I love dancing, thrillers and this provided both! I loved the dual timelines and getting to figure out what exactly happened in the past! Highly recommend!

If you're thinking this is another boilerplate ballet world thriller, think again. This novel subverts the formula of the genre and delivers an ending darker, deeper, and more stunning than you can imagine. It is unflinchingly feminist and honest about the fight it takes for women to own their own bodies. The novel is paced well, opening slowly and gently, then escalating to a fever pitch in the last act. Almost like a ballet.

**I received this Advanced Reader's Copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review."

Well, you can't expect everyone to love every book that they read. And so it was with The Ballerinas. Touted along the lines of Black Swan, it doesn't even get close.

While I made every effort to get through the novel, it became a real struggle to plow through. I just could not appreciate following the lives of three elite teen girls into adulthood and what they went through to get to where they are. I mean, these girls were from well to do families and not from the streets, which in my opinion would have made for a better narrative.

In any event, it was a DNF for me at 30%. I couldn't move forward when there are so many other books that I could be enjoying instead. One star.

I received a digital ARC from St. Martin's Press through NetGalley. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.

"The Ballerinas" hooked me from the get-go with what seems to be an inside look at a venerable ballet company, with all the politicking and in-fighting that go along with the hard work and discipline. But about halfway through the book takes a sharp turn into #MeToo territory that seems less organic and more like a calculated attempt to attain relevancy and buzz. ("Gee, not sure if people will buy a book about a Parisian ballet troupe; what's in the headlines that we can glom onto?"). Suddenly every man is a user and abuser of women, and the protagonist comes to realize that rather than being in competition with each other, she and her female comrades need to stand together against the Man, and men in general--this despite the fact that she and her two BFFs have been pretty horrible to each other for years. I'm not saying this is an unworthy theme in and of itself, but it's communicated in such an obvious, trite manner that it spoils what had been an absorbing story.

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Female friendship are a dangerous and volatile territory. Adding in the stress of the high stakes of the Paris Opera Ballet and you basically have this book.

The blurbs will say this is Black Swan meets something else - but it's not. It's more the story of three girls who grow to teens to women all striving to be the star of the Paris Opera Ballet. The friendship survives the teenage angst of boys, sex and heartbreak, but as the women move into their adult lives, they find that they have to deal with death and then their careers with the ballet. They all make choices, life altering choices and will then deal with the consequences.

While the premise is Delphine's return to Paris, this strives to be a novel about friendship, about ballet, about feminism, about sexual exploitation, about gaslighting, about Me Too....about so many thing, too many things.

I think that, as a whole, the IDEA of this book is good, but that the execution left something to be desired for me. I think there were too many ideas and nothing was really expanded on enough to make a big enough impact--even the dXXXh mentioned in the intro didn't really matter in the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book in advance.

When Delphine returns the Paris to choreograph in the prestigious Parisian ballet school she grew up in, old feelings hit her hard and fast. She has friendships to mend, romance in rekindle, and a relationship with her motherly neighbor to keep up with, all while trying to create her very first long ballet for the world to see. As she revisits the past, she questions her future because the mistakes she made, and the wrongs she’s done, might come back to haunt her. Follow Delphines story as she finds herself and fixes all that is broken within her and around her.

The Ballerinas features the lives of three ballerinas, Delphine, Lindsay and Margaux, and their journey through the prestigious Paris Opera Ballet School. This book gives a bit of an inside look at the life of a ballerina and we see the trials as all three girls develop and compete to become promoted through the ranks to soloist, and hopefully one day to a star. The book also brings the girls into the present day where they face new challenges as middle-aged ballerinas, like love, children, and the direction of a career for aging ballerinas.

I enjoyed The Ballerinas, particularly the insiders look into the world of ballet through different development ages and levels of the ballerinas. But this story was more than a story of ballet and friendship, it also explored the role of women in society and how women can sometimes let themselves by defined by the men. It's a story of empowerment, finding your voice, and the courage to be the best version that you can be. Definitely glad I picked up this debut novel and will look forward to future books from Rachel Kapekle-Dale.

The cover of this intriguing novel captured my attention immediately, and I was drawn into the visceral descriptions of the glamorous and throatcut world of ballet. I enjoyed the suspenseful storyline, but this is not a thriller (as it's been marketed). I think readers expecting a thriller will be disappointed, but open-minded readers will appreciate the dramatic look at friendship and ambition.

Haunting and memorable characters and I love books about ballet. Kept me enthralled. Would definitely recommend.

Genre: Mystery
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Pub Date: Dec. 7, 2021
Martie’s Rating: 2 ½ Stars

The story begins with a trio of 12-year-old students at the world-famous Paris Opera Ballet School. Although the timeline is not linear, we follow the girls into middle age. I think this debut novel’s message is to show how these women come to understand their true inner selves and find feminism. The story is filled with way too much female drama and way too little on the demanding physical and mental sacrifices that are part of a ballerina’s daily life. A murder is mentioned in the prologue and not written about again until the end of the novel. There are the makings of “Big Little Lies” by Liane Moriarty in “Ballerinas.” Despite not enjoying this novel, I would read another by the author to see how she has grown.

Based on the description of The Ballerinas: A Novel by Rachel Kapelke-Dale, I was expecting this one to be a straight-up thriller, and that is what I had prepared myself for. Then I started reading it and had to make a quick adjustment of my thought process. This isn't so much a thriller, but rather more of a drama. It feels like a very real, and authentic drama, with some suspenseful and thriller aspects, but a drama all the same.

The book is entirely character-driven and reading it really leaves you feeling as if you know them, and even if you don't always agree with them, you understand them. You understand their choices, their hurts, their pain, and how they came to make the decisions they did.

The descriptions of the ballerinas and the ballet world as a whole are just phenomenal. It feels like it's being described by an actual ballerina or someone who was deeply immersed in that life at one point or the other. It really leads to the feeling of authenticity in the storytelling and gives it a believability that is sometimes very hard to convey.

“The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.” James Baldwin

I don't think I've read a book lately that really brought James Baldwin's words home so well.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital advanced reader's copy.

At 36, Delphine has returned home to the Paris Opera Ballet - not as a dancer, but as a choreographer. She hopes that she will find her long-time friends ready to support her as she is ready to support them. She doesn't understand how much all of them have changed during the thirteen years she was away.

This was a hard one for me to rate.

Things I loved:

*The setting - the world of ballet, in particular the Paris Opera Ballet. It was fascinating to go behind the scenes into the lives of these driven, professional dancers, from teenagers to adults. As a nearly complete newcomer to the world of ballet, Kapelke-Dale made the behind-the-scenes work of the ballet come alive, and she made understanding ballet and how a ballet company operates both accessible and completely absorbing.

*The characters: Delphine, Margaux, and Lindsay are complex women who make terrible decisions - sometimes repeatedly. And yet - I could understand them and feel for them and the struggles they had throughout their lives. Often times, we are blind to how our own choices hurt and destroy us.

Things I didn't love:

*The plot: It was a bit all over the place and unbelievable in spots. Some plot points felt less integral and innate to the story than tacked on and wedged in to make a particular point.

*The telling of Delphine's thoughts and the occasional didactism. This was the part I enjoyed least. Delphine would explain her motivations - repeatedly. Instead of letting Delphine's actions tell the story, the reader was told explicitly exactly why Delphine did what she did, along with why she was right to do so. Even when I agree with Delphine, this takes me out of the story. For example, when Delphine apologized to two different people in her life, each time she explained how she needed to apologize and why she needed to apologize in that particular way, and how it demonstrated her growth as a person. And then she would go and actually apologize. The over-explaining was just a bit too much for me.

However, all in all, I enjoyed this story about conflicted, determined, ambitious women trying to navigate in a world that thinks it knows how they should act and behave and love.

Ballerinas in Paris? Yes please!
This book was a lot more than I anticipated it would be, and I really enjoyed reading it. Delphine is returning to Paris and the ballet studio she grew up in after a tumultuous decade in Moscow. She has come back to debut her new choreography, but also to confront a past that haunts her. She left two best friends behind and struggles to fit back in as they have moved on with their lives. A fast past plot, details of the backstage ballet life, and a sudden death make for a thoroughly enjoyable read.

This is a difficult review to write and I was struggling between a 2 or 3 star rating but ultimately went with 2 stars. This is not a thriller and I don't know why it was marketed as one.

Delphine is back in Paris. She left 13 years ago as a young ballerina and is returning as a choreographer. After having a hit ballet in St. Petersburg she has returned to create a new show in Paris. There are her old friends, Lindsay and Margaux, that she hopes to reconnect with. Along with her eccentric neighbour, Stella. Delphine discovers that things have changed in Paris and old secrets are threatening to come out. Her friends are struggling with their own issues and the pressure of the ballet world is getting to all of them.

I found Delphine to be a frustrating character and a lot of her actions annoyed me throughout the book. The plot is very slow and not the twist filled thriller I expected based on the comparisons to Black Swan. It felt like nothing was happening and then something surprising would happen but nothing crazy. The ending surprised me but that was the main thing. I felt like the author wanted to have several plot lines going at the same time but none of them were very well done and everything felt messy. The dual timelines were also confusing to follow and I enjoyed it at first but as they converged it got hard to keep track of.

This is a pass from me. I liked the ballet world setting but the plot was slow and none of the characters were particularly memorable.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. As always all opinions are my own.

I really wanted to like this one but it just didn't pull me in. I think it's the perfect read for those with a ballet background but I didn't really understand many of the dance terms. I think anyone who has any ballet or dance experience would really like this book.

The story is told in dual time lines which is usually something I love but sometimes I found it difficult to tell the differentiate between the two. Minor things would happen and I couldn't remember if it was the past or the future.

I also thought I was reading a thriller. This is not a thriller.

What I did like was how extreme dance life can be with high expectations and how many dancers sometimes feel their body is not their own. I think some would find this to be relatable. I think it also accurately reflects the friendships and how people become family when it comes to competitive dance.

All in all it was just ok.

This book had so much potential but really missed the mark for me. As a story of the difficulties of ballet and friendships this is an interesting story. But the plot synopsis promises a big twist and the book is classified in several categories but one of those is as a "mystery/thriller"which I think does it a disservice. as it didn't really have any elements of a mystery or thriller.

As a reader I kept waiting for something more to happen. I kept waiting for there to be something suspenseful or some sort of plot twist that never came. When the big "twist" that was promised did come I felt let down. I wished this story had stuck more to being a pure women's fiction story about the friendships and the struggles of living in the tough world of ballet.

Overall, this book was just okay for me. The plot was scattered and jumped around quite a bit. I just felt that the plot lacked direction or vision and it was hard as the reader to grasp what the point of the story was or what the story was that was being told. I love stories that jump between the past and present but I didn't really understand what the purpose between doing it for this story was. There didn't seem to be an end game that the story was driving towards where the past and present came together.

I's give this one a sold three stars. There were some really interesting aspects of this book. As a long time dancer and former dance teacher I found the dance aspects interesting and the discussion of the dance culture and the harsher parts of the dance world really compelling. I just felt that if the story had been more focused it would have been a better read.

This is billed as a thriller but this is more of a women’s fiction with a large secret that looks over these three friends. The author really dives into the cut throat world of French ballet. Delphine lives under the shadow of her mother a star ballerina. She loves to dance but the pressure of the world make friends seem foe. The three frenemies try to support each other but there’s always an undercurrent of ambition. It culminates when only two solo spots are available. I really loved the character journeys. Told through Delphine, it goes between three timelines as we weave into one crazy ending. It was very character driven until the last 10% when everything exploded and careened us into a new direction. I do think there was so much growth and there’s various themes of friendship, love, ambition. Can the ballet world handle a beautiful, smart, darkly ambitious woman? I loved the different answers that came through and felt all the emotions through the writing style.

If a story about the grittier side of ballet, with messy people and messier female friendships, sounds appealing, this book is the perfect one to read!

It follows three friends who rise through the ranks of the Paris Opera Ballet School, and the secrets they keep from each other to preserve their sometimes fierce/sometimes fragile friendship.

What I most enjoyed about this book was the Paris ballet setting. It’s really immersive in that world, and I liked reading about the determination and drive to improve, compete, and succeed that’s required.

I think the description of this book as a suspense/thriller type story is a bit misleading. I would classify it more as dark literary fiction with very mild suspense.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s for the opportunity to read this galley in exchange for an honest review. Reviews will also be posted to Instagram and booksellers closer to publication.

Ballerinas follows the friendship of Delphine, Margaux, and Lindsay, dancers at the Paris Opera Ballet. Set against the backdrop of one of the world's most beautiful cities, The Ballerinas follow Delphine's return home from St. Petersburg where she fled 15 years before after a horrible incident threatened to ruin the friendship of the three girls. Delphine returns to choreograph an original program and tries to rebuild her friendship with Margaux and Lindsay. The novel flips between the beginning of their careers in their teens and then their thirties, with Margaux and Lindsay aging out of the company and Delphine beginning hers as choreographer. Rachel Kapelke-Dale has written a compelling novel about friendship, life choices, and the dedication and sacrifices one must make to pursue your dream. Delphine was a little whiney at first but became more likeable as the book progressed. I enjoyed reading about the ballet and the dancers, they added an extra dimension to an excellent novel. Thanks so much to Net Galley for the chance to read an ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC! What an amazing story! I've always been fascinated with ballet. To have a story about ballet and female friendships in a very competitive art form was amazing. Loved the mystery that was woven into this tale. Loved all the characters. Will recommend!