It’s been forty minutes now of writing and rewriting this review. It’s kind of ridiculous that I’m so tongue-tied when it comes to this book! All you really need to know is how I loved it, right? Right.

Okay, so here it is: I picked up this story because of Nick (@ Nick and Nereyda’s Infinite Booklist)’s fabulous review, and the mere mention of ballet and Antarctica in one novel seemed too good to pass up.

And it was almost too good to be true. This story spoke to me on a personal level. It’s one of those quiet but powerful stories that are completely character-driven but somehow manage to be enthralling and unputdownable. The setting was just…*flails*. Antarctica! Penguins! The cold! I couldn’t have asked for me. It was everything the story needed, and worked wonders. The writing manage to completely capture the atmosphere, and spin it so it worked well with the story. I could go on and on about the setting and writing forever, if you wanted me to… which I assume you don’t, so moving on. Harper was a hell of a protagonist. I love strong female protagonist that don’t need to kick ass or slay dragons to show it. Harper was well-developed and realistic, flawed but working on it. Couldn’t have asked for a better MC. The romance had a minor role in the story (like really minor) which was great. It focused on Harper, and Harper’s journey more than anything. Oh, and the female relationships in this book were spot on too! The San Francisco flashbacks could be a little confusing and were a little duller IMO than the Antarctic sections, which was probably my biggest complaint about the story. But the ballet scenes completely overrode all of that. We need to take a second to thank the lords and gods and deities that a YA book finally got ballet culture written down correctly. Shocking, right? I know. But Jennifer Longo did and it made me weep with joy. Seriously.

All-together this book was just beautiful. It tugged at my heartstrings, and I loved that it was realistic and easy to read too. I’d definitely recommend this if you enjoyed [b:Rules for 50/50 Chances|23296348|Rules for 50/50 Chances|Kate McGovern|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1427121116s/23296348.jpg|42852817] or [b:Things We Know by Heart|17571215|Things We Know by Heart|Jessi Kirby|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1413391278s/17571215.jpg|24510841].