Product Description

A scandal that shocks a nation...and a passion that transforms a woman.

At the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, the modern, the exotic, and the ground-breaking collide. But Dora Chambers has more pressing matters to consider. Hoping to begin a life of wealth and privilege in Chicago, she sets out to earn the approval of the Fair's Board of Lady Managers to appease her ambitious, aloof husband. Unimpressed, they give Dora the distasteful task of enforcing proper conduct at the Egyptian belly dancing exhibition.

But Dora's sensibilities are not so easily flustered. She finds herself captivated by these exotic women, and by their enigmatic manager, Hossam Farouk, who makes his mistrust of her known-although his lingering glances hint at something else.

As Dora's eyes are opened to the world beyond a life of social expectations and quiet servitude, she finds the courage to break free of her self-imposed bondage, and discovers the truth about the desire and passion in her own heart.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #111708 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780425227787
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
While Cameron depicts with accuracy and sympathy the very real plight of women in 19th century America, uneven pacing and character development weaken this debut. When the World's Fair arrives in Chicago in 1893, women are sexually repressed and strictly ruled by their husbands. Newlywed Dora Chambers goes to great lengths to keep her banker husband, Charles, happy, even ingratiating herself with a dreadful group of snotty socialites who oversee the decorum of the fair's more exotic exhibits, like the popular Egyptian belly dancing attraction. Dora is given the task of toning down the Egyptian dancers' act, strikes up a friendship with the troupe, and together they appease the outraged female population by modifying their dance and adding scarves to disguise their curves. Dora's husband, impatient with her virginal fear of the marriage bed, quickly resumes relations with his powerful and rich mistress, a widow who despises Dora and knows the secrets that can ruin Dora's social standing. Despite the intriguing subject and historical period, Dora's startling transformation under the tutelage of the dance troupe feels unreal, even though the story is based on fact.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"The characters in this novel will dance right off the page and into your imagination! Cameron's representation of late nineteenth century Chicago is rich and evocative, and the whispered echoes of old New Orleans in Dora's fragmented memory left me hoping this author goes there with her next novel."
-Brenda Rickman Vantrease, author of The Illuminator and The Mercy Seller

"A beautifully written page-turner with characters that leap off the page, THE BELLY DANCER transports readers into an exotic and sensual world within a world, as plucky but initially naïve Dora Chambers fights Chicago society's conventions and her husband's indifference to discover, in the thrall of the Egyptian Theatre, a passion beyond her wildest dreams. Will she risk security and society's approval to live what many would think a dissolute life? Cameron keeps us guessing until the end. I loved it...(and picked up a few useful tips about seduction in the process!)."
-Lynette Brasfield, author of Booksense pick NATURE LESSONS: A NOVEL (St. Martin's Press, NY, 2004)

About the Author
DeAnna Cameron served as editor of Orange Coast, a regional lifestyle magazine, and worked at several Southern California newspapers before turning to fiction.

Customer Reviews

Captivating story
I LOVED THIS BOOK. Let me first say that I don't read romance. As a genre, the stuff I tried to read in my youth (200 years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth) was melodramatic, sordid, over-the-top, blech. Now that I've read The Belly Dancer, I may have to dabble in romance again. DeAnna's story of this young New Orleans girl who thinks she wants one thing, when in reality, she needs another, kept me so captivated that I read it in one day. The juxtaposition of the straight-laced Victorian society with the exotic world of not just belly dancers, but "Fair folk" made each one of Dora's jaunts to the theater so intriguing - I couldn't wait to find out what would happen.

Bottom line: If you like romance, you'll love The Belly Dancer, and if you don't like romance, you'll still love The Belly Dancer.

terrific historical tale
Leaving New Orleans with her new husband, Dora Chambers vows to be a good wife. To obtain her spouse's approving regard, she joins Chicago's Fair's Board of Lady Managers. However, her efforts do not register with him as he remains distant and colder than the city's weather in winter.

The Fair's Board of Lady Managers assigns Dora to the seemingly nasty task of monitoring the belly dancing exhibition at the World's Fair. While the prim and proper female elite laugh at Dora, she finds the assignment fun, likes and admirers the dancers and is attracted to their manager, Hossam Farouk. He is an enigma to her as his voice says he distrusts her, but his eyes say he wants her. Inside the pavilion, Dora feels free unlike outside where she lives in a gilded cage.

The setting of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago provides more than just a wonderful backdrop as people from around the globe show off the best of their respective societies. In that venue, the innocent heroine, while trying to please her husband's family and friends, becomes Dora the "Explorer". However what she mostly scrutinizes is herself as she wants to break out of the chains society places on women, but also fears the consequences. THE BELLY DANCER is a terrific historical tale that proudly salutes the nineteenth century suffragette movement leaders and their everyday troops while also affirming society is so much stronger when barriers of specifically group aimed restraints are limited.

Harriet Klausner

Enchanting period romance
I'm not especially into romance (anymore- was my fav genre in my younger days) but I AM into belly dance so this story line intrigued me with its Victorian spin. I would read this author again and in fact finished this book fairly quickly. Hope you enjoy!