The Brightest Star in Paris
The Brightest Star in Paris
by Diana Biller
Published October 12, 2021
by St. Martin’s Griffin
Rating: 4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Romance / Historical Fiction
From The Publisher:
Amelie St. James, prima ballerina of the Paris Opera Ballet and the people’s saint, has spent seven years pretending. In the devastating aftermath of the Siege of Paris, she made a decision to protect her sister: she became the bland, sweet, pious “St. Amie” the ballet needed to restore its scandalous reputation. But when her first love reappears, and the ghosts of her past come back to haunt her, all her hard-fought safety is threatened.
Dr. Benedict Moore has never forgotten the girl who helped him embrace life again after he almost lost his. Now, he’s back in Paris after twelve years for a conference. His goals are to recruit promising new scientists, and, maybe, to see Amelie again. When he discovers she’s in trouble, he’s desperate to help her—after all, he owes her.
When she finally agrees to let him help, they disguise their time together with a fake courtship. But reigniting old feelings is dangerous, especially when their lives are an ocean apart. Will they be able to make it out with their hearts intact?
My Thoughts:
I really enjoyed the author’s first book, The Widow of Rose House, so I was excited to read this one. I was even more delighted when I realized that some of the characters in that first book appear in this one, although this definitely can be read as a standalone. Take historical fiction, add in a second-chance romance and some paranormal activity and you’ve got the basics of The Brightest Star in Paris. I wanted to know what happened next but I also didn’t really want it to end!
The story takes place in Paris in the 1870s, with some flashbacks to the 1860s, and features a prima ballerina with the Paris Opera Ballet, Amelie, known to her “adoring public” as Ste. Amie. That’s how proper and good her public persona is. She hides her real self and her history, in order to make sure she keeps her place in the ballet company and in the public eye – because she must support her much younger sister while nursing a hip injury that she’s sure she won’t be able to hide for much longer. She is dancing through pain somehow. She has started to see ghosts, very particular ghosts. Then Benedict Moore, an American doctor who she fell in love with (and he, her) 12 years earlier, re-enters her life. The romance doesn’t blossom easily, due to both of their past experiences. He was damaged by the American Civil War and she by the Franco-Prussian War, which included the months-long Siege of Paris of 1870-1871, and the short-lived Paris Commune, which came after the siege. I learned a lot about this part of French history and about the transformation of Paris’s streets during this time period, while reading this book.
I so wanted Amelie to just say YES to Benedict and to leave Paris with him and her sister Honorine, but that would not have put her ghosts to rest (to use a turn of phrase literally) and it would not have let her realize how to live as herself, instead of pretending to be ’Ste. Amie’ for other Parisians. She was such a strong character, living in times that really limited her potential.
The Moore family individually and as a whole, always makes me smile.
CW: death of a parent, wartime memories and PTSD, references to drug use and prostitution
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