Review by Kelly Jarvis: A Dance With Death by Amanda Linsmeier

Are you a fan of swoony Gothic romance, dark fantasy, and fairy tale? If so, you can find all this and more in Amanda Linsmeier’s novel A Dance With Death. Set in The Pins, a village by the sea, and written in the first person present point of view of Corliss Bell, one of three orphaned sisters who run the town apothecary, this book beautifully blends Beauty and the Beast with Hans Christian Andersen’s The Red Shoes, adding a healthy dash of romantic spice to warm the gloomy atmosphere.

The Pins is a place where magic resides, and rumor has it that the crumbling Colehart Mansion is haunted by a demon. Although Corliss, a tattooed rebel whose ink tells the story of her past loves and losses, doesn’t believe in magic, she visits the mansion in a desperate attempt to save her sister’s life. While there, she discovers a pair of red ballet slippers and uses them to audition as a ballerina at The Red Clover. Orrin, the demon owner of the mansion, soon learns about her theft and forces her into captivity, making her dance for him each night in punishment for her crimes. Although the demon is known for his involvement in murder, Corliss soon learns there are even more powerful villains to confront if she hopes to rescue her sister’s tortured soul.

Although the writer admittedly takes liberties with historical content and dialogue, A Dance With Death is a thoroughly enjoyable read that drips with Gothic atmosphere. Lush descriptions of landscapes, ballet costumes, and mansion bedrooms transport readers to a new time and place, and the dancing imagery is breathtaking. The slow-burn but steamy relationship between Corliss and Orrin is a classic enemies-to-lovers tale, and the stakes are high enough to propel the twisting plot forward. The book explores the depths of love, memory, terror, and hope. I love this standalone romantic tale, and I look forward to reading more novels in The Three Bells series. Fans of dark fairy tale romance will be delighted with this book! You can find it here.

Kelly Jarvis teaches writing and literature at Central Connecticut State University and works as the Contributing Writer for The Fairy Tale Magazine and a Recurring Columnist for Eternal Haunted Summer. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in A Moon of One’s Own, Baseball Bard, Blue Heron Review, Corvid Queen, Enchanted Conversation, Forget Me Not Press, Mermaids Monthly, Mothers of Enchantment, The Chamber Magazine, and The Magic of Us. Her debut novella, Selkie Moon, was selected as a semi-finalist in the 2025-2026 Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship. Visit Kelly online at kellyjarviswriter.com.