Little Dancer by Michelle Leschallas BLOG TOUR #LittleDancer @unbounders @RandomTTours #Giveaway #Prize #Win #Competition

 

Paris, 1878. Ballet dancer Marie van Goethem is chosen by the unknown artist Edgar Degas to model for his new sculpture: Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen Years.

But Marie is much more than she seems. By day she’s a 'little rat' of the opera, contorting her starving body to entertain the bourgeoisie. By night, she’s plotting to overthrow the government and reinstate the Paris Commune, to keep a promise she made to her father, a leading communard who died in the street massacres of 1871.

As Marie watches the troubling sculpture of herself come to life in Degas’ hands, she falls further into the intoxicating world of bohemian, Impressionist Paris, a world at odds with the socialist principles she has vowed to uphold.

With the fifth Impressionist Exhibition looming, a devastating family secret is uncovered which changes everything for both Marie and Degas. As Degas struggles to finish his sculpture and the police close in on Marie, she must decide where her loyalties lie and act to save herself, her family and the Little Dancer.

Little Dancer by Michelle Leschallas was published on 21 July 2022 by Unbound. As part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour today, I am delighted to have one copy to give away. Entry is simple, just fill out the competition widget on the blog post. UK entries only please. 

GOOD LUCK!

One copy of Little Dancer by Michelle Leschallas

Melanie first fell in love with Degas’ iconic sculpture on a life-changing French exchange trip to Paris, when she was a fourteen-year-old dance student.

Who was this gawky, rebellious little teenager in the Louvre, giving the metaphorical two-fingered salute to her polite onlookers? She was nothing like the smart middle-class ballet girls she hung out with.  

The image of Degas troubling sculpture was imprinted in her mind. After completing a degree in French and Italian, Mel lived in Paris and danced professionally in her twenties. She still performs regularly and in 2018 achieved her life-long dream of singing Jacques Brel songs at the Savoy hotel in London. 

Mel’s fascination with dance and movement led her to an MA in drama and movement therapy. She ran a training company for 18 years, became a yoga teacher and now has her own retreat company, based in the magical mountains behind Malaga.

Mel’s second meeting with the Little Dancer came 35 after the first. She wandered into the Royal Academy, shortly after completing her MA at Sussex Uni, despairing of the fact she still hadn’t got an idea for a novel.  And there was the Little Dancer waiting for her.  Mel could almost hear her hissing from her glass case, urging Mel to tell her untold story. So Mel did.