This is a very well written book about a ballet company. It is obvious that the author knows firsthand about life in the ballet world. I read this as a stand-alone book but it is the 2nd in a series.

Dena and Rebecca are sisters and are both members of the same San Francisco ballet company. There's a bit of the rivalry to be expected from sisters but all that changes when Dena is diagnosed with a type of brain tumour and, after surgery, she suffers major side effects. This includes hearing loss, a severed facial nerve and months of rehab. It's grueling and challenging but Dena learns about herself and the world beyond ballet.

Rebecca too needs to come to terms with her life - dancing without her sister and without a chance of promotion. She uses Dena's tumour to advance her ballet career and must rebuild her relationships once her betrayal is exposed. This book is a realistic portrayal of the ballet world and is a good and easy read.

I received a copy of this book from Net Galley in return for an honest review.

Classical Girl Press and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Outside the Limelight. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Outside the Limelight is the second book in the Ballet Theatre Chronicles, which is a series surrounding a fictitious ballet company. This book is more of a companion novel than a direct sequel, so readers will not be missing much if they are new to the series. Written by a former ballet dancer, Outside the Limelight is a look beyond the graceful dancer to the hardworking athlete that is behind the curtain.

Dena Lindgren has always been in the shadow of her older sister Rebecca, especially in the world of dance. When the artistic director hands a coveted soloist position to Dena, will the relationship between the sisters survive the fallout? Four years later, nagging health issues increasing affect Dena's job performance. When the dizziness and hearing loss are compounded with balance issues, Dena has no choice but to seek professional help. When Dena's world comes crashing down around her, will her sister be there to pick up the pieces?

As a former ballet dancer myself, although admittedly not even close to the same caliber as the artists described in this book, I understand the pain and sacrifice that it takes to be a dancer. The author has done an excellent job of bringing the reader into her world, behind the curtain of the beautiful ballet productions. Terez Mertes Rose created a great story, with characters that are relatable. The sisterly bond, with its double sided coin of rivalry and love, is well developed in the book, giving the characters depth beyond the medical and professional plot lines. Outside the Limelight will appeal to readers who are fans of ballet, but also to those who like a good story about the struggles to maintain meaningful familial relationships.

I didn't even realise this was the second in a series until now! So not having read the first didn't hurt my enjoyment of this book. Loved it. Long and in-depth, you really get to know all the characters super well. I really enjoyed reading about Rebecca too, and her relationship with Dena - I felt we got to know her a bit more? Interesting to see how she is portrayed as a very unsympathetic character near the start but then it turns out she's not at all.

Omg her roommates Charlotte and Steph were utterly hideous. I know Rebecca wasn't entirely innocent (having actually cheated on Boyd!) but their nastiness reminded me a lot of some of my own ex-housemates so I was way more on Rebecca's side than I would have been otherwise in that instance, lol.

I found it really interesting to read about what goes on behind the scenes in a ballet company and the struggles of two dancers. However, while ballet plays a big role, it is mainly a story about sibling rivalry, friendships, and family. It is a well-written story that I'll probably re-read at some point.

I found the tension between the sisters to be incredibly well done and appreciated that they were given their own lives and characterizations. Each sister could have had their own book, honestly. It reminded me of the Starz show Flesh and Bone, which was a bit dark but still enjoyable.

Great story, well written. I read it without realizing it was part of a series. Good as a stand alone book.

Ballet is highly competitive and no one knows this more than Dena and Rebecca, two sisters dancing for the same company. The story follows the sisters journey through rehearsals, performances, rehabilitation and romantic relationships. I found that I sympathized with their struggles as well as successes. The writing was clear, the plot and the characters well developed.

I read this as a standalone and am happy to inform that it is easily readable without any background from book 1.

Dena Lindgren is a petite dancer and three years younger than sister, Rebecca. Dena is asked to be a soloist but knows it'll hurt her sister as they both deal with their dad's divorce.

Now in their early twenties as the story flashes forwards in time, Dena has had a relationship with fellow dancer Nicholas, her best friends are Lana and Sylvie, her dad has remarried and Rebecca seems bitter towards her still at times as does her boyfriend, Boyd.

There's also the fact that she's having a battle with fatigue and dizziness and it's beginning to affect her performance. Pretty swiftly we discover the cause is a brain tumour and her dance teacher Anders suspected so secretly all along. As she undergoes hours of horrendous surgery, her sister and parents wait anxiously tension between them all after Rebecca tricked her father into telling her what was wrong with Dena and not allowing Dena time to inform everyone at the dance school as she passes on the news.

As Dena recovers, we watch her torment at not being allowed to perform again yet and watch as we find her sister in a love triangle of wanting to break up with Boyd, date Anders and not seeing how her college teacher of science, Misha feels towards her. Though, as the novel goes on Misha and Dene become close friends as she learns he left behind medical training to teach and he understands her emotional frustrations at how her body is back and forth with healing and then needing more procedures again.

Meanwhile, her sister goes through a rollercoaster of friendship and relationship problems although she does try more with Dena to repair the cracks in their rocky relationship. Especially with Rebecca being offered a bigger role and able to dance, whilst Dena is not able to at the standard the company takes people on for performance's.

The book is alike to Lurlene McDaniels books of which also tackle young love and medical problems combined and alike E4 show Stage School in the ballet setting. It's a very touching book and is actually the second in a series I have discovered of which both are available on Amazon to buy and read. I highly recommend you read them for yourselves but read them the right way round too, I'm sure going to read the first one too myself now after enjoying this one so much.

Thanks to the publishers allowing me to review this book for you!

Dena Lindgren's ballet career is starting to fall into place – but a fall transforms her life, when it's discovered she has a brain tumour. As she begins the long road to recovery, her older sister, Rebecca, begins to receive extra attention from the artistic director, Anders Gunst, perhaps once again heading towards a promotion to soloist. Both sisters are forced to confront what they really want from ballet and life.

Out of the Limelight was absorbing enough to be a page-turner, but it wasn't something that I felt particularly gripped or enchanted by. I feel a bit odd about the book – I can't deny that I read it in a matter of hours, but I don't feel like I actually, unreservedly, enjoyed it.

The detail of the plot and characters feels to be the bones of a fantastic read. It's a complicated story, dealing with ideas of family, loyalty and competition against the backdrop of a career as demanding and absorbing as ballet. For Dena and Rebecca, ballet is not just their career, but their dream and their life – what happens if they are pushed to move away from that world?

But it felt a bit superficial to me – while there was that complexity in the detail, it didn't seem to have been communicated in the actual meat of the story. I also wondered if Outside the Limelight was a bit too clinical, in how it handled the medical and dance side of things – I certainly felt I learned a lot about ballet and brain tumours, believed that the author did a lot of research, but I don't know if the level of detail enhanced the story. This was also not helped by the writing, which felt a bit pedestrian.

I don't feel that I liked Outside the Limelight, but I don't feel like I disliked it either. 2.5 stars.

Terez Mertes Rose is a writer and former ballet dancer whose work has appeared in the Crab Orchard Review, Women Who Eat (Seal Press), A Woman’s Europe (Travelers’ Tales), the Philadelphia Inquirer and the San Jose Mercury News. She reviews dance performances for Bachtrack.com and blogs about ballet and classical music at The Classical Girl. She makes her home in the Santa Cruz Mountains with her husband, son and too many cats. She loves good food, good wine, and a good (but not too hard) adult ballet class. She also publishes under the name Terez Rose.

19-year-old Dena Lindgren just got promoted to soloist in The West Coast Ballet Theatre in San Francisco, CA. She is a first-year corp dancer. Rebecca is Dena's older sister. She is also a dancer. Dena is sad for Rebecca that she didn't get the soloist part. Their parents have just told them they're divorcing.

Then Dena gets sidelined when a fall on stage reveals a brain tumor that will take more than a year to recover from. The story goes on to reveal the relationship between the sisters, their love interests and all of the members of the Ballet company.

I never realized professional ballet dancers worked such long schedules or performed in pain. A real eye opener.
I know virtually nothing of professional ballet, so I found Outside the Limelight to be an interesting look at the behind the scenes world. The author is a former ballet dancer and a ballet blogger as well.
overall, I found it an enjoyable read.

What a wonderful story that showed a glimpse into the dance world! This is definitely one of my favorite realistic fiction novels so far!

The rigors of the dance world and the toll it takes on the dancers was depicted so accurately. This novel makes even those who aren't entrenched in that world understand how a passion can drive a person to go to extreme lengths. I could connect with every single character in the story, the way they pushed themselves to keep going despite numerous injuries, their doubts as to whether they were good enough or whether they should just give it a rest. But most of all, the joy and the exhilaration that the dancers felt when they performed well... that was captured and explained beautifully. With every triumph they had, I shared in that feeling with them.

The sisters' relationship was both complex and simple at the same time, and in a way it reminded me of my own relationship with my little sister. It was complex because they are both in such a difficult environment, where one person's success means the other person failed. To still support your sister through that is a difficult task indeed. The sisters showed that even the strongest ties can be weakened by ambition, fear, and selfishness. But it can also be restrengthened through growth, consideration, and love for each other. Throughout the novel, we read about these sisters going through their own emotions and how that affects their interaction with each other. By the end of the novel, they feel at peace with their life and where they are at, which was just amazing to witness.

All of the other characters were equally strong, and were necessary to show other sides of the sisters' personalities. Their respective interactions with other characters showed how they managed to make it as individuals, while also highlighting the competitiveness and pettiness that can emerge in this industry. I'm not going to say more in case I spoil the story but every character played an essential role, and helped to make the story work.

I really enjoyed this book, with its insightful view of the ballet world. This novel explored relationships, ambition, and fate in a touching way, and I still feel the impact of it hours after reading the story. This novel will make you connect on an intimate level with Dena and Rebecca, and will show you that a tragedy can sometimes lead to a better place.