Welcome to the Blog + Review Tour for The Ballerina's Bargain by Lorri Dudley, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!
About the Book
Title: The Ballerina's Bargain
Series: Danforth Theatre #1
Author: Regency Romance
Publisher: Wild Heart Books
Release Date: September 8, 2026
Genre: Historical Regency Romance
A burdened earl. A determined ballerina. Saving the theatre was part of their bargain. Losing their hearts wasn't.
London, 1815
Emmeline Laurent has survived by grace and grit. After her parents' execution in France, she has learned to live unseen as a humble ballerina instructing young pupils in a small London theatre. When whispers spread that the Danforth Theatre may be sold to an unscrupulous buyer, Emmeline fears not only for her livelihood but for the safety of her impressionable students. With no time and no options, she does the only thing she knows to do: leap into a moving carriage and bargain with the new lord who holds their fate.
Grant Atherton, the Earl of Quincy, has inherited the crushing weight of duty along with a failing theatre, an arranged engagement, two younger sisters to usher into society, and a mountain of his father's secrets. Selling the Danforth is the only way to save his family from ruin. The last thing he needs is a beautiful, infuriatingly determined ballerina turning his careful plans upside down.
But when Emmeline's hidden past begins surfacing and the danger circling the theatre proves far deadlier than either of them realized, Grant must choose between the life he planned and the one God may have been preparing all along.
For fans of Roseanna M. White and Jen Turano — a sweeping Regency romance about the grace found in surrender, the courage it takes to trust, and the God who makes a way when every door seems closed.
PURCHASE LINKS: Goodreads | Wild Heart Books | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop | BookBub
Also Available
About the Author
Lorri Dudley is the bestselling author of The Leeward Island Series and The Agents of Espionage Series. She has a master’s degree in psychology and lives in Ashland, Massachusetts with her husband and three teenage sons, where writing romance allows her an escape from her testosterone filled household.
Connect with Lorri by visiting lorridudley.com to follow her on social media and subscribe to email newsletter updates.
Author Guest Post
“Please, come,” Emmeline whispered into the emptiness below. “God is giving you a chance to protect His children. Do this one thing. Answer His call.” – The Ballerina’s Bargain.
My favorite one-star reviews are the ones where a reader says they could have done without all the “God stuff.” It reassures me that I’m flying over the target. I believe readers should be led on a heart journey. Romance should give us an escape from everyday life, but it should also lead us toward a deeper understanding of the human condition and how God views us. Like the heroes and heroines in our stories, we are not static creatures. We grow and change. Through empathizing with fictional characters, we discover different aspects of ourselves and see how a fallible human heart can be made whole by a merciful Creator.
I’m not looking to be preachy in my books, but when you love something, it shows. I don’t try to force God into a scene. Instead, I allow my characters to question, wrestle, and dialogue about Him in the same natural way that thoughts of God come to my own mind and permeate my life. A friend once told me, “Just write, and God will work Himself onto the page.” I’ve found that to be true.
What I love most about the romance character arc is how beautifully it aligns with Christ’s redemption story: sin, repentance, salvation, redemption, and restoration. In The Ballerina’s Bargain, Emmeline’s lie is that she cannot trust anyone. That lie manifests itself physically when she is unable to trust her partner enough to perform the lifts required of a prima ballerina. As she chassés her way toward repentance, she questions whether Grant can be trusted, yet she needs his help to save her ballet students from the evil men threatening them. Setbacks prove that trusting people can hurt, but through those wounds, Emmeline discovers a deeper truth, her ultimate trust can’t rest in another person. It must rest in God. By placing her faith in Him, she learns to love and ultimately finds the restoration she was seeking all along.
Perhaps that is why I believe Christian romance can be so much more than an escape. At its best, it gives us a mirror for our own hearts. We recognize our fears in a heroine, our pride in a hero, our wounds in their struggles, and perhaps even our own need for grace in the places where they fall short. We turn the pages hoping the protagonists will find forgiveness, healing, and love, and somewhere along the way, we are reminded that those things are available to us, too. I write romance because I love a happily-ever-after, but I write Christian romance because I believe the deepest happily-ever-after is not found in another person. It is found in discovering the One who loved us enough to redeem our broken hearts and make all things new.
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Tour Giveaway
(1) winner will receive a $50 Amazon gift card and a prize bundle with reading blanket, socks, and candle!
Full tour schedule linked below. The giveaway begins at midnight September 8, 2026 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on September 15, 2026. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US/CAN only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.
Giveaway is subject to JustRead Publicity Tours Giveaway Policies.
Follow along at JustRead Tours for a full list of stops!
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