This book does very well with painting a vivid picture of every movement, person, or magical thing within the circus. However, this type of story-telling did not mesh well with me. This just felt like a movie script with bits of dialogue. I thought the bite-sized chapters were nice, but it took me forever to finish this book. The pacing was tortuously-slow, and I did not have the motivation to plow through it. It’s like I never got ahead with this book. I would read 20 pages straight and be no closer to the end.

Now, somehow, the last 100 or so pages caught my interest. No more riddles and mysteriousness about the rules of the game and the relationship between Celia and Marco finally makes progress. Basically, all the pieces of the puzzle slowly come together, and the end is fitting. It almost made me want to raise the rating, but I have to acknowledge how much I disliked the beginning and middle parts. Listen, make this a movie or a Netflix series, and I’m there!

To end this on a positive note, my lil’ romantic heart enjoyed the descriptions of Marco and Celia’s longing for each other. Their meaningful gazes, brushes of skin contact, unspoken words, and dramatic displays of love were all so cute to me! They’re such star-crossed lovers.

[rating purely from personal enjoyment] 2.5 stars