I received this book via NetGalley for reviewing purposes. This has in no way influence my opinion.

This book needed more circus. A lot more circus. In the middle. This was like a sandwich. The circus was there at the beginning and the end, trying to make you think this was something different, but in the end, all the ingredients for a romance sandwich were still there. Issues with the circus? Yep, sure, but not mentioned again until the last 10%. Reconnecting with her mom? Sure, but not until the romance has run its course in the last 20%. It could have been an interesting and complex plot point through which character growth and flaw could be shown. Instead, it was brushed off as soon as it could in favour of an extremely checked teenage/high school romance, only to be brought back up again as a happy ending to everything.

There was no morally grey character. They were all either good or bad. There was no nuance, nothing different, nothing that gets promised with a circus theme or the idea of running off to the circus. There was so much that could have been done here, so many deep avenues to be explored, but they were, unfortunately, all glossed over or completely forgot about until the very end. There was no build-up and no payoff.