Natalia Leonova was once a celebrated prima ballerina, heralded as one of the best of her generation. Then she was involved in a terrible accident and was forced to stop dancing. Now she uses alcohol and drugs to escape her life, but after two years away from the world of dance she returns with a chance to dance again in her signature role.

With he return she faces Alexander, the love of her life and Dmitri, a dark genius from her past. It is Dmitri who is offering he the opportunity to take the stage again; she must decide whether she wants to re-enter that world.

I’m a sucker for books set in the cutthroat world of ballet, even though my own career ended at about age seven. This was a bit about ballet, a bit of a love story, some coming of age, a bit of a family story so there was a lot going on for one book.

Plus, it is difficult to read any story about Russia right now. One can handle historical fiction, but some of this takes place in present day, presumably. Russia’s invasion of Crimea is a plot point but there is only a small mention of its invasion of Ukraine. In the final chapter of the book there is a statement “after the war is over” with no other indicator and that made me very uncomfortable, and, honestly, colored my feelings about the book.