I liked it. The incredibly lush settings and eccentric secondary characters were what captured me the most.I found several things disappointing; here are a few.
1. A "fierce competition", as described in the synopsis. Umm, not so much. It was pretty languid, actually. I expected much more action and at least one real battle with that type of setup.
2. Marco and Celia "tumble headfirst into love." More like it's some sort of pre-destined insta love that required no building of emotion. Bleh.
3. "A remarkable battle of imagination and will." Refer to disappointment #1. The premise of much of the magic is that it is real but curious or slight enough that regular Joes would think it simply illusion or diversion. That's highly unbelievable to me, given the tricks that are actually performed.
With all that said, there were things that I really liked. The idea of the monochromatic circus that simply appears one day, the interesting performers, the vivid descriptions for all the senses. Lovely and enchanting. And, in spite of myself, I did really enjoy all of the characters. Actually, I think if the description had been better written as something closer to what the book was actually about, I might not have been disappointed at all.
This is a 4-star enchanting story with a 2-star misleading description. So, I'll say 3 stars rounded up to 3.5 for the terrific atmosphere contained within.
