The Paris Dancer by Nicola Rayner

From Goodreads

1938. Sadie travels to Europe from South Africa with dreams of becoming a ballerina – but when war breaks out, she is working at the Bal Tabarin, a lively Parisian music hall. As the Nazis march in, the city is no longer safe for Jews like Sadie – until a fellow dancer named Frederic offers her a a ballroom partnership that will allow her to hide in the spotlight. Together, Sadie and Frederic dazzle audiences across occupied Europe – and Sadie secretly uses her new cover to work with the Resistance. But when an old friend comes to her for help, Sadie begins a dangerous dance that takes her to the brink of losing everything.

2012. Miriam travels to New York to sort out the affairs of her great-aunt Esther – and to escape her own secrets. Lost in grief, Miriam begins to piece together from Esther's notebooks the forgotten history of the Bal Tabarin, and in particular the story of a dancer who risked her life to help others in the midst of war. With the help of a handsome young man who opens up the dance halls and nightclubs of this electric city for her, Miriam realises that Esther's story has been left for her to finish – but will she find the courage to find the answers and face the past?

My thoughts 

My thanks to the Publishers via NetGalley for an opportunity to read this story in exchange for an honest review. 

This is a dual timeframe story that tells the story of Miriam and her great-aunt Esther.  Miriam has her secrets that she wants to escape from and she uses her great-aunts past as the escape that s needed.  As Miriam delves into the past and finds all that Esther was involved with during the war years and all that she did to help others and stay as safe as she could.

This was a book that I was looking forward to reading and it didn't disappoint at all.  I loved the interaction between the characters in both timeframes in the story.  

We can only imagine what people went through trying to stay alive and help others when they could.

Quote

' Perhaps I imagined it, but the hush seemed to fall on the house. Everyone looked at Belle. Not just the dancers, but the pianist, a couple of stagehands and old Bernadettte who swept the floors increasingly slowly but whom Sandrini didn't have the heart to sack. '

It's not very often that your name appears in books, when your name isn't that common.  It always makes me smile when I see it.  I just had to include this quote, for no other reason than my name is in it.