Reviewed by Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorite

Forest Dancer by Susan Roebuck is an interesting story with wonderful characters, a story that fans of Polina will adore, beautifully crafted with characters that are genuinely flawed yet decided on bringing out the best in themselves. Flora Gatehouse has just recently lost her father, but she has also suffered a devastating blow in her career; her failed audition that sees her moving to a small cottage in Lisbon, Portugal, the only inheritance left to her by her father. Follow her story as she embraces the life of a small village with its dark secrets, and falls for the forest ranger, Marco. But can she totally become part of this little hamlet and can she ever reconnect with her dream to become a principal ballerina?

It’s hard to find writers who explore the feminine emotion so beautifully and who write about it in a way that allows the reader to feel the characters and to care so deeply about them, but Susan Roebuck has achieved this. Her writing flows sweetly, filled with emotionally rich passages that explore the tension in a searching heart. The dialogues are wonderfully crafted to read like real conversations; they are intelligently written and provide great excitement for the reader. The characters are real, each crafted with a solid background and a lot of humanity. Yes, the characters are so real that you ache for them and care about what happens to them. The story is fast-paced and it has intense moments of conflict that hold the reader spellbound. Forest Dancer is an entertaining story that keeps the reader turning the pages nonstop. I read it through the night.