Known to have a little magic, Lara is preparing for her wedding. But when her fiance doesn’t show up, she knows something is amiss. As Lara tries to move on in her life, she keeps getting called back to him and her past. She must uncover the secrets that arise to move on.
I’m particularly fond of magical circuses, and when I saw my spirit animal, Jenny Lawson, had read and liked this, I had to request to review it from Redhook Books. While we have a few leading ladies in this one, all the characters are wonderfully rich, and they add to the overall macabre theme of the story. Cecile is incredibly naïve, and we can only read on, hoping she survives the secrets she’s unmasking, just as we cheer on Lara in much the same vein.
I love that music plays such a central theme in Lara’s life, and Sayers has artfully woven it into the story. We learn so much about Cecile and Esme’s life in the journals she discovers, and I love how it all comes together to form a complete picture. This is a dark and delicious read that keeps you up reading late into the night.
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The Ladies of the Secret Circus is available on Amazon for $14.99.
About the book:
Paris, 1925: To enter the Secret Circus is to enter a world of wonder—a world where women weave illusions of magnificent beasts, carousels take you back in time, and trapeze artists float across the sky. Bound to her family’s circus, it’s the only world Cecile Cabot knows until she meets a charismatic young painter and embarks on a passionate affair that could cost her everything.
Virginia, 2004: Lara Barnes is on top of the world until her fiancé disappears on their wedding day. When her desperate search for answers unexpectedly leads to her great-grandmother’s journals, Lara is swept into a story of a dark circus and ill-fated love.
Soon secrets about Lara’s family history begin to come to light, revealing a curse that has been claiming payment from the women in her family for generations. A curse that might be tied to her fiancé’s mysterious disappearance
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