James York Press, $2.99, ISBN 978-1-938732-31-7
Romantic Suspense, 2020

Rebecca Hartt (two T’s in the last name) also writes as Marliss Melton, and unlike Ms Melton that serves up romantic suspense and historical romances, Ms Hartt writes Christian romances.

Lord of the Dance is part of the Acts of Valor series, revolving around military men and such. I’m not sure whether the title and story have anything to do with the hymn of the same name, but this thing has me at the moment I lay eyes on the cover. I mean, just look at it!

Nina Aydin’s previous marriage fell apart some 10 years ago, because her husband couldn’t accept that she’d rather be out there teaching kids how to dance the ballet instead of waiting at home in the kitchen, and also because they never could have any children. While she was deeply wounded by this, she was determined to have a child, by seeking out fertility doctors and such, without a husband.

Well, Santiago Rivera would love to change her mind. Oh, put that crucifix away, people, as he’d like to marry her first and then knock her up, just the way God would have liked. He’s a master chief, not that it matters here aside from reassuring readers that he’s in the navy and hence hot, because it’s not like he’d have to go star in the next Halo game or something. Yes, I’m kidding about the last bit, so there’s no need to email me about what a master chief is.

Of course, he needs a lure to get her close to him, so he’d promised her his baby butter in order for her to have a baby via IVF. Right now, they are getting to know one another first, as Nina is still old-school enough to want to least know the father of her baby, and he’d requested to play a part in raising the kid after the brat is born.

He has no intention to sign the consent form to give away his baby butter, though. God says never to give away the milk for free, and he wants to do that the good old Christian way.

He released a long breath. “Because I believe, Nina, that God was telling me you can have a baby without in-vitro fertilization.”

Santiago, honey, that’s a long-winded way of saying you have a hard-on.

Fortunately, romance gets a helping hand from God when He sends her ex-husband Mehmet, who is Turkish, back into her life demanding that she cares for his kids or else. Santiago comes to her rescue, so she realizes that she loves him, and naturally, she also gets to have her baby because God has been withholding her eggs from being inseminated by a heathen man all this while or something.

Now, I try not to take offense easily at the things I read or watch, but a part of me is taken aback by the evil ex being “Turkish” (come on, we all know what that means). Then again, the target audience of this romance probably won’t mind at all, and I’ve read enough Muslim fiction in my part of the world to be able to confidently claim that most of them are even more vicious in their portrayal of white and Christian people. So, I suppose both sides are even, all things considered.

Still, I that feel the whole “He’s Turkish, which is clearly a mistake when you can have an American!” angle to be tad unnecessary.

My bigger issue here is that the romance feels contrived.

Maybe if the author had used up more pages, perhaps, but in its current form, the relationship between Santiago and Nina seems to have been already established off-screen. Since I am not privy to those moments, these characters’ personalities and their relationship never really come together for me. I don’t know them much, and I don’t care much for their story as a result.

What I get here is a romance that comes to be mostly because Nina is grateful to Santiago for saving her, and I sincerely hope this isn’t a case of the heroine mistaking gratitude for love. Santiago doesn’t do much to make me believe that this is a romance, as he appears here to be this high-handed fellow that strings the heroine on with promises that he never intends to keep, only to then try to change her mind by telling her that nope, she’s wrong, God and he say so, so she better agree with him that they should do things his way.

In the end, all I can say is that God has better keep sending dangers coming Nina’s way, so that she will never wake up one day to really examine her feelings for Santiago.