Dance of Shadows by Yelena Black

Goodreads Blurb

Dancing with someone is an act of trust. Elegant and intimate; you're close enough to kiss, close enough to feel your partner's heartbeat. But for Vanessa, dance is deadly – and she must be very careful who she trusts . . .
Vanessa Adler attends an elite ballet school – the same one her older sister, Margaret, attended before she disappeared. Vanessa feels she can never live up to her sister's shining reputation. But Vanessa, with her glorious red hair and fair skin, has a kind of power when she dances – she loses herself in the music, breathes different air, and the world around her turns to flames . . . 
Soon she attracts the attention of three men: gorgeous Zep, mysterious Josh, and the great, enigmatic choreographer Josef Zhalkovsky. When Josef asks Vanessa to dance the lead in the Firebird, she has little idea of the danger that lies ahead – and the burning forces about to be unleashed . . .

I had incredibly, incredibly high expectations for this, which may have something to do with the absolutely gorgeous cover, so I wasn't very surprised when it just fell flat of them, but I was a bit disappointed.

What disappointed me was how completely...shallow Vanessa was. And not in that personality sense. We never got to learn much about Vanessa really, and what we did learn irritated me. From what we see, she misses her sister, she thinks she knows it all, she's naive, and she's stubborn, and not a good sense. But apart from that I didn't really get much from Vanessa and her character seemed to be there only to move the plot forward. In other words, her character just seemed...well, fake and the same honestly goes for the other characters as well. Their personalities only pushed on the plot and honestly, were very stereotypical.

The romance was also a bit annoying. Vanessa seemed to fall for Zep right when she saw him and (SPOILER) seemed to fall for Justin (a.k.a. Josh, but in the eARC it was Justin, so I'll call him that for now) only when Zep was gone, even after bitching at Justin for so long. It was annoying and I really just wanted to say "Really?" She was so desperate and pining for Zep and I just wanted to smack her for being so weak.

The only redeeming things were the plot and world-building, in all honesty. 

The plot was a perfect pacing where it didn't go too fast for this type of supernatural, but it wasn't exceedingly slow. There were many twists I was shocked by, though I admit there were also a lot I had predicted beforehand, but it was still intriguing to see how things played out with this demonic dancing. 
I think that the premise of this is completely original. Since when have you heard of a dance that can destroy you? Never. At least, not that I've heard of! I loved the idea of it, I loved the sinister feeling the school gave off, and I loved each abnormal thing mentioned in the book! 

Dance of Shadows, while it does have it's weak points, was dark and stunning and will steal your breath just as ballet would. The sinister atmosphere, mysterious disappearings, and more will keep rapture you and you'll find this book hard to put down! 

Pages: 447
Series: Dance of Shadows #1
Genre: Supernatural/Romance
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
Release Date: February 12, 2013
Rating: 3.5--->4 stars