An Adequately Entertaining Tale | “What Happens in the Ballroom” by Sabrina Jeffries (2023) Book Review

Thanks to Netgalley,  the publisher and the author for providing this Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review; all opinions expressed in this review are my own.

In this next installment of the “Designing Debutantes” series, Sabrina Jeffries tells the interesting story of Eliza Pearce and Nathaniel Stanton.

Eliza has been a widow for a couple of years and she runs Elegant Occasions, which runs dazzling events in their community, along with her sisters to keep herself afloat and occupied.  When her late husband’s close friend Nathaniel, Earl of Foxstead, seeks her help in increasing the marriage prospects of war-widow Jocelin March, whose father was Nathaniel’s commanding officer, she along with her sisters, embark on the difficult journey of helping Jocelin.

Both Eliza and Nathaniel find themselves drawn to each other irresistibly in spite of their respective reservations. Sparks begin to fly but they are both unable to act on their attraction because of the many secrets each of them harbor. Will they allow their mutual secrets and past experiences to stand in the way of their heart’s desires?

Actually, I felt this book had a great start than the previous one. The characters were very well etched out, with the readers getting a very clear idea of their basic motives. The author has also made the story interesting through the various charged interactions between the leads. However the earlier momentum doesn’t carry throughout the book. The final conflict in the story wasn’t very well defined and so, it actually seemed contrived and not very logical within the confines of the story. It doesn’t help that those scenes are protracted and slow down the pacing of the storytelling as well.

Leaving aside this issue, I had an enjoyable experience reading this book. There were some steamy scenes, as is usual for Jeffries, which create a delicious tension between the leads and help keep things interesting and tantalizing. This book, though not excellent, is a good addition to Jeffries’ body of work.

This book gets 4 out of 5 stars.