Del Rey took a chance on me when they sent me A Dance of Lies by Brittney Arena to review and oh man am I thankful they did because I really enjoyed this book!
The way Arena created a world with really interesting characters, and a plot that is atually plotting, which is worth your time to read. Sometimes a book get a lot of hype on TikTok and social media and I'm left disappointed, but not here!
The main character, Vasalie, was the favorite dance of the king but then is imprisoned for a crime she didn't commit. She's weak, sick, and feeling hopeless until she's pulled out of her cell to be offered a chance to dance again as a spy for the King. She struggles with a physical disability and I loved that it felt realistic throughout the story.
The banter is good, and the writing is great! There really isn't spice in book, but there is tension for sure. I'd say it's romantasy leaning towards Fantasy for sure.
Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for allowing me access to this book for review!

An absolutely stunning debut! This will have you hooked and more. I think the romantasy genre is getting a bit crowded but this distinguishes itself so well. I can't wait for the next one!

ARC review

It's quite refreshing to have a FMC that is not a fighter. However, I feel like the book is too slow - I started to be fully interested in the story at around 70%. Still, it's a decent start of a series and wonder where the next one will be heading. (Rating 3.5/5)

A Dance Of Lies is Brittney Arena's debut novel.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

I absolutely loved this book!
The mistery, the intrigue, the tension, the YEARNING! Everything was perfect.

The FMC, Vasalie, a dancer turned spy had such a strong character development. She went through a lot, but every setback only made her stronger. She was a very relatable character. Powerless, scared, a pawn in the crowns games, but also very very brave.

The story has a beautiful romance subplot with a few interesting men where you can't decide who you're rooting for. There's no spice but a lot of tension and yearning.

The writing style was very lyrical and descriptive. The author created a beautiful world with an interesting history and politics.

I can't wait to read the next book. That ending left me with so many questions and theories!

Thank you to @randomhouse, @netgalley and the author for the e-ARC to read and review.

Tropes:
✨ Chronic pain/Disability rep
✨ Court Intrigue
✨ Spying
✨ Dancer FMC
✨ Enemies To Lovers
✨ Betrayal

4.25☆

This was a beautiful, in-depth exploration of grief and mental health in the first part of the book, which is initially what hooked me. Even as we move further in, the trauma Vasalie endured doesn't vanish, she has to deal with it for the rest of the story, often at inconvenient moments.

Her relationship with her stepmother was quite possibly my favorite in the book, and it's sad we only got to see it through brief flashbacks and references to memories. It really underscores how incredibly blatant her lack of ANY female support system is in present day. She's surrounded by men, both good and bad, who she interacts with on a regular basis. But not one female/NB friend to be found, which seems like such an odd choice, when so many of these men could've been women without changing anything about the plot. Hell, I would've loved if Copelan had just been a tall, muscular woman as her dance partner. Especially given the references to Copelan being pansexual, so it wouldn't have impacted the briefly romantic subplot.

I also really enjoyed the mythos around this book, the personification of death especially.

Unfortunately, the romance plot wasn't to my taste, but I'm just burned out on men being cocky & overprotective as a form of flirting, as well as being "morally grey" or "bad" but secretly being the best good guy behind the curtain. I still think there were some really sweet, realistic moments there, they were just in line with tropes that have been done over and over again.

The ending was lovely, however. I love books with consequences & prophecies, and I definitely enjoyed this setup. The political intrigue kept me going. I live for convoluted plotting.

Thank you to NetGalley & Random House Publishing Group for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was the perfect mix of tension, romance, suspense and emotional pain that I crave in a romantasy!

The story follows Vasalie Moran, a disabled dancer falsely convicted of murder who is forced to turn spy for King Ilian in order to gain her freedom. She is thrusted into The Gathering, where she performs for the kings, royals and nobles of the realm and catches the eye of King Anton.

Although this one started a little slowly for me, at the 25% mark it was quickly filled with betrayal, lies and a budding romance that had me hooked all the way through. Alongside beautifully written world building, the mysteries that were revealed left me with more questions than answers in the most annoyingly great way.

Both Vasalie and Anton were characters I absolutely adored. Vasalie didn’t have the confidence that most romantasy FMCs have, but her ability to hope in the direst of circumstances made it impossible to not admire her. Anton was witty, fun, mysterious and held so many secrets that both Vasalie and I were desperate to know. He slightly reminded me of (our top book boyfriend) Rhysand in the best way. As the story progresses Anton and Vasalie begin to truly see each other and are both dangerously and inexplicably drawn together (damning the consequences). Their slow-burn developed at the perfect pace with them slowly progressing away from being enemies.

And EXCUSE ME?!?! THAT ENDING? I am utterly devastated and need book 2 ASAP!

10/10 all around. I loved every single second. I need the next book yesterday and this one isn’t even released yet. Was one of my most anticipated releases of the year and honestly? It’s March and I can already say this might take top read of the whole year already.

This was an ambitious debut fantasy novel, and while I didn't love it, I do appreciate what it was trying to accomplish. I think we need more fantasy with diverse characters, and this is one of the few romantasy I've seen with a disabled character. Unfortunately, I wish we had seen more of it, instead of just being told about it. Vasalie mentions how often she is in pain due to what she experienced, but it never stops her from doing anything she needs to do. As someone who has chronic pain, I wish we could have seen her struggle more, because while you can be strong and push through what needs to be done, sometimes you can't. Parts of the story I enjoyed, such as some of the plot points I didn't see coming, and the descriptions of the places we went. Others I found I didn't care for, such as the multiple love interests, and the repetition of the dances Vasalie performed (along with other repetition found throughout the story that made the writing feel overwritten). Overall, this unfortunately wasn't for me, but I would be interested to see what this author writes after this.

I’ve seen this all over social media and really hoped that it loved up to the hype! And personally, I believe it did for the most part. It was a new take on the romantasy genre, with some great twists included towards the end. The storyline did take a little while to build to anything incredibly engaging, as there was a lot of politics and world building to contend with, but it was still an enjoyable story nonetheless.
Thank you to Brittney Arena, Random House Publishing and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is an incredibly captivating story that drew me in from page 1 snd kept me on my toes the entire time. I want to be Vasalie and her growth through out the book was perfection.

2.5⭐️ Thank you Del Rey and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited about A Dance of Lies, which was a combination of the beautiful cover, intriguing blurb, and promise of a disability rep. The disability rep delivered as promised, but overall my experience was not quite what I hoped for.

The setting in which the story takes place had the structure to make for a beautiful backdrop, but for some reason the writing style used by the author just did not work for me. I usually pride myself on my ability to picture characters, events, etc. in my mind, but I just could not do it here. The words used did infer an ethereal quality, but at times seemed too complicated for the effect to come to full fruition. I especially struggled to picture the dance sequences, which was disappointing given that I was excited to read those and they did have symbolical significance. I think I could see what the author intended--I believe it was mentioned somewhere that inspiration was drawn from Eastern Europe, and I was actually traveling in that part of the world while reading this, which did help slightly with setting the vibe.

The characters were just ok for me. The fmc seemed unable to make any of her own decisions and her situation struck me as very unrealistic from the beginning. It is clear that the author did her best to create this disability representation, which I did appreciate for those who felt seen through Vasalie. However, so much of the story focused on her inability to perform like she used to physically...but her entire job is to perform physically. And not just simple tasks, but complicated and exhausting dance sequences. I cannot speak from experience, but maybe I'm being too harsh? The two brothers were too caricature-y and I did not feel a real connection with any of the love interests. I found the story to have entirely too much of Vasalie's inner thoughts and not enough dialogue to drive the story. There were instances that also seemed too convenient for issues that had yet to be revealed to other characters (without giving away spoilers).

Ultimately, this story is good for the disability rep and the unique setting, but otherwise did not quite deliver like I had hoped.

DNF @ 20%

Unfortunately it was a struggle to even make it as far as I did. We are supposed to believe that Vasalie (who I could not stop calling Vaseline in my head) who was released from a dungeon after 2 years and becomes chronically ill, is dancing at an elite level after a matter of weeks? Even if I didn’t have a chronic illness, I think I would have a hard time believing that. I think the author could have convinced us but, the problem here is that there is a lot of telling and no showing. The reader is told that Vasalie becomes friends with someone without showing more than one interaction between the characters. And in the meantime Vasalie has no identifiable personality and the prose very overwritten.

These issues could very well resolve as the story goes on, but I don’t have the patience to find out. What I did appreciate here was the beautiful setting. It is vivid and interesting and unique.

4 stars

There were parts of this that really hit hard for me. Especially at first, the rep of not being able to dance the way she used to really resonated with me. Now I'm not sure the culinary work around really would be successful, but it was interesting and held my attention. The court was a drama fest, in a good way for me. I do wish we had a bit more anger and revenge from our main character, especially with what she went through, but it certainly ends with me needing to read on to see how everything gets resolved.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy to form opinions from.

I absolutely adored this book! Very compelling storyline, and while I initially resented the weakness of the FMC, she gained my respect by the end. The world building was as intricate as it was magical, and I was hooked until the very end! Highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley, Del Rey, and Brittney Arena for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun and refreshing read! I got completely pulled into the story from the start, and one of the main reasons was Vasalie. I absolutely loved her as the FMC—she felt real and grounded, and her journey was both touching and empowering. Her struggles with coming to terms with her limitations really hit home for me. It was refreshing to see a character who had to work through her physical limitations. Watching her grow and find ways to compensate for her limitations was honestly one of my favorite parts of the story. The MMC was also a standout. Right from the beginning, he seemed to be a thoughtful and caring person. And throughout the book it gets proven time and time again. I don’t really have much to say that could use improvement- but if I had to pick something, I’d say the pacing could’ve used a little tightening in places. I feel like the end was chaotic and had a lot going on and I would’ve loved for there to be a bit more detail there. As for the ending—some of the big reveals were a little predictable, but honestly, I didn’t mind. The way everything played out was still super satisfying, and there were definitely a few details that still caught me off guard and surprised me! I absolutely recommend adding this one to your TBR, I couldn’t put it down and stayed up until 4am to finish it haha!

As a newer fantasy reader I was so excited to get approved for this one. The cover is stunning and the premise sounded premising. Unfortunately the first half of the book was really slow. It took me a while to get through and honestly I was a little confused at many points because I was only reading a few pages at a time. However, things picked up in part two so much and I could not put the book down.

I love Vasalie! The way she adapted her dancing to accommodate her illness was so creative and captivated her audience. I was expecting this to be a romance but was pleasantly surprised with all the politics and spying.

Vasalie had a few different love interests which threw me a bit, I was rooting for one and then was like wait what?! On this note it was also impossible to know who she could trust at some points as well in general. I feel it's best to go in blind on this one so you can also experience who is trustworthy. The slow burn tension between Vasalie and the MMC (kept nameless on purpose) was incredible!

The twists and turns the book took was incredibly fun, I did not predict the ending which was really nice. I'm hoping this is a series because I have questions I need answered.

Thank you so much NetGalley for this ARC.

Vasalie was a court dancer, until she was framed for murder two years ago. Now, the king frees her on one condition: she must attend the Gathering of Crowns and spy for him.

I enjoyed this first entry into a new series! The story definitely focuses more on the policitical intrigue and espionage than the romance, but it was still a really good mix of both. It does follow the standard romantasy "plot", but while some things were easy to predict I was still thoroughly entertained!

Thank you to Random House Publishing for an e-arc, all opinions are my own.

Vasalie Moran is a dancer in King Illian’s court, the king’s Jewel, until she was framed for the murder of a courtier two years ago. The king frees her from prison and offers her a deal - she must attend the Gathering of Crowns and spy for him, in exchange for her freedom and exoneration.

Despite knowing what’s at stake for her, Vasalie begins to question who she can really trust and whether everything she knows is a lie. As Illian’s tasks become more dangerous and the stakes increase, Vasalie must decide what (and who) she’s willing to exchange for her freedom.

I enjoyed this and will probably pick up future books in the series! The story focused more on the court politics and espionage, so felt a little slower in the middle (due to the lack of action/fighting). But the tension between all of the different characters was great and I liked the MCs - Anton was my favorite and reminded of Miyazaki’s Howl 😍

One criticism is that the disability rep reminded me a bit of Fourth Wing - I think we’re told about how Vasalie’s disability affected her ability to dance but, didn’t really see that. It felt like she was always practicing and able to push through most of her pain and stiffness without breaks, despite the book taking place over a relatively short period of time.

Would definitely recommend for fans of ACOTAR and books with a focus on political intrigue 🎭

I loved this book. Despite following typical romantasy patterns, it felt fresh and I loved the world. Vasalie personality and the disability representation were so engaging. All other characters were fantastic as well, even the minor ones. And the suspense? Next level.

firstly, thank you to the publisher for an arc!

a dance of lies was one of my highly anticipated romantasy debuts for 2025, and it is a great addition to the romantasy genre! of course, it had all of my favorite tropes so it’s not that hard to please me in that case.

even though a dance of lies had many of my favorite tropes, many things were obvious to me after reading this genre so often for so many years, but i loved the way the author revealed them.

i also appreciated the disability representation through our fmc vasalie.

i’m excited to read the next book after the last 25% of the book ending up as a whirlwind of events!

i can’t wait to see my fairyloot edition — i’m sure it’s gorgina