A review by goldenbooksgirl
Peril en Pointe by Helen Lipscombe

4.0

In her debut novel, Helen Lipscombe kicks off the Swan House Mystery series by introducing us to Milly, a young ballerina struggling following a scandal she was caught up in at a show and the sudden disappearance of her mother the same night, as she recieves an invitation to study at Swan House ballet school and has her life changed forever. When she arrives, she discovers that the school is actually training its pupils to be both spies and ballerinas, and that being a pupil there may help uncover the truth of what happened to her mum. My favourite thing about this was the setting- it definitely delivers on the huge promise of the premise and I loved how it feels very much like a classic boarding school story, just with added ballet slippers and subterfuge. Speaking of ballet slippers, I also really liked the setting of the shoemaker’s that pops up a few times. The mystery element of the book was fabulous too. Though I was very pleased with myself because I thought I’d worked out what was going on and who was to blame for everything, this book threw curveball plot twists that proved me wrong on more than one occasion, and there was one towards the end that I especially loved. The characters were great too- Milly was a heroine I really got behind and wanted to succeed, and I really liked the friendship group she forms and their scenes together. A brilliant boarding school book with a difference that delivers a satisfying standalone mystery and an even more intriguing beginning for the series to come. 4.5/5