This book sat on my bookshelf for years, but I finally picked it up in 2023. From the first chapter, I was engrossed in this tale of a magician’s daughter, Celia, and her role in a strange and magical Night Circus. Celia had my sympathy throughout. Her dad controls her life from the limbo he’s stuck in because of magic. So, Celia and the other performers are trapped in the Night Circus. She knocks heads with another magical human named Marco. Little does she know that her dad and Marco’s employer have pitted them against one another in a macabre game.
Not only do Celia and Marco serve as our guides, but we get into the heads of others inside and outside the circus. I was engrossed in Morgenstern’s delicious descriptions of these characters and the mysterious Night Circus. I didn’t want to leave! If you enjoy magical realism—or just magic—you’re guaranteed to fall in love with this book!
Rediscover the million-copy bestselling fantasy read with a different kind of magic, now in a stunning anniversary edition to mark 10 years since it's paperback debut.
The circus arrives without warning. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Against the grey sky the towering tents are striped black and white. A sign hanging upon an iron gates reads:
Opens at Nightfall Closes at Dawn
Full of breath-taking amazements and open only at night, Le Cirque des Reves seems to cast a spell over all who wander its circular paths. But behind the glittering acrobats, fortune-tellers…
This is another one is by Erin Morgenstern, who wrote The Night Circus, my other favorite from 2023. As you can imagine, Morgenstern conjures up more magic and mystery! In this one, a university student named Zachary finds his way through a magical door and into a world somewhere deep within the earth (or so I imagined) full of books, strange people, and the pieces of a puzzle that tie him to the Starless Sea. Zachary takes us on his journey as he tries to find answers, and Morgenstern again dazzles readers with her crazy-wild imagination.
I was sucked into this book, just as I was with The Night Circus. It is pure escapism with lots of nods to literature that readers will appreciate. I felt like I was at a masked ball with mysterious strangers and suddenly fell down Alice’s rabbit hole into a place that defied time and space. I wish Morgenstern would write more novels. She is truly a master.
Discover the enchanting, magical bestseller from the author of The Night Circus, now in a stunning new edition.
We are all stardust and stories...
When Zachary Rawlins stumbles across a mysterious book containing details from his own life among its pages, it leads him on a quest unlike any other.
Following the clues inside, he is guided to a masquerade ball, a dangerous secret club, and finally to an ancient library hidden far beneath the surface of the earth. What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their…
My pre-teen daughter is very into series like The Hunger Games, Keeper of the Lost Cities, and the Percy Jackson books. So, of course, I’ve read all of those to keep up with her and discuss her favorite novels. I saw the Divergent movie before I read the book and the series.
I’m quite amazed at the quality of fantasy and adventure books for younger readers, and this one quickly grabbed my attention and didn’t let go. Tris Prior’s world of post-apocalyptic factions and factionless seems too real, particularly with our state of politics and the constant threat of war.
As a mom, I appreciate books with strong young women as protagonists, so my daughter grows up thinking of herself and other girls as having the power to change the world. Tris is quite a formidable character. She came from a quiet faction and became Dauntless through her own grit and determination. I hope that we have lots of Tris Priors in our midst ‘cause we will need many strong women in the future to save us!
The explosive debut by No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth.
DIVERGENT - a major motion picture series.
For sixteen-year-old Tris, the world changes in a heartbeat when she is forced to make a terrible choice. Turning her back on her family, Tris ventures out, alone, determined to find out where she truly belongs.
Shocked by the brutality of her new life, Tris can trust no one. And yet she is drawn to a boy who seems to both threaten and protect her. The hardest choices may yet lie ahead....
Helen’s a 75-year-old widow and grandma of nine. She knows everyone’s business, which makes her the perfect detective. When a man named Milton Grone turns up dead, Helen is as unsurprised as anyone in River Bend.
He was a scoundrel and had made plenty of enemies. The sheriff homes in on Helen’s friend, Felicity Timmons, an avid gardener, and Grone’s next-door neighbor. So, Helen has to step in and sniff out the real killer.
According to Emily, this book is her favorite, which says a lot ‘cause she’s read many books! She loves the main characters, Agatha and Sophie because they’re best friends and stick up for each other. They’re also both good-hearted, even though Sofie gets dropped into the School for Evil instead of the School for Good.
There is such humor in the books, too, and the lesson that no one is all good or all evil. Humans are complicated, just as friendship is complicated. Plus, there’s lots of magic and fantasy. Emily loves magic and fantasy! She would highly recommend it for kids at least 10 and up.
Now a major Netflix film starring Charlize Theron, Kerry Washington, Laurence Fishburne, Michelle Yeoh, Sofia Wylie, Sophie Anne Caruso, Jamie Flatters, Earl Cave, Kit Young, and many more!
The first in the New York Times bestselling School for Good and Evil series. A dark and enchanting fantasy adventure perfect for those who prefer their fairy tales with a twist.
Two best friends have been chosen to be students at the fabled School for Good and Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy-tale heroes and villains. One will train for Good, one will become Evil's new hope.…
