I was going to stick with this one, even though the writing was terribly mediocre, full of cliches, and two of the main characters had no clear motivations. Then I got to the spy training. Marie and the rest of the girls are unbelievable caricatures of the worst female stereotypes—stupid, empty-headed, and run scared screaming from a frickin rodent. These women are supposed to be tough SPIES, for goodness sake! Screw female stereotypes!

I‘d been anxiously waiting to read West‘s story because he‘s hilarious in other books. What a disappointment this was. West didn‘t have nearly as much humor, spent much of the story brooding with “I‘m not worthy of her, woe is me” crap, there was boring info-dump on historical farm/accounting stuff instead of being woven into the story, and there was barely any plot. It was like a lazy, half-assed attempt at a novel. I expect more of Kleypas!

I love Kleypas‘s newer works because they have a lot more humor. I laughed out loud several times when reading Hello Stranger. Her older series like this one unfortunately don‘t have that level of humor, but they‘re still fun and a good holdover while I wait for her next newest book.

I really wanted to love this book, but somehow I never seem to connect with circus books. This one was no different. The plot was catchy enough that I finished it, but something about the writing was lacking. I never felt an emotional connection or investment in any of the characters, which made it hard to care what happened. There was also a lot of annoyingly unnecessary telling in the writing. Ah well, not for me.

I would have liked this book more, but the romance happened way too slowly with the hero not actually being attracted to the heroine until way too late in the book and then being an absolute jerk at one point while she waited and waited for him. And his eventual epiphany at the end was too little too late. #historicalromance

Reading this now and liking it okay but not connecting with the characters the way I‘d hoped. Possibly there‘s too much description and not enough dialogue for my personal taste. Gonna finish it, but a little disappointed. I never seem to connect with circus books. #historicalfiction

Simsbury Public Library is discussing The Hate U Give in October with both teens and adults—2 days before the movie hits cinemas! Among my favorite 📚 and a #1 New York Times bestseller!

Been meaning to read this for a couple years. Such a pretty cover! #historical

This was all sorts of amazing. The chapters with Eve were nonstop nail-biting, and those with Charlie gave me a chance to breathe. Read a library copy, will be buying it at some point!