This novel takes you into the enchanting role of ballet. where dreams mix with the harsh realities of this world. The novel follows a dancer striving for greatness amidst personal and professional challenges. I really loved the rich portrayal of the ballet world as someone who grew up dancing. I think the novel captured the brutality and gracefulness of being a ballet dancer in a way that was compelling. However, the drawbacks come in an uneven plot at times with some sections moving slow while others pick up the pace too quickly.

The story revolves around and is narrated by Katrina, April, and Kyle. This was a delicious experience of being able to read their life and experiences, the difficulties of being a woman in theirs different stages of life and stating to be able to connect and uplift other woman's.
The author writing enchanted me, her way of writing the characters made me want to read more of her books.

Katrina was the first character to narrate, I loved reading her parts about her childhood in Cairo. She had all that classic “ballerina control” that is expected in that word, I really liked seeing how this was actually almost destroying her potential as a person and a mother and how she was able to find herself again.
April was another character that was really controlled in the start and didn't want to shake the boat. Her entire plot revolved around maternity and the realization that you never know everything about your children. Also, it involved a lot about being a professional in ballet when it is a boys game's most part of the time.
Kylie is the daughter of April, and her part wasn't about ballet, it was about changes in high school and being a teenager who had to deal with their own pain. It was painful to read her part, but beautiful to see her thrive.

This book made me want to read the rest of them, I didn't feel lost for not reading the other books, which was something I wasn't expecting.

I didn't realize this book was part of a series when I requested it, but I do think reading the previous books may have helped me understand the MCs better. I did enjoy the look this provided into the professional ballet world but I found it to be unlikeable when it came to the characters and the problems they were dealing with. The writing was very good though but it did not raise enough interest for me to read the other books.
Thank you Netgalley for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was a great fourth book in the Ballet Theatre Chronicles series, it had everything that I was hoping for from the series. It worked with the ballet elements and I was invested in the story from the other three books. Terez Mertes Rose has a great writing style and uses the ballet elements perfectly. The characters were well written and I enjoyed how good they worked in this story.

I hadn't read the other books in this series but I genuinely still enjoyed this book. This book delves into parenthood that revolves around ballet. As a parent myself, it was really nice to read different stages of parenthood and the reality surrounding mental health. There are quite a few characters and it can be a little confusing at first but everything ends up tying together!

Hmm...I'm still not quite sure about this one. While I was aware this was part of a series, I had a hard time getting into this one. It read just fine as a standalone, but I wasn't connected to any of the main characters and felt they were a bit flat. I'm not a dancer myself but have always been intrigued with their world and appreciate how this touched on some of the hardships of the sport, especially with mental health and body image. That being said, I feel this had much more of a focus on the relationship and not dance itself - maybe I'd get more out of it if I were a dancer, or if I read the series from the very beginning? I'm not totally sure. Thanks for the ARC!

I was given a digital ARC of this novel on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I should begin by saying that this review should be taken with a grain of salt as I hadn’t realized when requesting the title that it was part of a series. I’m not sure if this book is meant to also work as a standalone, or if the sequence and knowledge of the world of it from the prior books is deemed necessary, but I do think that would have helped me connect with the characters and care about them more (assuming there is overlap in the characters). As a former dancer, I was really excited about this selection and was giddy at mentions of specific ballet technique and style like Vaganova, but I seemed to care more about the snippets of ballet than the plot itself and even the title shifts the reader to the world beyond ballet and the stage.

My personal qualm was my immediate discomfort with the premise. We had two main characters, agreeing to a deal without being truly honest with each other, which is always cause for chaos. From the jump, we have one MC who has realized he’s gay, but wants a child and one MC who claims she doesn’t mind a non-romantic relationship so long as they raise a child together. We know she has this secret desire that maybe this will turn into something else and that raised a flag for me there that I was already frustrated with her for not being honest, and for hiding her true desire from the start. She knew what she was signing up for, and it bothered me to see her act like it was out of the blue and unexpected and a betrayal for the other MC to want a romantic relationship in his life and that he didn’t view her the way she viewed him and their little trio. I’m sure it wasn’t the author’s intent, but I was disappointed at the underlying heteronormative tones and found it too distracting to thoroughly enjoy the plot or its characters.

I was hoping that I would be inspired to go back to the first few and then re-read, but I found myself moreso finishing the book for finishing sake and not being truly invested in any of it.

i half enjoyed this book! as a ballerina, i was intrigued from the cover alone. the beginning was definitely slow and i struggled to enjoy it. some of the characters were more developed than others, and there wasn't overall consistency in the quality throughout reading. it was enjoyable at some parts, not as enjoyable at others. i wouldn't reread this, but would still recommend to those who enjoy women fiction & ballet.

3.5/5 rounded up. After overcoming the competitive world of professional ballet to reach the pinnacle, Katrina Devries is now a principal dancer and mother of a three-year-old. Katrina's ideal life starts to fall apart when her boyfriend moves out and declares he's discovered real love somewhere else. She turns to April, her closest friend among the creative team of the company, distraught. April, an experienced ballet teacher and mother, brings in a young, attractive pianist who is ready to work as an accompaniment. April is sure she can handle any issue that comes her way. That is, until Katrina, April's teenage daughter, falls deeply in love with him. April is juggling more challenging issues at home and in the studios. When these issues arise, April is forced to make a contentious choice that defies convention and jeopardizes the careers that she and Katrina have spent a lifetime constructing.

Although I haven't read the rest of the series, I believe you can read them as stand-alones, as I had no issues getting into the book. The cover is stunning and it is what originally caught my eye. If you have any connections to the ballet world and can understand the struggles that many adults face or even relating to mental health issues, I imagine you may enjoy this book or even this series. The author herself is a former ballet dancer, so she has personal insight that again, many who have connections to the ballet world, can relate to.

Thank you NetGalley and Classical Girl Press for the advance copy of this book!

generally kinda eh. half the characters are okay, half are kinda eh. thanks so much for the arc, if youre particularly into ballet take a look

This was mixed for me.

I felt very uncomfortable reading the first chapter. The conversation of the two characters about making a baby when none of them was feeling it; the act itself… I don’t know. It was just bit weird.

The story I did enjoy as I love books about the ballet world but this wasn’t my favorite.

I didn’t like this book at first. By the end it was fine, but I still didn’t love it. It’s hard to come into a series partway through. It has a lot of characters and some are better developed than others (the younger teen has thoughts and feelings but the older teen is a caracture).
The basic plot is that these woman are all connected to the west coast ballet theater, and it’s tough to be an adult woman in ballet. They deal with misogyny and parenthood and anxiety. I did appreciate this book’s honest portrayal of mental health issues, especially in teens. I would probably be interested in reading the other books in the series because I do care, somewhat, about these people now, but I wouldn’t race for it. If you’ve read the other books in the series I can see this being more compelling but unless you have, or maybe you LOVE ballet, this probably isn’t worth your time.

I received a free advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley in return for my honest review.

Quite nice, quite interesting, an easy read, part romance, part cliché. This is obviously part of a series, but if you haven’t read the other novels, it‘s no problem to get into the story. In the beginning I kept forgetting, who April and Alice were, and who was Rebecca… However, they are not the heroines of this story, anyway. So it did not matter. I liked the cover, and it got me intrigued, when I saw it on the list at netgalley.com, whom I‘d like to thank for the copy in exchange for a little review.