vague South Sea island.
(Don't worry, this is still HPlandia, so we only get the amorphous "threat" of h trafficked slavery. This is in no way a dark romance and in the 1990's there wasn't much awareness of trafficking women in the world, certainly not for citizens of Great Britain, which this h is. If there were claims of trafficking, governments tended to view it along the lines of illegal immigration. Stories of taking passports and forced prostitution of US and GB citizens were more along the lines of urban myths used to frighten lone female travelers and not the very real and very sad problem it is today that did not really come to public awareness until after the year 2000. )
The story starts with the 20ish h and her friends signing a night club dance group contract in England and being shipped out to the South Seas - they end up on one of the islands out there where their passports are taken "to sort out the paperwork" and the club they are working at is soon making threats of "be nice to the men or else".
Enter the H, who quickly becomes attracted to the h and the h, after trying to leave and being threatened with prison by the club owner, agrees to go to a private room with the H in the hopes of engineering an escape. She tries to knock him out and escape out the window, but the H comes to rather quickly and the window is barred.
She explains the situation and throws herself on the mercy of the H, who is a gentleman at heart and agrees to help her. He takes her to one of his local official British government friends and gets the h's other dancer friends released too. But the nightclub owner claims the h stole a bunch of money from him and he wants to press charges. The h did not steal anything, but the H is forced to marry the h to save her from the South Asian police and get her out of the country.
So the H and h marry after the H agrees they can get an annulment right away. I am not actually sure it was a legal marriage, since the local orphanage priest performed it and there did not seem to be any paperwork, but this is HPlandia and who needs anything like an actual wedding license.
Everybody escapes and the H, who is really rich and owns an international bank, pays for everyone to go back to England. Once they get there, the h and her BFF have no flat or job, so the H invites them to stay at his house.
It soon becomes clear that his is VERY interested in the h. She is VERY interested back and the big roofie kissing moments are soon occurring in the drawing room. The H is interrupted in his pursuit of the last bastion of the h's innocence when his butler brings him the news of a big explosion in Canada that the H needs to go sort out.
He leaves the h with promises of a continuation and off he goes. The h and her friend are trying to find another flat and a job, when the press gets wind of the Banker and the Chorus Girl situation.
The H's mother (tho there is a misprint later and the woman is referred to as the H's grandmother,) swoops in while the H's is still gone and is really rude to the h. The h does her best gold digger impersonation in the face of the H's mother patronizing snobbish condescension and the H's mother gives the h £20000 in cash right then and an unenforceable contract claiming she will never contact the H again so she will be able to kick the h out of her son's house.
The h, thoroughly insulted and outraged and very aware of the differences between her and the H, signs the agreement, takes the money and takes her friend to go crash on another friend's couch. She donates the whole lot of cash to Oxfam and then her and her friend get dancing jobs at a Paris club.
The H eventually shows up there after a few months and he is furious. The h gets one of the headline dancers to loan her apartment for the night, as the h is pretty sure the H will try to follow her home to her boarding house.
The H does follow and after the obligatory H denouncement of being a trampy tart, huge lurve mojo fuchsia passion exploits ensue. The H decides the h is going back with him, as he has no intentions of letting her go and claims he loves the h, but the h refuses as she is sure it is only an ugly burst of lust and the H storms off.
The next scene is the pregger h back in England, working a waitressing job and doing pop video dancing on the side for extra cash. The H strolls into the h's restaurant with a really icy blonde wanna be OW, the h has to wait on them until a crashing door hits her and almost knocks her out. The H jumps to help the h and the other waitress happily informs everyone the h is preggers. The blonde potential OW is angry that she has to take second place to the H's wife, but the H doesn't care, he swoops the h up into his car and asks her who the father of the baby is.
The h claims it isn't his baby and the H takes her back to her regulation HP grotty flat that she shares with her friend. The h is in love with the H, but refuses to be beholden to him and so as she tries to send the H off again, her BFF jumps in and tells the H what a slime swiller both he and his mother are.
Of course the H is instantly repentant and begs the h to come home with him cause he really does love her. There is big romantic declarations and the h finally admits she loves the H back and they soon adjourn to the H's fabulous Belgravia mansion to continue the HEA.
This one was fast, whacktastick and a mostly entertaining HP outing. The H was nice except for the tarty denouncement bit in the second half and the h was suitably feisty and a very tropey HP h. If you can overlook the non-pc plot, the h's sheer idiocy and the H's second half aggression, this one makes a decent HPlandia day at the office.
She has the International merchant bank owner H rescue the Can-Can girl dancer h from forced prostitution on a vague South Sea island.
(Don't worry, this is still HPlandia, so we only get the amorphous "threat" of h trafficked slavery. This is in no way a dark romance and in the 1990's there wasn't much awareness of trafficking women in the world, certainly not for citizens of Great Britain, which this h is. If there were claims of trafficking, governments tended to view it along the lines of illegal immigration. Stories of taking passports and forced prostitution of US and GB citizens were more along the lines of urban myths used to frighten lone female travelers and not the very real and very sad problem it is today that did not really come to public awareness until after the year 2000. )
The story starts with the 20ish h and her friends signing a night club dance group contract in England and being shipped out to the South Seas - they end up on one of the islands out there where their passports are taken "to sort out the paperwork" and the club they are working at is soon making threats of "be nice to the men or else".
Enter the H, who quickly becomes attracted to the h and the h, after trying to leave and being threatened with prison by the club owner, agrees to go to a private room with the H in the hopes of engineering an escape. She tries to knock him out and escape out the window, but the H comes to rather quickly and the window is barred.
She explains the situation and throws herself on the mercy of the H, who is a gentleman at heart and agrees to help her. He takes her to one of his local official British government friends and gets the h's other dancer friends released too. But the nightclub owner claims the h stole a bunch of money from him and he wants to press charges. The h did not steal anything, but the H is forced to marry the h to save her from the South Asian police and get her out of the country.
So the H and h marry after the H agrees they can get an annulment right away. I am not actually sure it was a legal marriage, since the local orphanage priest performed it and there did not seem to be any paperwork, but this is HPlandia and who needs anything like an actual wedding license.
Everybody escapes and the H, who is really rich and owns an international bank, pays for everyone to go back to England. Once they get there, the h and her BFF have no flat or job, so the H invites them to stay at his house.
It soon becomes clear that his is VERY interested in the h. She is VERY interested back and the big roofie kissing moments are soon occurring in the drawing room. The H is interrupted in his pursuit of the last bastion of the h's innocence when his butler brings him the news of a big explosion in Canada that the H needs to go sort out.
He leaves the h with promises of a continuation and off he goes. The h and her friend are trying to find another flat and a job, when the press gets wind of the Banker and the Chorus Girl situation.
The H's mother (tho there is a misprint later and the woman is referred to as the H's grandmother,) swoops in while the H's is still gone and is really rude to the h. The h does her best gold digger impersonation in the face of the H's mother patronizing snobbish condescension and the H's mother gives the h £20000 in cash right then and an unenforceable contract claiming she will never contact the H again so she will be able to kick the h out of her son's house.
The h, thoroughly insulted and outraged and very aware of the differences between her and the H, signs the agreement, takes the money and takes her friend to go crash on another friend's couch. She donates the whole lot of cash to Oxfam and then her and her friend get dancing jobs at a Paris club.
The H eventually shows up there after a few months and he is furious. The h gets one of the headline dancers to loan her apartment for the night, as the h is pretty sure the H will try to follow her home to her boarding house.
The H does follow and after the obligatory H denouncement of being a trampy tart, huge lurve mojo fuchsia passion exploits ensue. The H decides the h is going back with him, as he has no intentions of letting her go and claims he loves the h, but the h refuses as she is sure it is only an ugly burst of lust and the H storms off.
The next scene is the pregger h back in England, working a waitressing job and doing pop video dancing on the side for extra cash. The H strolls into the h's restaurant with a really icy blonde wanna be OW, the h has to wait on them until a crashing door hits her and almost knocks her out. The H jumps to help the h and the other waitress happily informs everyone the h is preggers. The blonde potential OW is angry that she has to take second place to the H's wife, but the H doesn't care, he swoops the h up into his car and asks her who the father of the baby is.
The h claims it isn't his baby and the H takes her back to her regulation HP grotty flat that she shares with her friend. The h is in love with the H, but refuses to be beholden to him and so as she tries to send the H off again, her BFF jumps in and tells the H what a slime swiller both he and his mother are.
Of course the H is instantly repentant and begs the h to come home with him cause he really does love her. There is big romantic declarations and the h finally admits she loves the H back and they soon adjourn to the H's fabulous Belgravia mansion to continue the HEA.
This one was fast, whacktastick and a mostly entertaining HP outing. The H was nice except for the tarty denouncement bit in the second half and the h was suitably feisty and a very tropey HP h. If you can overlook the non-pc plot, the h's sheer idiocy and the H's second half aggression, this one makes a decent HPlandia day at the office.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 5, 2024
I can’t remember the last time I rated an HP 5 stars, but this HP from 1991 is it. Actually it’s 4,5 stars because around page 120 she does something stupid and trashy with his mother what I don’t like.
But the H is so sensual, so besotted, and he is not afraid to show it. The hot scenes are steamy, but not porny. Perfect.
He keeps rescuing her, he keeps standing up for her, he keeps chasing her, no matter what she did or how bad she presented herself. This Lord Amory stands by her side against the world, again and again. What a man!
“I love you, Rae. I’m ready to sell my soul just to have you… I’ll go down on my knees and beg you to come home with me if that’s what you want.”
But the H is so sensual, so besotted, and he is not afraid to show it. The hot scenes are steamy, but not porny. Perfect.
He keeps rescuing her, he keeps standing up for her, he keeps chasing her, no matter what she did or how bad she presented herself. This Lord Amory stands by her side against the world, again and again. What a man!
“I love you, Rae. I’m ready to sell my soul just to have you… I’ll go down on my knees and beg you to come home with me if that’s what you want.”
March 23, 2018
Rae studied him from beneath her lashes
He was handsome, but with an unmistakable hint of ruthlessness. "I wouldn't have expected a... hostess to blush and chew her lip the way you do," he said.
Did he really think she was as tacky as her surroundings! Rae was used to dancing in top-class venues--not in seedy nightclubs, somewhere in Southeast Asia. But then, she'd never been a victim of bungled con-tracts and circumstances before.
Should she trust this satanic stranger to help her escape--or did his arrogant assumption mean she'd be jumping from the frying pan straight into a fire ..
He was handsome, but with an unmistakable hint of ruthlessness. "I wouldn't have expected a... hostess to blush and chew her lip the way you do," he said.
Did he really think she was as tacky as her surroundings! Rae was used to dancing in top-class venues--not in seedy nightclubs, somewhere in Southeast Asia. But then, she'd never been a victim of bungled con-tracts and circumstances before.
Should she trust this satanic stranger to help her escape--or did his arrogant assumption mean she'd be jumping from the frying pan straight into a fire ..
March 1, 2026
This belongs in that sado-masochistic category of Harlequin romances where the hero slut-shames, tortures and abuses the heroine for the entire length of the story before reconciling at the eleventh hour. This kind of thing only works if the author manages to infer that the heroine is able to stand up to him and that he has sufficiently been humbled. A long, extended grovel in actions rather than words would also go a long way to convince me that this happy ending is genuine and permanent. But of course, that didn’t happen here, which is par for the course for 99% of Harlequin romances over the decades.
The hero meets the heroine when she is being sex-trafficked from England to an island south of China, along with her troupe of dancers. She was supposed to be dancing at a high class cabaret and she ends up in this dump where she is treated like she is at the very bottom of the gutter, an object to be bought and sold. The heroine does her best to delay the inevitable. She is a virgin and very nervous and anxious, despite her gaudy dance costumes and sexy dance moves. The hero takes one look at her and puts the “ass” into assumption. He is absolutely overtaken by lust even though he has nothing but contempt for her. For convoluted reasons, these two end up married and return to England only for his snobby dragon of a mother to pay her off. The heroine is so angry at the mom and also deep down believes she is not worthy of the pedigree and wealth of the hero that she takes the money and goes off. Unbeknownst to the hero, she donates all the money to a charity and takes herself off to Paris where she got a job dancing what else? The can-can!
The hero is in hot pursuit and when he sees her wiggling her butt in satin undies and suspenders before all and sundry, he gets really mad and engineers a forced seduction of dubious consent. He high-handedly tells her to return to England with him because he loves her despite himself and has resigned himself that he is married to a slutty skank. Wow, even Darcy’s proposal to Elizabeth was less insulting! The heroine refuses and sends him packing.
She eventually returns to England where she shares the proverbial grotty bedsit with her childhood friend and finds a skivvy job waitressing at a posh restaurant until her baby arrives. Yes, she is pregnant from that dubious Paris night and too proud to contact the hero. The hero shows up to her work because he can’t quit her. He deliberately and quite cruelly dangles a sophisticated, snobby blonde as his date. The heroine is so distraught she falls and hurts herself. The hero takes her home to her bedsit where the heroine’s roommate takes the opportunity to tell him a few home truths. With nary an apology, the hero ruefully proposes they resume their marriage as he never sought an annulment. The parting line that she will get used to his mother who isn’t all that bad and all his snobby friends, left a chill in my heart. I predict some more years of torture for the heroine and her baby where they will be completely psychologically abused by this band of hypocritical, bloated pigs, the hero being no help other than treating her like a blow-up doll at night. I am hoping she gets a nice settlement in the divorce and does not lose custody of the baby but if I were a betting woman…😭
The hero meets the heroine when she is being sex-trafficked from England to an island south of China, along with her troupe of dancers. She was supposed to be dancing at a high class cabaret and she ends up in this dump where she is treated like she is at the very bottom of the gutter, an object to be bought and sold. The heroine does her best to delay the inevitable. She is a virgin and very nervous and anxious, despite her gaudy dance costumes and sexy dance moves. The hero takes one look at her and puts the “ass” into assumption. He is absolutely overtaken by lust even though he has nothing but contempt for her. For convoluted reasons, these two end up married and return to England only for his snobby dragon of a mother to pay her off. The heroine is so angry at the mom and also deep down believes she is not worthy of the pedigree and wealth of the hero that she takes the money and goes off. Unbeknownst to the hero, she donates all the money to a charity and takes herself off to Paris where she got a job dancing what else? The can-can!
The hero is in hot pursuit and when he sees her wiggling her butt in satin undies and suspenders before all and sundry, he gets really mad and engineers a forced seduction of dubious consent. He high-handedly tells her to return to England with him because he loves her despite himself and has resigned himself that he is married to a slutty skank. Wow, even Darcy’s proposal to Elizabeth was less insulting! The heroine refuses and sends him packing.
She eventually returns to England where she shares the proverbial grotty bedsit with her childhood friend and finds a skivvy job waitressing at a posh restaurant until her baby arrives. Yes, she is pregnant from that dubious Paris night and too proud to contact the hero. The hero shows up to her work because he can’t quit her. He deliberately and quite cruelly dangles a sophisticated, snobby blonde as his date. The heroine is so distraught she falls and hurts herself. The hero takes her home to her bedsit where the heroine’s roommate takes the opportunity to tell him a few home truths. With nary an apology, the hero ruefully proposes they resume their marriage as he never sought an annulment. The parting line that she will get used to his mother who isn’t all that bad and all his snobby friends, left a chill in my heart. I predict some more years of torture for the heroine and her baby where they will be completely psychologically abused by this band of hypocritical, bloated pigs, the hero being no help other than treating her like a blow-up doll at night. I am hoping she gets a nice settlement in the divorce and does not lose custody of the baby but if I were a betting woman…😭
July 11, 2016
'I love you, Rae. I'm ready to sell my soul just to have you.'
'No!' Horrified at his words, she fought fiercely against the weakness that would have had her surrender and agree to whatever he demanded. She braced her hands against his shoulders, struggling to push him away. 'I am not your wife,' she insisted. 'Last night doesn't make any difference.'
He caught her arms in a vice-like grip, shaking her fiercely. 'You hard-faced little bitch,' he snarled, his eyes blazing with dark anger. 'How can you stand there and say a thing like that? I'm telling you I've fallen in love with you. Oh, it was the last thing I intended to do—I knew you were poison from the moment I met you. But you've won—poor insane fool that I am, I'll go down on my knees and beg you to come home with me if that's what you want.'
Flighty, inconsistent heroine. Angry, punish-her-with-sex hero. So cliched. Oh, and lust is not love. However, that prose. Delicious, sensual, voluptuous, melodramatic old school romance prose. I am a sucker for it.
'No!' Horrified at his words, she fought fiercely against the weakness that would have had her surrender and agree to whatever he demanded. She braced her hands against his shoulders, struggling to push him away. 'I am not your wife,' she insisted. 'Last night doesn't make any difference.'
He caught her arms in a vice-like grip, shaking her fiercely. 'You hard-faced little bitch,' he snarled, his eyes blazing with dark anger. 'How can you stand there and say a thing like that? I'm telling you I've fallen in love with you. Oh, it was the last thing I intended to do—I knew you were poison from the moment I met you. But you've won—poor insane fool that I am, I'll go down on my knees and beg you to come home with me if that's what you want.'
Flighty, inconsistent heroine. Angry, punish-her-with-sex hero. So cliched. Oh, and lust is not love. However, that prose. Delicious, sensual, voluptuous, melodramatic old school romance prose. I am a sucker for it.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews