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Dance Duo #2
One Last Dance
Most women confused his friendship with love.
Ballerina Marta Cole was plucked from anonymity and placed without warning in the spotlight of the Manhattan Ballet Company. It was like a dream come true for Marta, whose legs had once been nearly crippled in the accident that had killed her husband.
Still vulnerable to pain and loneliness, Marta was far too fragile to have her heart plucked up carelessly and then discarded at whim. Yet she couldn't ignore the pains her dance partner Casmir Rudenko was taking to dispense with his latest lover, Cynthia.
And in the name of friendship, Marta risked her health and happiness on one man for one last dance.
Ballerina Marta Cole was plucked from anonymity and placed without warning in the spotlight of the Manhattan Ballet Company. It was like a dream come true for Marta, whose legs had once been nearly crippled in the accident that had killed her husband.
Still vulnerable to pain and loneliness, Marta was far too fragile to have her heart plucked up carelessly and then discarded at whim. Yet she couldn't ignore the pains her dance partner Casmir Rudenko was taking to dispense with his latest lover, Cynthia.
And in the name of friendship, Marta risked her health and happiness on one man for one last dance.
190 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
About the author
Claire Harrison
31 books7 followersaka Laura Eden
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 19, 2015
-h is a ballerina trying to help her partner the H out of a sticky love affair so she agrees to let him sleep with her while on tour. She means just that, she sleeps with him, no sexxing allowed.
Over the course of the tour she falls in love with H but has major baggage from losing her husband in a wreck, an injury from that wreck that is going to cut short her dancing career and an unstable distant relationship from her mother who is her only relative.
After having to give up her dancing, trying to reconcile with mother and deciding that H is incapable of anything but affairs, H pirouettes back in to her life for HEA with a pas de deux. Nice story, some personal h angst and a good read.
REVIEW UPDATE 2015
RE One Last Dance - this is the sequel to CH's Dance While You Can which was HP 705 - the H is the secondary character who married the h's roommate in the last book and the H is physically taller but a straight on ringer for Baryshnikov back in his heyday.
There are some interesting things about this book. For one the h has a one night, no strings attached bar pickup-- and that is the very first h hookup with a stranger with no follow up connection in HPLandia. It isn't until 2010 that another h has a one night stand with a stranger and even then, it is mentioned as an aside, not an opening scene in a book.
Second both the H and the h are widowed, the H's wife was killed 6 mo. after they married during a mugging and the h's husband was killed 5 years after they married in a car accident which also severely injured the h. She was told she wouldn't dance again, but after a year or so of weight gain and depression, she pulled herself together and a year later rejoined a premier ballet company.
Both the H and the h have severe survivor's guilt that was exacerbated by both of them arguing with their respective spouses just prior to their deaths. The h is chosen to be the new soloist ballerina to partner the H when the h from DWYC takes maternity leave again. (The h and H from DWYC are secondary characters in this one, and I think there is actually more couple scenes for them in this book than there was in their own. They are really happy, which was something of a relief after all the time they were apart in DWYC.)
They all go on a road tour and the h starts sleeping (literally only sleeping, no sex,) with the H to keep one of the ballerina corps member from causing problems when the H broke up with her. As they tour from city to city, they develop a deep friendship and this bolsters the h as she comes to terms with her marriage - she married her first husband for his family and not because she was madly in love, she also refused to consider kids with him and she has to put the marriage into perspective along with her guilt- but the h starts having significant pain and leg weakness and she knows her career is coming to an end.
She doesn't tell the H until he figures it out on the final leg of their tour. They finally manage to seduce each other, but then fight and separate right after. The H leaves to do a stint in San Francisco and the h to come to terms with her very distant relationship with her mum, and the end of her dancing days.
The h has been so driven and focused on dancing for so many years that she literally has a midlife crisis at 26. She finally accepts that devotion to dancing has really limited her world-dancing replaced the love and support of her rather messed up home life as both parents pretty much ignored her- and figures out that there is still a lot of other things she has yet to experience. She also figures out that she is in love with the H, but she doesn't hold out much hope for a future. She makes some tentative inroads into getting to know her mum, and the mum freely admits she chose her marriage over her child (another first in HPlandia), and she resigns from the company after seeing the H again for their first dance practice after the tour.
The H shows up at her house later and after a big reconciliation scene, there is a nice HEA.
This was a much more balanced CH book than the previous dance one. There is a lot of internal h focus, but there is also a lot of relationship building with the H. It is very believable that he is a reformed rake, it is also very believable that he really loves her - there is no H pov in this one, but the writing and his reactions make this book a very good and realistic romance about endings and new beginnings and losing and finding love.
Over the course of the tour she falls in love with H but has major baggage from losing her husband in a wreck, an injury from that wreck that is going to cut short her dancing career and an unstable distant relationship from her mother who is her only relative.
After having to give up her dancing, trying to reconcile with mother and deciding that H is incapable of anything but affairs, H pirouettes back in to her life for HEA with a pas de deux. Nice story, some personal h angst and a good read.
REVIEW UPDATE 2015
RE One Last Dance - this is the sequel to CH's Dance While You Can which was HP 705 - the H is the secondary character who married the h's roommate in the last book and the H is physically taller but a straight on ringer for Baryshnikov back in his heyday.
There are some interesting things about this book. For one the h has a one night, no strings attached bar pickup-- and that is the very first h hookup with a stranger with no follow up connection in HPLandia. It isn't until 2010 that another h has a one night stand with a stranger and even then, it is mentioned as an aside, not an opening scene in a book.
Second both the H and the h are widowed, the H's wife was killed 6 mo. after they married during a mugging and the h's husband was killed 5 years after they married in a car accident which also severely injured the h. She was told she wouldn't dance again, but after a year or so of weight gain and depression, she pulled herself together and a year later rejoined a premier ballet company.
Both the H and the h have severe survivor's guilt that was exacerbated by both of them arguing with their respective spouses just prior to their deaths. The h is chosen to be the new soloist ballerina to partner the H when the h from DWYC takes maternity leave again. (The h and H from DWYC are secondary characters in this one, and I think there is actually more couple scenes for them in this book than there was in their own. They are really happy, which was something of a relief after all the time they were apart in DWYC.)
They all go on a road tour and the h starts sleeping (literally only sleeping, no sex,) with the H to keep one of the ballerina corps member from causing problems when the H broke up with her. As they tour from city to city, they develop a deep friendship and this bolsters the h as she comes to terms with her marriage - she married her first husband for his family and not because she was madly in love, she also refused to consider kids with him and she has to put the marriage into perspective along with her guilt- but the h starts having significant pain and leg weakness and she knows her career is coming to an end.
She doesn't tell the H until he figures it out on the final leg of their tour. They finally manage to seduce each other, but then fight and separate right after. The H leaves to do a stint in San Francisco and the h to come to terms with her very distant relationship with her mum, and the end of her dancing days.
The h has been so driven and focused on dancing for so many years that she literally has a midlife crisis at 26. She finally accepts that devotion to dancing has really limited her world-dancing replaced the love and support of her rather messed up home life as both parents pretty much ignored her- and figures out that there is still a lot of other things she has yet to experience. She also figures out that she is in love with the H, but she doesn't hold out much hope for a future. She makes some tentative inroads into getting to know her mum, and the mum freely admits she chose her marriage over her child (another first in HPlandia), and she resigns from the company after seeing the H again for their first dance practice after the tour.
The H shows up at her house later and after a big reconciliation scene, there is a nice HEA.
This was a much more balanced CH book than the previous dance one. There is a lot of internal h focus, but there is also a lot of relationship building with the H. It is very believable that he is a reformed rake, it is also very believable that he really loves her - there is no H pov in this one, but the writing and his reactions make this book a very good and realistic romance about endings and new beginnings and losing and finding love.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 15, 2016
Romance was sweet and believable between two suffering souls. Equal time was given to the world of ballet and the heroine's backstory. An absorbing read. It's a loose sequel to
Dance While You Can, which is an amazing angst-fest. Everything that can go wrong for that heroine does go wrong.
Dance While You Can, which is an amazing angst-fest. Everything that can go wrong for that heroine does go wrong.
September 10, 2016
Loved it. Very well done.
January 18, 2017
Lots of introspection, emotion and angst!
October 17, 2013
On my faves list. This was one of my very first Harlequins, handed down by a cousin. Had a choir teacher at the time who introduced me to "The Nutcracker." I fell in love with ballet and Mikhail. So of course, Casmir this brooding Russian stole my heart. Well worn, treasured book. When I'm down or feeling nostalgic, he and Marta never fail to pick me up, wrap me in their deep, sometimes dark, warmth.
August 1, 2016
Pretty good one. I liked how the hero and heroine had an actual relationship before they made love. They became friends and confidants, true partners.
June 8, 2021
The H is a ballet dancer and I’m just not into ballet dancers.
The story starts with the h having a one night stand with some man she doesn’t know the name of.
And bla bla bla. Whatever.
The story starts with the h having a one night stand with some man she doesn’t know the name of.
And bla bla bla. Whatever.
December 6, 2025
Marta was once a main soloist ballerina and happily married to childhood friend Blaine, but an accident shuttered her career and instantly killed her husband. It was hard to over come her lose, but she made it and started dancing again even though she couldn't dance all her life because her leg was enjoyed badly in the accident. Yet, she was content enough to be part of a dancing team. When the main ballerina in her company got pregnant though, Marta was chosen as her substitute and she was determined to take full advantage of the appropriately even it meant denying her attraction to Casmir Rudenko, her new attractive Russian dancing partner who was the only one who made her forget her husband!
This is the second book of Dance Duo series and I enjoyed it. It's well written and emotional. But, I wouldn't say it's as good as the first book in the serious. Maybe because I liked Bonnie's character in the first book and was sorry to know she was dead in this second book. :( It would have been marvelous if this book was about her story with Casmir.
This is the second book of Dance Duo series and I enjoyed it. It's well written and emotional. But, I wouldn't say it's as good as the first book in the serious. Maybe because I liked Bonnie's character in the first book and was sorry to know she was dead in this second book. :( It would have been marvelous if this book was about her story with Casmir.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 6, 2017
I liked how this gave an accurate description of the joys and pitfalls of being a professional ballet dancer. Hope that Marta is right about Casmir and him being a dedicated future prospect.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews