Book Review: 84 Ribbons

Book: 84 Ribbons by Paddy Eger

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Rating: 5 stars

Review:

Set during 1957, high school senior Martha Selbryth had her heart set on becoming a professional ballerina. Martha finally got her chance when she was accepted for a spot with the Intermountain Ballet Company in Billings, Montana and following graduation she was off to start her new life training with the company.

Now in a new state and trying to get used to not only the ballet company but also living in a boarding house. She was experiencing new things and finding being a responsible adult a bit nerve wracking. And to make matter even worse, Madame Cosper at the dance company continues to find fault with nearly everything that Martha does and living at the boarding house could be stressful at times when she had to deal with one of the boarders Carole.

Martha wasn't the only newly hired dancer and soon she became friends with the other two female dancers Lynne and Bartley. And she was definitely needed that friendship because Madame Cosper was making it difficult for Martha because no matter how hard she worked Madame continued to treat her as if she is nothing more than a disappointment. And it didn't help matters when Martha met reporter and college student Steve Mason who had caught her eye. Steve is a fun and interesting guy although he doesn't quite see all the hard work that necessarily goes into becoming a professional dancer but the more he gets to know Martha the more his opinion starts to change.

But as preparations, rehearsals and shows make up most of Martha time she started to push herself harder than she should have. All the stress is increase some of her bad habits in regard to eating and taking good care of herself despite everyone from her mother to her friend Lynne, she continues to follow along a dangerous path.

However, a possible career injury may exacerbate her health problems even more. Is being a professional dancer more important than taking care of herself or will she have to figure out a new career path? Those are a couple of the questions that Martha had to ask herself in this story.

Even when a tragedy happened to one of her friends it still didn't seemed to sink in that maybe she needs to change some of the things she's doing.

I really liked this because it's an emotional whirlwind for Martha and the story is part coming of age and part cautionary tale and well as part self discovery. Sometimes what you dream for isn't always the best thing for you, I was wondering about the open ending and turns out there is going to be sequel, which I'm really interested in reading.