In Heart Quest, Saille T'Willow gave his HeartGift to Trif so that she could deposit it in a public area. The HeartGift got picked up by a variety of people before finally finding its way to Saille's HeartMate, Dufleur Thyme. Unfortunately, the timing was awful, and the sudden fluctuation in Dufleur's Flair brought her to the attention of a group of people who were ritually killing people with unstable Flair. She almost died.

This book continues Saille and Dufleur's story. Saille now knows who his HeartMate is and hopes to pursue Dufleur more openly. First, though, he has to wait for her to officially accept his HeartGift (or at least keep it in her possession for long enough to satisfy society and the legal system). The problem? She keeps throwing it out or locking it up. Dufleur wants nothing to do with HeartMates and love. All she cares about is her work. Although her beloved father blew himself and the Thyme Residence up while conducting his time-related experiments, Dufleur remains convinced that his experiments weren't dangerous. In an effort to clear her father's name, she illegally uses her Flair to continue her father's research and prove the usefulness of his work.

Saille has more hurdles to overcome than just Dufleur's unwillingness to accept his HeartGift. First, there's his discovery that his grandmother, the previous D'Willow, was so determined to keep him from taking over as the new head of the Family that she spent years matching couples even though her matchmaking Flair no longer worked. If this information gets out, it could ruin the Family. Second, there's the fact that D'Willow is technically still alive, held in stasis until a cure can be found for the disease that's killing her. If she's ever cured, it's guaranteed that she'll try to take over as head of the Willows again.

I liked both Dufleur and Saille well enough in the previous book. The reasoning behind Saille's decision to send his HeartGift out made sense. I didn't think the implications through, though, until I began reading this book.

Okay, so in Heart Quest, Ilex's HeartGift didn't make an appearance until the end of the book, after he and Trif became friends and then lovers. Heart Dance flipped things around so that the relationship began with the HeartGift, and I loathed it. You have to understand, HeartGifts are basically little lust bombs. A person who is near their HeartMate's unshielded HeartGift finds themselves suddenly overwhelmed by lust. They mentally connect with their HeartMate for a bout of what is basically dream sex. Public orgasms are a possibility. And Saille sent his HeartGift out so that his HeartMate could potentially stumble across it anywhere. In addition to that, after Dufleur was attacked in Heart Quest, Saille's HeartGift was retrieved and he was given the option of taking it back. Since his HeartMate had been revealed to him, it wasn't strictly necessary to send it out again, but he did it anyway. So she could potentially stumble across it anywhere, again. Like I said, the implications didn't really hit me until I started reading Heart Dance.

Saille kept emphasizing that he wanted to be strictly ethical in his pursuit and courtship of Dufleur, but it was such a lie. There was even a scene in which he checked the rules about HeartGifts to see if there was anything he could take advantage of, in order to pressure Dufleur into accepting and marrying him.

I wanted Dufleur to be angrier, more forceful in her rejection of Saille's HeartGift, because he quite frankly deserved it. I wanted Saille to realize that what he'd done and thought of doing was wrong. If he had to be the other half of this couple, I wanted him to at least do some serious groveling. Sadly, I instead got a story in which, near the end, Dufleur was considered the one who had done the most harm and the one who had to grovel.

For people who were supposed to be HeartMates, Dufleur and Saille were incredibly badly matched. They spent most of the book hurting each other and hiding important information from each other. Dufleur didn't tell Saille her suspicions about her father's death, and Saille didn't tell Dufleur about D'Willow matching couples even though she'd lost her Flair. They only seemed to do well together in bed, and even that was questionable due to the influence of Saille's HeartGift.

On the plus side, I was mildly interested in the mystery of what really happened the night Dufleur's father died, and the developments involving Dufleur's Flair kept my attention. The scene with the remnants of the Thyme Residence was wonderful, but then I'm partial to anything involving the Residences. Also, Fairyfoot, Dufleur's Fam, was delightfully clever in her greediness. If only she hadn't been such a terrible Fam, betraying Dufleur to Saille because she wanted to live in Saille's Residence.

I have two unread books in this series. I had thought I could power through all my Celta books in one go, but Heart Dance has significantly reduced my enthusiasm. Heart Change will have to wait. I will say this: Heart Dance made me even happier that I never bought Heart Fate, Tinne Holly's book. I can't imagine how it could be anything but unpleasant.

Extras:

• A list of characters
• The Holly/Blackthorn family tree
• A map of Celta

Rating Note:

I had been considering giving this 2 stars until Owens set things up so that Dufleur had to apologize to Saille. The HeartGifts being invoked a few more times didn't help. They were such ordinary objects that I couldn't help but laugh during what was supposed to be two very emotional moments. Why are some HeartGifts useful objects when they render HeartMates completely useless?

(Original review, including read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Why are some HeartGifts useful items when they render HeartMates useless?

Anyway, I have finished this. Yay. I was not happy that Owens set things up so that Dufleur had to grovel for the characters to get their happy ending. Don't get me wrong, I think she messed up plenty along the way, but so did Saille. For people who were supposed to be HeartMates, they spent a lot of time hurting each other, hiding things from each other, and getting along better in bed than out of it.

My imaginary different ending:

Dufleur and Saille go their separate ways because she can't trust that he'll stand by her and support her practicing her Flair, and he can't trust a woman who'd risk damaging his Family and causing it pain.

Ten years later, Dufleur is successful and she and her Flair are well-respected. Now that the entire world isn't beating her down and telling her that the Flair that is so much a part of her is too dangerous to practice, she is more self-confident. She meets a younger man who has just gone through his third Passage without connecting with a HeartMate. He admires her intelligence, and loves her smile. He makes her laugh. They first met ten years ago, at one of the parties Passiflora made Dufleur go to. She thought he was sweet but was too wrapped up in Saille at the time to notice him much beyond that, and he liked that she didn't make fun of him for being an awkward dancer. He's a better dancer now.

Saille eventually gets his head out of his butt and finds someone too. I haven't really thought through those details because, honestly, I liked Dufleur more.

If Nuin never appeared in the series again, I'd be happy. He's a little monster. I'm pretty sure Owens is aiming for an "aww, such an energetic little tyke!" response from readers, but him being on his fourth nanny because he's such a terror is not charming.

This post is inspired by every brief mention of him in this book, as well as what I remember of him in the previous one. As weirdly adult-like as Vinni is, at least he doesn't grate on my nerves.

The Willow Residence, explaining the rules of HeartGifts:

"The HeartMate must accept a HeartGift willingly and without knowing it is a HeartGift before the other can claim them as a HeartMate and HeartBond with them. The punishment for telling a person that they are your HeartMate is that the offending party must always be chaperoned while in the presence of the HeartMate--"

1) How could she (the person being given the HeartGift is almost always female) not know it's a HeartGift, considering that the things are practically lust bombs?

2) So it's okay for the man (it's almost always a man) to be unchaperoned around the woman if he knows they're HeartMates and she doesn't, but they have to be chaperoned if he puts them on even ground by telling her? I remember having problems with this rule back when I first started the series.

So far, this is a stronger and more focused book than Heart Quest, but I keep coming across things that annoy me. 

Behold this awful cover. It's metallic too.

I really hate the way the HeartGifts work, and that Saille's decision to send his out into the world is considered ethical. HeartGifts are little aphrodisiacs that work on a single person, and he sent his out so his HeartMate could just stumble across it anywhere. Ick. She was able to toss it out, but still.