An incredibly well written book. High level prose AND the plot of a bestseller is a tough combination to achieve but Kapelke-Dale has done it! Don’t miss this one!

Love this book! Inside the lives of 4 ballerinas, the sacrifices required to excel in ballet are brought into reality by this talented author.

A "warts and all" look at the world of ballet. It's a slow building, character driven novel that I really enjoyed once I got over the fact that the marketing seemed like it was selling me a thriller.

There is little I love more than finding a debut novel to binge on. My latest find is The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale. This novel happens to hit my craving for both debut novels and thrillers. Talk about a win/win!

Delphine once had a shot at making ballet her whole life. She walked away from a spot at the Paris Opera Ballet – and her two best friends – in exchange for a different life. Now, over a decade later, she is back and hoping to pick up where she left off.

Unfortunately, life has moved on while she was gone. More than that, the secrets Delphine thought were safely tucked away are starting to leak out, as the darkest ones tend to do. How will Delphine handle all of these unpleasant turns of events?

“We are all stuck in our own stories. And it is so easy to see someone through only one lens: the role they play in yours.”

The Ballerinas is being pitched as a cross between Dare Me, Black Swan, and Luckiest Girl Alive. So naturally, I went into it with pretty high expectations! And I don't think anyone would blame me for that, either. Also, I love finding new debut authors to support, so this was a fun combination of things for me.

I'll admit that while I didn't love The Ballerinas as much as I hoped, I still really enjoyed it. It's a dark and twisted tale focused on the world of ballet, and it isn't afraid to show us how bad it can get at times.

However, many of these elements felt familiar to me. Like I've read the book before. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it made the read a little more casual than it otherwise would have been. Thankfully, I really liked Rachel Kapelke-Dale's writing style, so that carried me onward without complaint.

From my blog: Always With a Book:

As soon as I received this book, I knew I had to read it. I have such a fascination with ballerinas and the ballet. Plus, can we just take a moment to observe this stunning cover? It’s absolutely gorgeous and totally drew me in.

I loved the way this story was told, alternating between the past and present. It’s definitely a slow-burn at first, laying the foundation of the story. While the ballet is part of everything, what’s really at stake here is the friendship between the three girls and how their own drive and ambition really takes center stage.

There is definitely a darkness to this story and I loved that. Something has happened and these girls hold a secret that is just begging to be released. Again, this slow-burn really works here if you are patient enough to allow the author to develop the characters and the story line. Once you reach the halfway point, things start to take off.

I really enjoyed this one. It’s full of tension and suspense and the character study is top-notch. If you haven’t picked this one up yet, I highly recommend doing so.

One of the best books I’ve read this year.

The Ballerinas is absolutely a ballet novel at its core, but it’s also a tremendous friendship story, a revenge novel, and a scathingly powerful commentary on bodily autonomy.

Most ballet books are set in New York, typically at ABC or ABA or some thinly-veiled version of them. To get a novel set instead at the Palais Garnier was exceptionally fun and infinitely more interesting, a fresh take in setting and ballet culture from what we typically see.

But it’s the friendship between the three main characters and their individual (and interconnected) struggles that makes this a meaningful need. I loved each of them for their flawed but wonderful selves.

The book is a decent ballet education if that’s what you’re looking for (particularly if you’re more familiar with the American training style than the French), but the story is also so much more than that.

I’m baffled by the comparisons to Luckiest Girl Alive (which isn’t a good book and doesn’t have much in common plot-wise), but Dare Me by Megan Abbott is a decent comp, and though it’s very different from Black Swan in tone and atmosphere, there are some common themes and plot elements.

This book is an interesting peek into the world of ballet. It takes some wild turns, which I think would have been more effective if we had more exposition and character development, particularly Delphine. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book and was eager to see how it would play out.

Thanks to @stmartinspress and @macmillan.audio for my digital and audio copies!

This was such a great audiobook! It took me about 10% to get into it, but once I did I really enjoyed it. The timelines alternate between past in the late 90s and present. I had an easy time following it, and I felt the narrator did a great job of bringing me into the story.

I loved the setting in Paris, and I appreciated the pressures of being an aging woman in an image based career. There was a lot of drama in this story, and was more women’s fiction then dark thriller as I was anticipating. Great debut and will definitely look for more from the author!

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for an ARC of The Ballerinas in exchange for my honest opinion.
I trained 3-4 days per week in classical ballet for most of my childhood. In high school, I started to focus more on jazz, musical theater, and modern dance. Then I completely immersed myself in modern dance in college, where I was a Dance minor. Sadly, I haven't put on a pair of pointe shoes in twenty years, but they're still in my basement in case I get the urge (ha!). Currently, I do some cardio dance and yoga, but I miss being in dancer shape - I would barely make it through a class warm-up nowadays!
As you can imagine with my background, I absolutely love reading anything set in the dance world, so I was excited to devour The Ballerinas! The ballerinas are portrayed very realistically - along with the commitment to their art, the lifestyle choices are spot on. The classes, rehearsals, and choreography are described in vivid detail, as is life in Paris. Each chapter is split into two sections, starting in the late 1990s/early 2000s, then more current times (2018). You can see some ways that Delphine, the protagonist, and her friends have grown and matured over the years and other ways that they have not changed.
This is marketed as a mystery/thriller and while there are some hidden, dark secrets, I don't think it's quite a thriller. The first half is a bit slow, but I enjoyed where the story went and definitely did not expect some things that happened! I don't want to say more to prevent any spoilers. If you enjoy reading about the ballet world and hidden secrets, give this book a try!

I love stories set in the world of ballet, so I really enjoyed this book. The setting is so detailed and the story was so interesting, but the ending disappointed a bit, in that I thought the mystery of what happened between the three main ballerinas in the past was build up to be something terrible and it was not that shocking. I also felt that the flashbacks dragged the story more than anything. There wasn't anything about the characters' friendships that we couldn't gleam from the present and that the past made that much more vibrant, so the flashbacks just seemed to be there to stall the mystery. It slowed down the pace of the book and made me skim a bit. Altogether, though, this is a fun thriller.

A fascinating glimpse into the ballerina lifestyle. The Ballerinas is a literary character-driven story of females in a cutthroat male-dominated world. It’s about art and expression, coming-of-age, and the complexities of friendship. The story starts off slowly but becomes quite intense. Rachel Kapelke-Dale is a great storyteller with much knowledge of ballet. I like ballet novels but most target the teenage girls demographic; this one does not.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy. When I opened the copy in Adobe Digital Editions, the font size was too small for me and my usual way of increasing it didn’t work. So I waited for the hardcopy to come out and it also had small print. I went back to the e-book and found there was another way to increase the font size (Ctrl+); I should have googled this issue to begin with.

4.5 stars round up!

I really, really, really enjoyed this book. But, I don’t think this will be a hyped, well-loved book as I would want it to be. This book resonated with me so much because of the characters dedication to ballet. That was me, but with gymnastics. Always wanting to be the best, doing whatever it takes, even if it means ruining friendships along the way.

I will say, this book is being marketed as a thriller. It is most definitely not a thriller and more of a character driven suspense novel. It covered a lot of topics, which I felt were super relevant given the demand of ballet.

But, it’s not a story about ballet. There are storylines of what it’s like to be female in a male-dominated world, deciding what’s best for your body, standing up for yourself even if it’s not in the best interest of those around you (while being morally correct of course), and most of all, perfection. Athlete or not, I think a lot of people understand the need for perfection whether it be as a parent, within your corporate job, or even a friend.

While I want to recommend this to everyone, I think the former athletes would appreciate this story the most.

Big thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC!

Content warnings: abortion, body shaming, death of parent, adult/minor relationship, alcoholism, cancer, infertility, filming without consent

3.5 STARS

There is a lot to love about this book, from the absolutely gorgeous cover to the solid character development and the inside knowledge of the ballet world. I was very excited to dive into this one when I saw the comparisons to 'Black Swan' and 'Luckiest Girl Alive'. I would say, however, that this story is more closely related to women's fiction than to the thriller genre.

I loved the incredibly detailed descriptions of the often harsh lives of ballet dancers. The author explores the competitiveness and sometimes heartbreaking behind-the-scenes world of professional ballet. The first part of the book was paced slowly, but really picked up in the second half with a fantastic conclusion.

All of the characters are extremely passionate about dancing and I loved the setting of the story. I think the author is incredibly talented and I look forward to reading more of her work in the future.
Overall this is a very entertaining and engaging story with very strong female characters.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing an advanced copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A wonderful delve into the lives of ballerinas, their ambitions, friendships, and struggles. I really enjoyed this novel, with its drama and explorations of finding one's voice, reclaiming control, loyalties, and examining relationships and good choices in this very excusive and demanding life path. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the copy for review. All opinions are my own.

The Ballerinas was hard for me to get into. It had a slow pace, and the time jumps were sometimes choppy and not always clear. Sometimes I think the publishers don't do any favors when promoting book releases - the blurb said this was a mix of Black Swan and Dare Me and that made me think the book was more of a thriller. It's not. It's more of a slow burn and I did not enjoy the ending at all.

Thank you #NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of #TheBallerinas for my honest review.

This is my first book from author Rachel Kapelke-Dale. She is an excellent author. I highly recommend this dark, engrossing book.

A great thriller-mystery!

5 Stars.

This book didn’t have the thrill factor that I expected. There is a stereotype that ballerinas, in general, are all slightly unhinged and could snap at any minute. They have been portrayed as conniving, scheming individuals who are capable of just about anything if threatened. The three central characters (ballerinas) in this story do not come across as “mean girls” at all. I didn’t like them but it wasn’t because the author presented them as conniving. I felt that in the first half of the book, too much time was spent on backstories. It didn’t add any more drama to the plot and it was boring. The second half of the book, after the culminating event that drives the rest of the plot, was interesting. I think this could have been a much better read if she would have focused on the second half. As a result, the last half of the book was rushed and lacked depth. I think the writing is good, but it should have been edited more.

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.