This is more like Big Little Lies set at a ballet company instead of a school. In the end, it lined up with BLL plot points. All the men are horrible there isn't one nice one. All of these men used the C-word like it was going out of fashion.
It would have been better if it focused on more of the relationships between the women and been labeled literary fiction. It showed the complicated relationship between mother and daughter well. A sudden twist and a big bad did not need to exist to make this story shine.

I think people looking for a thriller will be disappointed and those looking for dance fiction a bit disappointed in the end. It is a good debut.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the review copy.

This book is a very slow burn and it’s quite long, so be in it for the long haul. I was reading it on my e-reader and kept asking how I was only that far along in the story—not in a bad way, necessarily, just in a curious way. It goes back and forth from the past to the present, and you’re trying to figure out a transgression from the past while seeing where the future lies for these dancers, which I was totally on board for. There is a little bit of dance jargon and delving into the world of choreography, which I’m not sure would float everyone’s boat, but which I devoured, almost wanting more. I understood the characters’ motivation for every move, which I can’t say that I’ve read in a long time, and even though the lot of them were not great people, you wanted everything to turn out okay.

I will admit that I was a little underwhelmed by the two events that were meant to be the major plot points (one in the past and one in the present)—for some reason I was expecting them to be a little more extreme or surprising, but for some reason that didn’t mean I didn’t still enjoy what I was going on, which I will attest to Kapelke-Dale’s amazing world-building and character development. All in all, it was a great read that I thoroughly enjoyed…though it didn’t make me miss my dancing days.

People who liked Black Swan with Natalie Portman will definitely find this enjoyable and I highly recommend it to anyone who ever had dance be an important part of their life—they’ll find it familiar and exciting.

4 STARS

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

This was definitely a slow burn of book without much of a plot but surprisingly it really drew me in and I liked it. The character's were multilayered and I found the ballet dynamics interesting. I would hardly call this a mystery or thriller though.

I liked this book a lot.

It would have been more enjoyable with less detail on the ballet choreographing. It seemed to be too technical with choreographing. I thought those parts would only appeal to a small target market of Ballett dancers.

If you liked Pretty Little Liars or you are a ballerina, you will like this book.

I received this galley from NetGalley.

The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale is simply and amazing book with a riveting story line as you follow the lives of the ballerinas. Captivating and nuanced this is a great book, one that is emotional and shows the underbelly of ballet. Recommend. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

2.5 stars

Having enjoyed the Tiny Pretty Things duology, I was cautiously optimistic about reading another ballet-centered thriller even though the genre is typically not my cup of tea. There was one eleventh-hour reveal that I liked, and it was interesting enough to keep me reading to the end, but what I thought was an anticlimactic Big Reveal (after a lot of suspenseful buildup) and the allo/cis/mostly-white feminism ultimately made this a “just okay” read for me.

Former dancer, Delphine, returns to France after several years in Russia, prepared to take the ballet world by storm as a choreographer. However, she finds herself stuck in the same teenage-type crap that caused her to leave in the first place.
I love me some ballet, so I was excited to read a great book about dance world drama, but this story fell a bit flat for me.
The protagonist is quite unlikeable, and all of the characters are pretty two-dimensional. The story was full of tropes and went off the rails, not in a good way, at the end.
Thanks #netgalley and #stmartinspress for this ARC of #theballerinas in exchange for an honest review.

The life of a ballerina is so limited. You deal with people that live in your world. Rarely do they step outside. Delphine and Margaux started together and years later Lindsay joined them.. They danced, studied, ate together. They lived in their own bubble till the day it shattered. Delphine flew the coop to Russia to be with a famous choreographer. After years of going nowhere, Delphine finally grew a spine. Time to put her life in order. Making amends to Linds and Margaux is her top priority, It's going to take more than an apology. She has also let down Stella, who was her mother's best friend, and a mother figure to her. The final lesson to learn is letting go of the past. You can't change it but you can embrace the future, whatever that may be.

What a perfect novel so much so that that it could also be read as non fiction.. Reminds me of following the unfolding of the NYCB press
of recent years and the exquisiteness of Wendy Whalen. Female friendship, ambition and passion for the cult like dance world all themes
held to the light. I am looking forward to the audio book as well. after reading this I feel a little less judgmental about what women do to their
bodies in the name o& the ideal and ephemeral.

I studied ballet as a young girl and this reminded me of the vigor and competitive nature of the ballet culture. This book certainly highlighted that, as well as, the fierce and complex female friendships that are driven by both passion and ambition. The writing was well researched and told in two timelines - a really good and solid character driven storyline. I was intrigued, though it started slow. I think the author needed to introduce the world and the background of the Paris Opera Ballet. But once I got into the storyline, I really appreciated the time spent going through the background.

It is a book filled with tension and suspense, and a dark storyline about the three ballerina friends holding a secret together.

A different read for me but I did enjoy the subject matter and the character driven coming of age storyline.

This was such an intriguing look into the grueling world of ballet. I think the perception is fragility and delicateness but that's just what you see in a performance. And even then, below the tulle and satin is sheer muscle of the dancers. And beyond that performance-ready body and smile is tears and sweat and blood and pain of practice and endurance.

And then you have this book, that showcases the mental health and body image issues I'm sure many ballerinas deal with. This was certainly not what I expected when I picked up this book. I love the reality and sometimes harshness of the relationships and people in this book.

There were certainly some plot twists I didn't quite see coming but I enjoyed every minute of figuring out this plot and figuring out these characters.

“𝑰𝒕’𝒔 𝒂 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕’𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚. 𝑰𝒕’𝒔 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒔𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒆𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓, 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔 […] 𝑴𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚, 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒍𝒍. 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒂 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚. 𝑶𝒏𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓. 𝑰𝒔𝒏’𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕, 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒘𝒂𝒚?”

The Ballerinas reads like a love letter to Paris, to dance, and to female friendship: the strong powerful parts, and the parts that break us down.

Delphine, Lindsay and Margaux are best friends who dance at the Paris Opera Ballet, and have for most of their lives. When Delphine returns to her former home to choreograph a new ballet, she assumes that the trio will pick up where they left off. However, time has a way of breaking relationships and there are so many things left unsaid, and secrets that refuse to stay buried.

I went into this book thinking it would be more suspenseful; I knew that Delphine had this secret that she was trying to keep. It’s more of a gritty, intense look at the world of ballet and the relationship between the three women. I loved all of the descriptions of Paris; having visited there, I was familiar with so many of the landmarks, streets, and descriptions; in some ways, Paris acts as a character itself to the trio, both in the past and the present. I loved the complicated relationships of the women, and how they would do anything for one another. The men in this book are truly terrible; but they serve as background characters and catalysts to the true message of the book: feminine solidarity. Rachel Kapelke-Dale’s prose started off slow (I found the alternating timelines difficult to keep track at first) and I found the first 40% of the book harder to get into, but the other half flowed quite nicely, and I was eager to meet and see the characters in their past and present form, with the story going in a direction I didn’t see.

The Ballerinas is a coming-of-age novel that celebrates Paris, female friendship, dance, and the bonds that tie us together, break us and bring us back together. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy.

When I was a girl, I wanted nothing more to be a ballerina. My lack of grace was more geared towards swimming than dancing, but I never lost the love for the ballet. Add to it movies like Center Stage, Black Swan, and Save the Last Dance…and I fangirl! Definitely means I had to read The Ballerinas by @rachelkapelkedale .

This is a tale of three girls who trained together in younger years, but not have very different roles in the world of ballet today. It’s a story about how these women struggle to accomplish their dreams and reveals some ugly truths of being a professional dancer. The characters are well developed the three different plot lines seamlessly joined together. I was captivated from the beginning.

I was able to switch between the egalley and the audio version of this book. I feel the narrator of the story also did a fantastic job. @potterell talented in this regard.

4.5 Stars – Rounding to 5 for Goodreads.

Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Also thank you to @macmillianaudio for the audio version of this book.

"What are you supposed to do when you still have a teenager's dreams but you somehow got old?"

The Ballerinas is a fascinating look inside a Paris ballet company, following the friendship of three girls -- Lindsay, Margaux, and Delphine -- from their teenage years in the academy in the late 1990s to their adult lives as part of the company in present day. After spending the past decade in Russia, Delphine has returned to the Paris Opera Ballet as a choreographer, hoping to cast Lindsay in a starring role as atonement for a past wrong. But Delphine soon begins to understand that things aren't the way they were before she left Paris, as she becomes consumed by the secrets and conflicts that run rampant within the hallowed walls of the Palais Garnier Opera House.

The Ballerinas is an immersive, atmospheric novel that delves deeply into the world of ballet, where femininity and physical pain are entwined in a constant dance, choreographed by ruthless determination and ambition. The glimpse that Kapelke-Dale provides into the life of a professional ballerina is fascinating and will appeal to readers, I think, even if they aren't particularly interested in ballet. The comparisons to Black Swan are at least somewhat justified.

The problem is that The Ballerinas isn't entirely sure what story it wants to tell. The first half of the novel is almost completely focused on the ballet lifestyle, while the second half introduces a lot of topics, including but not limited to: abortion, feminism, murder, infertility, terminal illness, consent, and infidelity. The book isn't sure if it wants to be a #MeToo anthem, a feminist manifesto, a belated coming-of-age story, or a novel about the complexities of female friendship. It touches on all of these, but isn't focused enough to be classified as any of them.

Kapelke-Dale's writing is evocative and emotionally rich, which kept me invested in the story all the way through. In the end, though, I was hoping for something more cohesive. I'll be interested to see what she writes next, because she is undeniably talented. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had such high hopes for this book, and had heard of others reading it on Goodreads. What started out as an interesting reunion among friends in a highly competitive ballet company became a somewhat confusing look at the past and the present circumstances. The narrator is a flawed character, which I appreciated the book acknowledging, and ultimately she is exposed as acting on many of her darker impulses, in ways both benign and malignant. However, it made it hard to root for any of the characters.

As the secrets were exposed and the obstacles became bigger, I felt like the end of the book was a rush to tie up loose ends and dismiss any wrongdoing. I didn't fell that the reveal did justice to the build-up. I'm sure this will be popular with fans of ballet and mystery/suspense genres, but to me, much of the ballet tropes were reminiscent of the film Center Stage.

The Ballerinas by completely took me surprise. I don’t know what I was expecting but this book blew me away. I was hooked and could not put it down.

I loved the drama. I loved the relationships. The ballet aspect and French location were fascinating. I wouldn’t exactly call it a thriller. I think it’s contemporary fiction and drama with a sprinkle of thriller and a dash of mystery. Whatever you call it, it was a great combination of all of these things, which made it a quick, enjoyable read. The writing is really beautiful and I highlighted so many quotes. Definitely a book to add to your TBR.

This book is a page-turning novel about the friendship of three ballerinas who meet while attending the Paris Opera Ballet School. It delves into the many layers of female friendship and the repercussions of a long-held secret when selfish Delphine returns to the Paris Opera Ballet and is reunited with her best friends years later. The book cover is the goal many girls hope to achieve of becoming prima ballerinas, but the dark reality is that the journey often includes many difficult sacrifices and sometimes unfair politics to achieve success. Many girls never reach their goals regardless of how hard they work.
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

3.5 stars

I feel like I was a little mislead by the summary and by the book stating it is similar to "Black Swan." If by similar you mean it is about ballet, then that would be a fair statement, but other than that, they are very dissimilar. The book was very interesting, but it is not really a thriller, it is more of a drama piece. A third of the book is about the ballet lifestyle, but the rest is about sexism, manipulation, ambition, and it has a little bit of a political side to it as well. This not what I typically look for in a book. I think it I went into this book knowing this, I would have had a better mindset on what I would be reading about.

Thanks Netgalley and publisher for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review!

Let me just start by acknowledging the beautiful cover of the book, it is simply gorgeous and one of the reasons why requested the book. The other reason is that I love ballet, ever since I started dancing it as a little girl.
This book gives us an insight look into the competitive world of classical ballet and the competition for the almost unreachable first spots at a prestigious ballet company, in this case the Paris Opera Ballet. But on top of this the book, in its core, is about friendship, passing thru competition, jealousy, rage, envy and happiness.
It is the story of three young girls who start at the academy of the Ballet and follows them into almost their forties, at the almost retiring age from the Company.
I liked the ballet history and talk although the book doesn’t quite delivers the promised thriller in the description of the book, it would be better to describe it as a women fiction book than a thriller one.
The character development is very good, it truly gives us an in depth exploration into the essence of every character and their motivation for their actions and decisions.
I enjoyed reading this book a lot.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The synopsis of this book sounded intriguing to me so I requested a copy to read.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during this 2nd attempt, I have
decided to stop reading this book
and state that this book just wasn't for me.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.