Ms. Anson is a multi-published author, and I can see why! Being a ballet dancer for thirteen years, when I saw Dance of the Seven Veils, I had to read it. I knew the legend of Salome and King Herod: how her dance seduced him into doing what she wanted. And in Ms. Anson's story, the woman costumed as Salome at a local party saw her own Herod, dressed in gladiator garb, and knew what she had to do.

Lyssa Markham--celebrating the one year anniversary of her divorce from a cheating weasel of a husband--agrees to attend a party with her friend Kat Donaldson. This was a party meant for adults only, where anything can happen. In her own way, she is finally breaking free of her ex who accused her of being a "fat cow" and "frigid".

Lyssa is so nervous, she plays wallflower at first, until she watches a woman seduce her pasha with a belly dance that could melt your glasses off your face. And when she finally spots the gladiator, leaning calmly against the wall and detached from the actions around him, she knows she has to get him. When the strings of Richard Strauss' "Dance of the Seven Veils" flow through the hidden speakers, it is like someone else takes over her body. She dances for him alone, and he shows his thanks in a very intimate way.

After the party Lyssa returns to her everyday life of getting her daughter off to college. She receives word from her ex-husband's lawyer that he cannot pay for their daughter's college tuition. Seething with anger, Lyssa storms into the lawyer's office, planning on fixing the situation herself. When the lawyer handling the case can't be reached, she is transferred to another partner, Mr. Savidge. She walks into his office, prepared to shake the walls down to get the money for her daughter's education. Mr. Robert Savidge takes one look at her and tells her to lift her skirt. Turns out Robert is the gladiator from the party, and the first man to awaken the sex goddess that was hiding deep inside of her while she was in an unsatisfying marriage.

Though there wasn't as much dancing in the book as the ballerina in me would have liked, there was plenty of story to make up for it! I was laughing so hard at times that I had tears in my eyes, and the romance made my inner romantic sigh. And I love to see a weasel (Lyssa's ex-husband) get put in his place when he thinks more of himself than anything else.

If you like light-hearted romance, with enough steam to fog your glasses, this is a must- read! The humor that flows between the characters, and the human emotions that fill the pages, from lust to laughter to love--this is something that can satisfy you for a long time.

Marissa
© February 2005