This book was so incredibly hyped up that I thought there was no way it could’ve been bad…right?
Wrong
We open with two “wizards” we’ll call them, in a long time rivalry that has lasted centuries. The two create competitions with each other to see who can train the best magician and win a supposed colossal magical battle.
Sounds cool right?
Well it would be if the author had bothered to stick to that and actually given us the magical battle. Instead we are given a strange traveling circus and the “battle” is both of the magicians struggling to hold the traveling circus together and see which one gives out first.
Each of the magicians also don’t even know who they are competing against until like ⅔ of the way through when they start “falling in love.” I say that in quotes because the two literally had no chemistry and the scenes that were supposed to show their attraction to each other were often just clunky and boring.
You’ll notice I haven’t referred to any of the characters by name and that is because I forgot their names. That’s how little I cared or thought about them. The two main characters didn’t really do much, they had no likes/dislikes or personality traits to speak of. I feel like while writing them the author wanted to come off as if they were very intelligent in the writing style, but it just left the characters seeming as if they were 1920’s robots instead of actual people.
I will hand it to the author that the settings are absolutely gorgeous. When the subject is on the circus itself and the magical talents of the staff, this book shines. You really get the feeling that you’re there and I’d love to visit whatever this magical traveling circus is.
If the author had written her characters as beautifully as she wrote her environments and settings, this would actually be a good book. 2/5