A Midnight Dance by Joanna Davidson Politano is breathtaking. This story takes you to the very early London ballet world, to the very onset of dancers using pointe shoes. Before her life was ruined in an horrific fire, Ella Blythe’s mother was a famous ballerina. After that, Ella trained in secret with her mother. She then earned a scholarship to continue that work at the Craven Street Theater, where her mother was disfigured.

Now, Ella must navigate between the attention of the company flirt, her growing attraction to principal dancer Phillipe, and her search for her birth-father. Ella’s finds her focus stretched thin. Focusing on ballet becomes hard.

As she starts to put the pieces together, a shocking secret puts Ella in grave danger, at the worst possible moment in her dancing career.

As a ballet mom, the depth of research in A Midnight Dance blew me away. This is remarkable. Having listened to my own ballerina talk about how if feels, I can say, hand on heart, Politano nailed it. Combine this with the historical elements and the plot, and you have a truly great book. I fell in love with Jack’s heart, Ella’s method for shining on stage and the plot twists I didn’t see coming.

Without hesitation, I’d highly recommend this book.