Publication Date: September 4, 2026
She checks the ties on her dancing shoes under the spotlight at the Germans’ favorite hotel. She moves automatically, her body remembering the steps, even though her mind is screaming at the danger she is in. The soldiers must never know she is Jewish. And that she is helping her fellow Jews escape…
Warsaw, 1943: Every night, Franceska dances at the most dangerous hotel in Poland. She knows which floorboards creak on the stage, which waiters are clumsy, and which officers like to be smiled at.
After her performance, one strap of her black silk dress sliding off her shoulder, she sips champagne with the terrifying SS commander who is determined to rid the streets of Jewish people. She charms him in the soft candlelight, hoping he might lead her to her missing sister. And she prays he misses the glances she exchanges with the man in the corner of the dining room, who is helping her smuggle Jewish people into the hotel and to safety.
The war has stolen so much from Franceska. She has almost nobody left in the world, and little to lose. But as she bewitches the soldiers with her dancing and flattery, extracting details that will help her in her quest, will she pay with the ultimate sacrifice? For as she fights the dark, she can no longer hide in the dark…
Historical fiction depicting the German occupation during World War II often reflects the suffering of people, especially Jews, who were rounded up like cattle.
However, author Ellie Midwood presents a cast of morally gray characters forced to commit terrible acts just to survive. The Hotel Dancer features a past/present storyline tied together by a writer interviewing people more than three decades later about the Hotel Polski.
At the center is a Polish Jew who barely escapes capture in a failed Warsaw ghetto uprising. Masquerading as her best friend’s cousin, Franceska ends up dancing for the very people whose mission is to destroy her.
The choices she makes puts her on a collision course with danger. Not only does she draw the attention of a high-ranking officer, but her determination to aid the resistance effort increases the chance of discovery.
In a place where survival depends on identifying conspirators and trading information, no one is safe.
The Hotel Dancer delivers a heart-breaking story about a resilient dancer who leaves an unexpected legacy.
Ellie Midwood is a USA Today bestselling and award-winning historical fiction author. She owes her interest in the history of the Second World War to her grandfather, Junior Sergeant in the 2nd Guards Tank Army of the First Belorussian Front, who began telling her about his experiences on the frontline when she was a young girl. Growing up, her interest in history only deepened and transformed from reading about the war to writing about it. After obtaining her BA in Linguistics, Ellie decided to make writing her full-time career and began working on her first full-length historical novel, The Girl from Berlin.’ Ellie is continuously enriching her library with new research material and feeds her passion for WWII and Holocaust history by collecting rare memorabilia and documents.
In her free time, Ellie is a health-obsessed yoga enthusiast, neat freak, adventurer, Nazi Germany history expert, polyglot, philosopher, a proud Jew, and a doggie mama. Ellie lives in New York with her fiancé and their Chihuahua named Shark Bait
