The Printed Page

Title: The Belly Dancer
Author/website: DeAnna Cameron
308 pages
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Publication date: July ’09
Genre: Historical fiction
I enjoyed The Belly Dancer. Pour yourself something to drink, pull up a comfy chair and settle in for a weekend of pleasurable reading.

Dora is a young bride struggling to find herself within the confines of a disastrous marriage. With her new marriage comes a move to new city and exposure to an elevated position in society. She’s been setup to fail from the start. Not one to easily give up she vows to win back her husband’s affection. Charles is a man on the brink of continuing a love affair that threatens to derail his own ambitious dreams. To please Charles Dora becomes a Lady Manager at the World’s Fair firmly placing her within the clutches of Chicago society’s tightly knit group of sharp tongued female vipers. Dora is assigned to oversee the exotic dancers. This assignment bring it’s own complications into Dora’s life.  This is a young woman’s journey from repression to freedom. Senses awaken, secrets come to light and Dora ultimately makes the one decision that will bring her fulfillment and happiness.

At the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the modern, the exotic, and the ground-breaking collide. But Dora Chambers has more pressing matters to consider. Hoping to begin a life of wealth and privilege in Chicago, she sets out to earn the approval of the Fair’s Board of Lady Managers to appease her ambitious, aloof husband. Unimpressed, they give Dora the distasteful task of enforcing proper conduct at the Egyptian belly dancing exhibition.

But Dora’s sensibilities are not so easily flustered. She finds herself captivated by these exotic women, and by their enigmatic manager, Hossam Farouk, who makes his mistrust of her known—although his lingering glances hint at something else.

As Dora’s eyes are opened to the world beyond a life of social expectations and quiet servitude, she finds the courage to break free of her self-imposed bondage, and discovers the truth about the desire and passion in her own heart.

I’d like to thank Ms. Cameron for sending me her book and arranging this tour stop.

BTW – this is one of the most gorgeous covers I’ve come across and posting it here doesn’t do it justice.