title: The Ballroom: A Novel
author:  Anna Hope 
description: <i>The Ballroom</i> successfully blends historical research with emotional intelligence to explore the tensions and trials of the human condition with grace and insight.<b><i>New York Times </i>Book Review</b><br /><br />Part historical novel and part romance, <i>The Ballroom</i> paints an incredibly rich portrait of the mentally stable forced to live in an asylum. [Anna] Hope transports readers inside the asylum, to feel the thick humidity of the stale summer air of the day room, and the gritty and brutal reality inside those walls.<b><i>Booklist</i></b><br /> <br /> A compelling cast of emotionally resonant characters, as well as a bittersweet climax, render Hopes second novel a powerful, memorable experience.<b><i>Publishers Weekly</i></b><br /><br />Hopes writing is consistently beautiful. . . . Recommended for readers who enjoy historical fiction by Sarah Waters or Emma Donoghue.<b><i>Library Journal</i></b><br /><br /> A beautifully wrought novel, a tender, heartbreaking and insightful exploration of the longings that survive in the most inhospitable environments.<b><i>Sunday Express</i></b><br /> <br /> <i>The Ballroom</i> has all the intensity and lyricism of [Anna] Hopes debut, <i>Wake</i>. At its heart is a tender and absorbing love story.<b><i>Daily Mail</i></b><br /> <br /> Compelling and masterful . . . Anna Hope has proven once again that she is a luminary in historical fiction. . . . She delivers profound, poignant narratives that stir the emotions.<b><i>Yorkshire Post</i></b><br /> <br /> As with Hopes highly acclaimed debut novel, <i>Wake, </i>the writing is elegant and insightful; she writes beautifully about human emotion, landscape and weather.<b><i>The Observer</i></b><br /> <i></i><br /> A brilliantly moving meditation on what it means to be insane in a cruel world . . . All the characters are vividly and sensitively drawn. . . . Deeply moving.<b><i>The Irish Times</i></b>
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  Scandalous Ballroom Encounters
  
  Victoria Vale
  
  Book 1:
  
  Masquerade
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Masquerade
  
  Victoria Vale
  
  Copyright 2015 by Victoria Vale
  
  Edited by Zee Monodee (Divas at Work Editing)
  
  Cover Art by PJ Friel
  
  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions
  thereof in any form whatsoever
  
  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a
  product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance
  to actual events, laces, or people, living or dead, is coincidental.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Contents
  
  [Chapter One](index_split_000.html#filepos167)
  
  [Chapter Two](index_split_005.html#filepos15370)
  
  [Chapter Three](index_split_006.html#filepos21527)
  
  [Chapter Four](index_split_007.html#filepos31635)
  
  [Chapter Five](index_split_008.html#filepos42777)
  
  [Chapter Six](index_split_009.html#filepos54057)
  
  [Chapter Seven](index_split_010.html#filepos62769)
  
  [Chapter Eight](index_split_011.html#filepos78146)
  
  [Chapter Nine](ind