Books2Mention Magazine
When You Dance With The Devil is a great story with wonderful life lessons readers can gain knowledge from . . . a poignant novel that will encourage deep reflection.

Booklist
The Thank the Lord Boarding House sits on the Atlantic coast in Maryland. It is owned by Fannie Johnson and home to an assortment of interesting characters who treat one another like family. For 35 years, Sara Jolene Tilman grew up under the cruelty of her grandmother and mother in Hagerstown, Maryland. After her mother's death, Fannie's brother, Reverend Philip Coles, suggests Jolene sell her home and move to the boardinghouse. At 45, Richard Peterson is a successful executive of a governmental agency and living in Switzerland. He is denouncing his globe-trotting lifestyle and escaping his heartbreak after a former lover announces her wedding. He returns to the States to live near the ocean and moves into the boardinghouse. Jolene attempts to overcome her low self-esteem by getting a job, dating, and finding a female friend. Richard works on overcoming his snobbish demeanor and pledges abstinence. On their paths to self-discovery, Jolene and Richard vow to make fresh starts and learn some hard truths about family, love, and themselves. Lillian Lewis
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RAWSISTAZ.com (4 stars)

WHEN YOU DANCE WITH THE DEVIL focuses primarily on two emotionally deplete individuals who have traveled completely opposite roads. But, who for a moment will share the same stoplight, a quaint, almost surreal boarding house near Ocean City, Maryland.

Sara Jolene Tillman's thirty-five years have given her an elemental existence. Mentally tortured by her mother, she grew up answering to abusive demands and hearing spews of hatred for men and herself. Her world is secluded, empty and lonely. Immediately after the death of her mother she flees the house that imprisoned her. Jolene, in search of herself, has to learn how to feel human and how to be a woman. What she experiences in Maryland could be a disastrous eye-opener.

Forty-four-year-old, Richard Peterson has lived a magnanimous life; a prestigious career in international government at one of the largest non-governmental organizations in the world. He was selfish, ruthless and dogmatic with his career and with women. But for all his accomplishments, Richard is as alone and emotionally naive as Jolene. He resigns his positions in search of a softer more human existence. Life at the boarding house is foreign to him.

WHEN YOU DANCE WITH THE DEVIL takes readers into the hearts of an eclectic cast of characters. Their placement in the story adds a subtle clarity to the message, my only adjustment was to the story's setting; I found it a little obscure. But the depth of the story lies in the austerity of the characters and their issues. Ms. Forster has given more than a story of redemption; it is a story that encompasses the growth of the inner-self, the cleansing of souls, and an exposure to a time that is strikingly old-fashioned. This story should appeal to the innocence in readers.

Reviewed by aNN
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers