The Girl from the Paradise Ballroom: A Novel

by Alison Love

The epic love story of an Italian singer and a British dancer, set against the backdrop of war-torn England

Antonio and Olivia meet only for a brief moment, but the electricity between them is breathtaking. He is a struggling Italian singer; she is a captivating dance hostess at London’s seedy Paradise Ballroom.

Months later, as World War II dawns, they unexpectedly meet again. Olivia’s fortunes have changed, and she is now the wife of Antonio’s wealthy new patron. She fears Antonio will betray the secrets of her past, but little by little they are drawn together, outsiders in a glittering, rarefied world of tradition and class to which neither of them truly belongs. At last, with the threat of an unimaginable conflict looming across Europe, the attraction between them becomes impossible to resist—but when Italy declares war on England, the political and emotional impact threatens to separate them forever.

Heart-wrenching and compulsively readable, The Girl from the Paradise Ballroom is a dazzling story of forbidden love and family loyalties set amid history’s most devastating war.

• ISBN10: 1101904518
• ISBN13: 9781101904510
• Publish Date: 19 April 2016 (first published 31 December 2014)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 336
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781101904510

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

Told in multiple perspectives from Olivia the dance hall girl, Antonio, the singer, Filomena who is Antonio's sister and a rich man who helps bring them all together.
Set in the time period between the first and second world war where things were starting to prosper, but fear was also very real depending on who you were.
Now I'm not going to lie, this one was a little disappointing to me. I wanted more of Olivia's life as a dance hall girl, and her and Antonio becoming friends as they were both working together all the time. Instead, they barely had any conversations together until someone else forced them together, and then everything went from I'm avoiding you, to oh how I've always been so so in love with you. Really? Cause you're both married and it's a little late to be expressing your feelings now.

The only storyline I really enjoyed was Filomena's not only was she a strong woman who stood her grown when it came to her marrying someone she didn't love. She said no and ended up being happy because of that. I was far more invested in her and Stan's love story than I was anybody else's and seeing their ending made me really happy.
As for the other endings, they were just kind of meh for me. By the end, I didn't care for these characters for different reasons and was just rather disappointed.