I love browsing the endless best books of the year lists and this beauty came from Sarah’s Bookshelves this month. This has big potential to be a selection for our 2022 MomAdvice Book Club year- it is that beautiful and thought-provoking.

It is no secret that the field of dance is cutthroat and Kapelke-Dal knows all about that business after spending years in intensive ballet training. It is, perhaps, why the dance scenes are so spectacular and haunting. At moments, it felt like a memoir about the author’s own dance career.

Following the two timelines, we get to see the beginnings of that hunger for our three young ballerinas fighting for position in the ballet and then we get to see their later years as they find themselves and their own voices. What haunts both timelines though is an incident that changed the course of one of their careers and propelled the other two forward.

This gave me big book club feelings for many, many reasons. The commentary on how women fight the aging process, the contrast between expectations between men and women, and what it means to be a success in this world were giant gut punches.

This book is for readers that don’t mind if the story is slower to build, but delivers on strong well-developed characters. If Black Swan was a favorite, read this immediately.

This book is solid, character driven, well researched, realistic approach to the ballerinas’ disciplined, competitive, excruciating lifestyle!

I have a weird thing for ballerina stories (both books and movies), which is funny as I have no desire to actually do ballet lol. This one was waaaay darker than I expected and I really enjoyed that! It showed a different side to the life of a ballerina. The pressures, the competition, the decisions made to prevent other people from doing something/getting what they want, and being considered “old” when you’re still young!

I think this book really focuses on female relationships and how important they are. It also highlights finding a path and figuring out your own growth and development.

I would read this one again as I am sure there are many little things I would pick up on with each read!!! If you’re in the mood for a dark ballet story give this one a try!!!!

Thank you to St Martin’s Press, Netgalley, and Rachel Kapelke-Dale for a gifted copy in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers of this book for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited about this book and finished it very quickly! I really enjoyed how the book was a mixture of mystery while also exploring the intricacies of female friendship through these characters. I feel often character development gets the short end of the stick in thrillers/mysteries, however did not find that to be the case in this book.

I would recommend this book to a friend.

A ruthless and unforgiving world for sure!
Great story!!

Dare Me meets Black Swan and Luckiest Girl Alive in a captivating, voice-driven debut novel about a trio of ballerinas who meet as students at the Paris Opera Ballet School.

"Enthralling...irresistible." ––New York Times
"A standing ovation to this debut." ––E! News

Thirteen years ago, Delphine Léger abandoned her prestigious soloist spot at the Paris Opera Ballet for a new life in St. Petersburg––taking with her a secret that could upend the lives of her best friends, fellow dancers Lindsay and Margaux. Now thirty-six years old, Delphine has returned to her former home and to the legendary Palais Garnier Opera House, to choreograph the ballet that will kickstart the next phase of her career––and, she hopes, finally make things right with her former friends. But Delphine quickly discovers that things have changed while she's been away...and some secrets can't stay buried forever.

Moving between the trio's adolescent years and the present day, The Ballerinas explores the complexities of female friendship, the dark drive towards physical perfection in the name of artistic expression, the double-edged sword of ambition and passion, and the sublimated rage that so many women hold inside––all culminating in a twist you won't see coming, with a magnetic cast of characters you won't soon forget.

The Ballerinas is a story about three friends who meet while studying at the Paris Opera Ballet in the 90s. The novel spans through time from their teens to their 30s and tells the story of how their relationship to each other and their careers evolve with time.

A captivating character-driven novel about a trio of ballerinas who meet as students at the Paris Opera Ballet School.
A love story between friends as they face challenges both professionally and personally.
Full of drama and deceit "The Ballerinas" is an insightful look in to the world of ballet.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

I love ballet, stories about ballerinas, and the cover of this book is sensational. But this is supposed to be a thriller/mystery, but it's not. It's a lot of descriptions of the horrible inner workings of the ballet world and a trio of catty, jealous frenemies who are completely unlikeable.

This book had me at Black Swan! I was a dancer, and was so excited to read this book and be emerged in the dancing world again. And yes you do get that, but I was too distracted with foul language.

This book started off as a slow burn, but in the second half really picked up with so many added layers and deeper, more complex relationships. It was such a real, gritty look into the ballet world and the characters were flawed and beautiful, each in their own right. I appreciated how this book explored the friendship between Margaux, Delphine and Lindsay as it started, grew and changed, while also delving into their individual stories and struggles and those of dancers in general. The Ballerinas took me by surprise and stole my heart in the end and I would definitely recommend, particularly to those who love dance.

Delphine returns home to Paris from St Petersburg after a thirteen year absence. She hopes to reunited and reestablish her friendships with Lindsay and Margaux, who she grew up with at the prestigious Paris Ballet Academy. Delphine learns that it might not be as easy to assimilate as she had wished, and the secret she is carrying may come by out and ruin everything.

The Ballerinas shines a light on the difficulty of women’s choices about their bodies, motherhood and careers, along with the pressure society places on these decisions. The story is told while transitioning between the adolescent years of the three friends and their current age of thirty six. Overall, the novel had a suspenseful, creepy feel, with a fabulous, unforeseen twist. I enjoyed it very much.

“The Ballerinas” by Rachel Kapelke-Dale is the story of three friends in the high stakes world of the Paris Opera Ballet. As the narrative shifts between adolescence and adulthood, the women explore the complexities of female friendship, trust, and ambition.

As far as characters go, I really enjoyed Delphine. She’s driven and smart, but has a hard time making connections. Her childhood creates a competitive spirit mixed with a need for safe places, but in that Delphine loses some of her heart and compassion. She is definitely a character that I wanted to root for.

In the end, it fell flat for me though. I was captivated by the unique POB world, but the complexities of the relationships didn’t play out the way I thought they would. The surprise twist was more of a shock than anything and it felt a little out of character. Mix that with some trigger warning events, it just wasn’t the right read for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

An interesting dive into the sometimes cut-throat world of ballet. Set in Paris, the book follows Delphine, Lindsay and Margaux as they make their way through the prestigious Paris Ballet Company, and then into their subsequent forays, as dancers and choreographers. The story weaves through the past, as the trio of dancers develop friendships and struggle through the rigors of a competitive dance school, alternating with the present timelines, with Delphine working as a choreographer and facing the realities of the deception and deceit that adversely affected her friends so many years ago. This is a slow-burn character drama, with messy, unlikeable characters, and it worked for me on many levels. My main criticism would be that the slow-burn of the first half almost lost me, and it took me a while to re-engage later in the story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

A highly intelligent and suspenseful look at the elite world of professional ballet. I enjoyed the behind the scenes view, the shifting, yet constant friendships, and the women embracing their rage to turn it into power.

I have always been intrigued by the dance world. I took ballet when I was younger but knew almost immediately that I wasn’t cut out for the dedication that it would take to be even halfway decent. Dancers amaze me. All of the time, hard work and personal sacrifice is awe inspiring.

The Ballerinas follows three dancers who grew up together in the same ballet company. We mainly follow, Delphine, who is a dancer turned choreographer for the fictional Paris Opera Ballet where her two formerly close friends, Lindsay and Margaux, are still striving to rise through the ranks.

This novel bounces around through the past and the present. It is a rich, character study that explores ambition, friendship, failure, and feminism within a male driven culture. I really appreciated the how each of these characters grew throughout this tale. I loved the commentary on the things that are toxic when it comes to the ballet world. The author is gifted at describing an undying love for ballet but also calls out how women are often seen as objects instead of whole beings as dancers and in the world at large. The plot isn’t fast moving but it is delicately laid out in a way that kept me intrigued. I’m so glad I finally got around to reading this book. I will definitely be in the lookout for more by this author in the future.

This was an okay read. Just okay because it didn't exactly live up to my expectations. I usually don't mind reading about unlikeable characters, however, that wasn't the case in this book. Moreover, the mystery and suspense aspects of this book were poorly executed in my opinion.

I was intrigued by the premise of The Ballerinas, but unfortunately the pacing of the book was a little too slow for my liking.

Having very little knowledge of the world of ballet, I found this novel to be very interesting. And the development of the main character was very well done, as the author takes us from the age of 13 to 36, and moves back and forth in the timeline. I recommend this book!

I had high expectations for this book, but it ended feeling pretty lackluster. There were times when I very interested in the story, but most of the time I felt bored and like the book was dragging on.

Likeable characters are not a make it or break it thing for me when it comes to enjoying a book, and it is a good thing, otherwise this book would have been rated negative stars. The characters, every dang single one of them, were completely and utterly selfish and despicable. They were so self-absorbed that I often found myself groaning out loud at their comments and actions. It was hard for me to care about any of the characters for this reason, so take that into consideration along with my comment about the book dragging on. The two likely go hand in hand.

I will say that I was somewhat shocked by the twist at the end. While the book often foreshadowed something terrible that the girls had done, it didn't really leave many clues as to what it was. While I had an idea of what it might be, I was still pretty off. And, honestly, the last few chapters of the book were the best in my opinion. I was most interested in the ending, approximately the last 20% of the book. All of the secrets started coming out and the true colors of the main characters did as well.

Overall, this was just an okay book for me. The last 20% really made up for the other 80% of the book, so 3 redeeming stars from me.