fairytales – Elodie Nowodazkij

Today I am combining Blogme MAYbe (brainchild of SaraMcClung) with the First Loves Blogfest organized by Alex J. Cavanaugh.

Here are the first loves of Natalja…Natalja had a promising career as a ballet dancer until her knee decided to give up on her. Now, she´s back in New Jersey with a broken dream, a broken mother and with no idea who she is without her pointes.

Her first movie crush: She remembers a night of watching dance movies with her friends from the ballet school, laughing so hard her stomach hurt but the very first movie she loved was at a pajama party with Beverley when she was 6 years old: Cinderella from Walt Disney – Since then she has always wanted to dance the part.

Loving music: Chopin. Anything by the man. That´s what her parents used to play on the piano. That´s what she first learned with them when they let her touch the keyboard. She can remember her dad playing this particular piece with her mother waiting for him, all dressed up before a date. A broad smile, the kind she no longer has and he was looking directly at her…Lost times.

A book is more than words on paper: Again, funny how happy memories can resurface so easily if you let them…Her mother reading to her at night, reassuring her that Baba Yaga would not come after her and that Vasilisa the Beautiful was safe.

Source: etsy.com via NoelandNicole on Pinterest

Falling in love for the first time: Natalja gave ballet her heart, her body and her soul...She wonders if she will love someone the same way, with all that passion. She’ll have to wait and see.

Source: setmefreexo.tumblr.com via Elodie on Pinterest

So tell me, what/who were your first loves? or your character’s first loves?

This Top Ten Tuesday feature is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and I first came across it on Jaime´s blog. It´s a lot of fun and they post the topics way in advance! And here comes my second Top Ten Tuesday:

Spring Fever: Top Ten Books I’d Play Hooky With

While it´s been awhile since I skipped anything and I can´t remember skipping any classes unless it was at the end of the school year or during demonstrations. Yes, a lot of French students demonstrate at least once during high school. What I can remember is those books I got lost in at different periods of my life, the one I probably kept on thinking about at all times of the day. The selection has been hard and there are many more I’d like to put there but I’ll refrain to tranform this Top Ten into a Top Thousand…

FAIRYTALES: all types of fairytales. I remember a Grimm book (the kids´ version), a beautiful Charles Perrault book, one which had a fairytale per day and one with I think were Russian fairytales and of course Andersen stories.
COMTESSE DE SÉGUR books: I loved her books as a child. I especially remember one called LES CAPRICES DE GISELE & QUEL AMOUR D’ENFANT which told the story of a misbehaved and spoiled little girl with a big heart. I kept on telling myself I would behave better than her and always got disappointed in some of my actions which made me think “Hmm I’m doing like her”.
JUDY BLUME books: Because let’s face it, she rocks.
LA BICYCLETTE BLEUE by Regine Deforges: I was about 14 when I read this book and some of the sequels. I was mesmerized by the story and I remember laying in my bed for an entire Saturday afternoon just turning the pages.
CATHERINE HERMARY-VIEILLE Books: I’ve read some of her books in high school and some others more recently. I really enjoy both her writing and the story she magically tells (including those taking place in 17/18the century France).
THE BRONZE HORSEMAN trilogy: I started it and never let it go.
TWILIGHT: Yes, I went there 🙂 I read the books when the entire serie was already available and I did miss my bedtime several times because I wanted to know what happened next.
STEPHANIE PERKINS books: I would play hooky with anything this woman writes.
THE HUNGER GAMES Trilogy: I only read the books in January but that enabled me to read all of them at once and I couldn’t wait for my commute to get back to the story.
INSURGENT by Veronica Roth: I cannot wait to get my hands on this book!