Bright Burning Stars

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE: BIRDS OF PARADISE, STARRING KRISTINE FROSETH AND DIANA SILVERS.

 “A compulsively readable story. I was breathless and battling tears up until the very last stunning turns onstage and beyond. A dazzling, heart-wrenching debut.” —Nova Ren Suma, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Walls Around Us

Would you die for the Prize?

Best friends Marine Duval and Kate Sanders have trained since childhood at the Paris Opera Ballet School, where they’ve forged an inseparable bond through shared stories of family tragedies and a powerful love for dance. When the body of a student is found in the dorms just before the start of their final year, Marine and Kate begin to ask themselves how far they would go for the ultimate prize: to be named the one girl who will join the Opera’s prestigious corps de ballet. Would they cheat? Seduce the most talented boy in the school, dubbed the Demigod, hoping his magic will make them shine, too? Would they risk death for it? Neither girl is sure.
 
But then Kate gets closer to the Demigod, even as Marine has begun to capture his heart. And as selection day draws near, the competition—for the Prize, for the Demigod—becomes fiercer, and Marine and Kate realize they have everything to lose, including each other.

Bright Burning Stars is a stunning, propulsive story about girls at their physical and emotional extremes, the gutting power of first love, and what it means to fight for your dreams.

A.K. Small is a French-American writer. She was born in Paris, France, fell in love with ballet at a young age, and grew up in the 9th arrondissement, in Toulouse Lautrec’s old loft. She moved to Richmond, Virginia at age fifteen and has lived in various American cities. She’s a graduate of The College of William and Mary and has an MFA in fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her first novel, Bright Burning Stars was adapted to film as Birds of Paradise. When she’s not writing, she spends time with her husband, her daughters, and her dog. Visit her online at aksmallwords.com.