The Music and the Mirror is a rich and complex romance set in the world of ballet. Anna Gale is the newest member of the Metropolitan Ballet in NYC. Victoria Ford was once the star but is now the artistic director. She sees the talent in Anna and wants her to dance as a principal dancer in the upcoming season. There is hard work, jealousy, competition and even sabotage as Anna works to prove herself to Victoria and the rest of the company. There is a lot more ballet than I was expecting with both MC’s area driven to be the best. The romance is almost secondary, but it is there, and I wanted them to end up together.

The intricate portrayal of the ballet world, coupled with the complexities of relationships and personal struggles, kept me emotionally engaged throughout. From the exhilarating highs of performance to the challenges of competition and self-discovery, the novel elicited a range of emotions, ultimately leaving me feeling captivated and deeply invested in Anna's journey.

As much as I love ballet stories and age gap stories this one fell a little short for me. It felt like it took forever for the romantic connection to happen and once it did it was a bit anti climatic. I did love the ballet sections which redeemed the story a little bit.

I really enjoyed this book. Anna joins a New York ballet company managed by Victoria, her ballet heroine. Victoria sees potential in Anna and pushes her to succeed as their mutual attraction grows. Anna and Victoria are great characters, as are their colleagues at the ballet company and Anna's family. It's about the artistic and political sides of running a ballet company, alongside jealousy, friendship and romance. Recommended.

I always look forward to read a book about ballet, and this had a great romance element perfectly. It had a great realistic romance element perfectly and I was invested in the characters themselves. It was written perfectly and had a strong story-line and I'm glad I got to read this.

I absolutely love ballet, and go through so many documentaries about ballet and dance companies. This book was absolutely phenomenal! Anns has lived, slept, and breathed ballet ever since she was able to dance. Starting at the Metropolitan Performing Arts Center, it is quite a culture shock. Small town girl in the Big Apple, and in this incredibly competitive environment. Her heart just shines through in this book. Not only her love and passion for ballet, but for others as well.

Victoria is a former ballet dancer that got injured, and is now the ice queen to impress. She delivers lines that both sting and drive you mad with passion! You would think the two of these women would never have any common ground, but it comes to life.

Lola Keeley captures everything you see portrayed in the real world of ballet. Passion, competition, dancing through injuries, and phenomenal performances. I need someone to pick this up and make it into a movie or series. Especially adding in the sapphic aspect of it.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Ylva Publishing for this book being on NetGalley now. It’s technically not an ARC, but I am thankful just the same.

I enjoyed this story and loved the characters completely, lots of big dreams and all very focused on the dancing.
Really nicely written with a descriptive tone that paints the scenes and movements effortlessly, a retired ballet Queen meets a young, talented new dancer.

•Sapphic
•Ice queen
•Grumpy/sunshine
•Age gap
•Ballet

Slow, slow burn, focusing on their careers and the dance rather than the romance. I wouldn’t say there’s particularly that much going on, no crazy plot or twists— it’s very much an authentic and (relatively) smooth journey in climbing to success in ballet. Whilst building relationships, friendship and found family on the way.

I enjoyed it and loved all of the characters, even when Victoria was being mean. I love their tenacity in fighting for their ambitions and passion, in both their careers and relationships. Despite serious and career ending injuries they all still will find a way to continue, and they all support one another even if it means they miss out themselves.
They all respect the decisions to fight for what they love, a very wholesome read

Thanks for the ARC, felt the ending was too quick and would have liked the news stories and epilogue to have started sooner or had a second book instead.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ylva Publishing for this ARC of ‘The Music and The mirror’ by Lola Keeley.

A lovely feel good sapphic romance. A nice quick read however it was an extra slow burn. The ending was good but felt a little rushed. Other than that I loved it.

This was a fun romance! I’m a big fan of age gap romances and they had fantastic chemistry. I really enjoyed the ballet aspects of it, the world-building felt very immersive and
I loved how there were SO many female characters beyond the main ship (like I can think of at least 9 or 10 off the top of my head) and lots of different kinds of relationships among them. Familial, romantic, competitive, contentious…I especially liked that within the ballet company, there wasn’t petty drama and that Anna, Delphine, and Irina all got all along and that they didn’t feel threatened/hated her for trying to ~take their place.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ylva Publishing for the digital copy of this book!

A feel-good sapphic romance. I am always on the hunt for more sapphic romance reads and this one did not disappoint!

We have Anna who is one of the FMCs, she just got a spot in a prestigious ballet company. The artistic director, Victoria, is immediately drawn to Anna. She sees a lot of her past dancing skills in her. Victoria quickly realizes Anna is the key to saving her teaching career. She moves her from the corp to a principal position right away.

Victoria is nothing but hardcore on Anna but she persists and dawns a smile the entire time. This was an ultra-slow burn, we see Victoria's affection slip a couple of times after 50% but up until about 75% nothing happens between Anna and Victoria. It's pretty clear that Victoria has never had feelings for anyone before like she does Anna.

The two things I was bothered by were the fact that it didn't seem to me to bother Victoria that much when she got offered the job in Paris. Like I think she was nervous to tell Anna but she chose Paris right away which I think she should have been slightly more torn about which one to choose. Also, the book was a slow burn to the max and so the fact that the ending was pretty rushed bothered me. Victoria goes to Paris and Anna stays in NYC and then a year or so later they just pick up where they left off and HEA, the end. Like what?

Overall, this was a good read, not high in angst which I am thankful for and I really enjoyed their chemistry.

Yes yes yes yes yes.

Absolutely all the things you want in a sapphic foray. All boxes ticked. All the feels. HEA. I could not stop reading this book. I was an addict and only the high of these bunheads would do.

The age-gap, grumpy/happy, ice queen/sunshine, their dynamic was powerful and the reader will have no choice but to be tangled in the ribbons.

I am going to read this book again and again. The writing is superb, the quotes I highlighted to add to my treasure trove makes me smile, and the end had me happily overflowing with feels.

In New York, Anna is thrilled—she's the newest corps member of the Metropolitan Ballet, and she's eager to prove her worth and maybe work her way up the ladder. The last thing she expects is to be catapulted up the ladder by the artistic director, who sees unlimited potential...on the stage, and maybe in the bedroom.

I have a soft spot for ballet books, to say nothing of queer ballet books. It's interested to see the power dynamics here, because usually in a boss/employee romance or an age-gap romance, the older and/or more powerful person will be a man, and the younger and/or less powerful person will be a woman. Here we have two women, which changes the dynamic somewhat: Victoria isn't afraid to throw her weight and power around (she spends a fair amount of time firing people, actually), but—perhaps because the author or editor was concerned about relationship ethics?—she manages to quell her inner asshole enough that there's never a point where Anna worries that if the relationship goes south, so will Anna's position in the company. (Anna *should* worry about this. She's quite naïve at times, in ways that are unlikely to serve her well in the long run. But at least Victoria is aware of the pitfalls.)

Victoria's meant to be an ice queen, which is not my favorite ever trope but I know is popular. She does get a bit easily impressed for someone who is supposed to be so hardened, though: a quick search for the word "impressed" tells me that Victoria is impressed when: Anna mentions that she was accepted to good art schools; Anna mentions that she's been to another dancer's home; another dancer shows loyalty by offering to report back after meeting someone; Anna picks herself up quickly after some sabotage; Anna has a half-full bottle of vodka rather than a full one; Victoria tells Anna who was behind the sabotage and Anna doesn't react much; Anna knows the difference between traditional and classical; Anna can handle a lift; Anna continues to do well with lifts; the costume designer comes up with something Victoria likes.

There's a lot going on—Anna's sudden promotion from least-experienced corps member to principal, Anna's tragic backstory, Victoria's tragic backstory, a secret aunt(!), glass in pointe shoes, an injury for Anna, an injury for another dancer, Victoria's likely alcohol addiction, another dancer's likely addiction to god knows what, and on and on it goes. At a bare minimum I'd have liked to see the secret aunt plot cut, and maybe also the glass-in-pointe-shoes bit (which just feels a bit clichéd). And then let the characters learn more from each other, maybe, or explore those addictions rather than leaving them hanging, with more than one woman in the book unable to sleep without a hefty dose of substance of choice. Honestly, I'd have been curious about where this might have gone without the romance; Victoria's substance use alone makes me think that she's not in a great place to start something, and I never really got any chemistry between her and Anna. Could have been interesting to see the two of them get to flex their characters a bit without worrying about making them compatible or necessarily even interested in each other as people. But since this *is* a romance, it's probably one best suited to readers who are into ice queens and age gaps.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

An age gap, ice queen so story set in the ballet world!
Anna is young and an up and coming ballerina who is besotted with her idol and now mentor, Victoria, an iciest ice queen! The chemistry between them interweaves through the story of intensity and pressure in the ballet world. It’s torturous waiting for them to finally surrender to it and oh so worth the wait!
Entertaining throughout.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ylva Books for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Music and the Mirror by Lola Keeley is a captivating sapphic romance shaped around the talented and imposing world of ballet. The story follows Anna Gale, a young and gifted dancer who joins the Metropolitan Ballet in New York, and Victoria Ford, a former prima ballerina and current company artistic director. Though their start is rocky, their chemistry can’t be denied. The road from mentor-mentee to lovers is complex, but it is something neither is willing to walk away from. Their journey is riddled with all the pressure and politics one would expect to find inside the Metropolitan Ballet, but it is their passion that truly makes the book exciting.

Keeley does a remarkable job of creating realistic and engaging characters. Anna is a dynamic and relatable woman who must overcome many challenges to earn a spot on the stage, and this makes her quite sympathetic to readers. Cultivated with real depth and dimension, Keeley’s portrayal of Anna is quite impressive. She is a fearless but kind-hearted woman, determined to succeed. Her display of courage and perseverance makes her a very likable character. Readers not only cheer for her, they fall in love with her.

Victoria, too, is well developed. She is a study in contrasts and Anna’s opposite in every way. Stern, demanding and secretive on one hand and caring, generous, and vulnerable on the other, she is an ice queen like no other. Yet, Anna seems to stir something in her, melting the ice bits at a time, exposing vulnerabilities that not only captivate Anna, but readers too.

This is the quintessential opposites attract romance, and readers feed off of it. Their romance is as steamy as it is heartwarming, provoking one to stay up late into the night flipping pages. The chemistry between Victoria and Anna is palpable and intense, stirring a tension that nearly arcs. However, beneath it all simmers a passion and tenderness that hooks readers. And when the end comes, there’s a satisfaction felt that only a truly fantastic romance can deliver.

Final thoughts…

Keeley has designed a well-paced, well-structured narrative in her telling of The Music and the Mirror. She uses vivid and descriptive language to portray the beauty and brutality of ballet. Her scenes capture the emotions of the characters nicely and her setting is quite immersive, pulling one in from the beginning. Anyone who enjoys a slow-burn sapphic romance with sweet and steamy elements will not be able to put this tale down.

Strengths…

Well-written narrative
Immersive story world
Likable, well-developed characters
Engrossing romance
Rereadable

I love nothing more than age-gap romances where the sexual tension is so palpable I have to choose between speed reading or literary edging.

The Music and the Mirror was such a delight to read. I was thoroughly invested and very much intrigued by Anna and Victoria’s developing relationship.

There is something deeply satisfying about knowing this was originally a fanfiction of a pairing I was not into, yet saw how well it worked on this specific rendition of ther chemistry.

The epilogue was too short and rushed for me, and I felt like the ballet aspect of the plot was dropped somewhere after that moment in the wardrobe department. I could have tolerated some more angst and sabotage but I’m still perfectly content to overlook a few major details and plot points that were seemingly left behind in favour of the romance.

Thank you Lola Keeley, Ylva, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

Astounding debut novel for Lola Keeley; this book is a must read!
It feels like a gamble sometimes, choosing a new author's book over one written by a familiar or established author. Rest assured though that Lola Keeley's The Music and the Mirror is one totally worth the gamble. With the exception of a few typos in the text, there is nothing in the storytelling to reveal this as a debut novel and everything to love about a well crafted and engrossing story. It reads like the output of a seasoned pro and has me hoping more books are yet to come from this incredible writer.
This book was full of surprises in all the best ways: characters with distinctive personalities, a variety of relationships and relationship dynamics, top notch writing from beginning to end. All impressive and welcome elements to a story well researched and thought out that delves into the world of ballet, far beyond what is thought to be true about that profession and artistic pursuit, what it takes to make it, to rise to, and then to remain at, the top. Rivalries, jealousy, hero worship, politics all combine to create an underlying tension in the book like a razor sharp edge, where the stakes are gradually introduced to the reader and sometimes reiterated to reinforce the risks and personal costs associated with a career in ballet. There is so much more to the world of ballet than what you might already know or think you know.
It's a fascinating and thoroughly engrossing read and one that does not let up until the end, where there is no sure ending in sight along the way; I didn't expect that and kept waiting for the point in reading where I felt secure in knowing how it was all going to end and then could relax in that knowledge. Although it was jarring to be on edge for so long in the story and to have curve balls and surprises happen at the most unexpected times (and conversely not happen when you expect them to) it made reading that much more immersive and had me that much more emotionally invested in characters I didn't expect to root for or even like in the story. There are some sinister goings on and a layer of suspense that fits in well with the romance and action of the story, all well juggled and proportioned. There is also the smallest amount of fluff and some 'spit out your coffee' funny dialogue between characters that often comes of nowhere so maybe put your beverages out of reach while reading just to be on the safe side. A reading experience this satisfying just proves that new authors have stories to tell and can pull you in with the same skill as those with more published work under their belts, so take the chance on an unfamiliar name to find great work like this within the pages. I highly recommend this book and hope there is more to come in the near future from this remarkable author; they have whet my appetite for this kind of taut and thrilling storytelling.
(Reviewed April 2018)