This is my first review of a netgalley book and I didn't know what to expect but unfortunately this one was not for me. I decided to DNF at 30%.

I was initially drawn in by the promise of a revenge-driven plot (I imagined Black Swan meets Gone Girl), but I found the pacing too slow to hold my attention. I kept waiting for the action or emotional stakes to kick in, but it just didn’t get there fast enough for me.

The storyline felt a bit too familiar - centering on a young woman falling for a brooding "bad boy" and overlooking his deeply troubling behavior because he’s mysterious and possibly traumatised. I found it hard to stay connected to the characters or feel invested in their dynamic.

This might resonate with readers who enjoy slow-burn romance with dark, emotionally complicated relationships, but unfortunately it wasn’t the right fit for me.

The book draws on the themes of the ballet Giselle, where the main character is a young woman who dies of a broken heart after she falls in love with a wealthy man who betrays her.

When her ballet career falls apart, our fmc Sylvie finds herself in an uninspiring admin job, where she falls in love with her charismatic boss, before realising he has lied to her about his availability because he is married. Determined to punish him for this betrayal, Sylvie takes drastic measures...

This book was a bit of a mixed bag for me because I didn't really warm to Sylvie's character,who did not seem to take proper responsibility for her own subpar choices. But I did like the role assigned to her aunt, and the use of her journals. All in all, I would give it a maximum of 3.5 stars.

I really enjoyed Celine Saint Clare’s debut novel, Sugar Baby, so I was very excited when The Feminine Art of Revenge was announced. Sadly this didn’t live up to expectations for me.

I could not connect to or empathise with Sylvie as a character - she made poor decisions and was just a bit entitled generally. I think the story would have been better if it followed her time at Willow Way and showed us a slow descent in to jealousy and attacking her classmate.

The ‘revenge’ was very basic and uninspired - I guessed the hair removal cream would be a feature, because it appears so often in stories of revenge. I found the ending to be slightly ludicrous and unbelievable too.

Aunt Jacqueline was also a bit of a caricature and didn’t add much to the story.

There were some good bits of this story - the revenge involving the lemonade and the swimming pool was brilliant, and the interactions between Jay and Sylvie were interesting. I wish the novel spent more time on their affair, as it was really very brief.

This was a miss for me sadly, but I will definitely pick up Celine Saint Clare’s future works as I really did enjoy Sugar, Baby.

Title and cover top tier. Feminine Art of Revenge is such a great name for the genre of female rage.

I think it’s a hard line for female revenge books to give us enough of the story with the man who wronged them without it going on too much because the sort of main part of the story is the after. In the case of this book it’s about the 35% mark and I definitely understood what a terrible guy he was and how the fmc got swept up. And then the real story begins.

The feminine art of revenge at its core centre’s around ballet and the ballet story of Giselle told at the beginning of the book.

I truly loved the relationship between the fmc (Sylvie) and her great aunt who was this fabulous lady and influence for Sylvie whose relationship was really crucial for her while at Ballet school and then in her journals.

I don’t know how to explain how this book felt less for the thrills of revenge but more life lessons for women knowing their worth and not seeking all affirmation in men. Felt like I wanted to keep her aunts journals for myself to re-read when you need to find your sparkle again.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for the e-arc. I will definitely check out more from the author!

"Revenge is a feminine art."

Celine brings to life the romantic ballet Giselle, which tells the story of a young girl who falls in love with a deceptive nobleman, and eventually dies of a broken heart.

This is the first book I've read in a while that's out of my regular genres, but I loved every second of it. The Feminine Art of Revenge is a story of a ballet dancer who falls in love with the wrong man and proceeds to get revenge with the advice of her late aunts diaries; showing us all that the best way to revenge is being eloquent and graceful.

I will admit, for the first 30% I wasn't sure this book would be my cup of tea as the beginning felt very fast in terms of the relationship developing, but after continuing, it slowly clicked that was the whole point. Sylvie seems to have an obsessive personality, hence her falling in love so quickly, and why she obsessed over getting revenge on the man who lied and cheated.

The ending felt bittersweet to me, and that landed perfectly. Revenge isn't something that ends up being fulfilling most of the time, but instead somewhat sad.