16. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

This is the second book that Cassie gave me for Christmas.  It is such an elegant book that I had it sitting on the end table for weeks.  The inside is just as pretty with the black and white striped end papers and the black sky with white stars page at the beginning of each chapter. 

"The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.


But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead."  From Amazon

I found the prose in the book to be just as elegant as its appearance.  The descriptions of the circus were so captivating that you are drawn into the magic of this elusive circus.  However, I didn't feel that I really got to know the characters.  Besides Celia and Marcus, there are other members of the circus, the true fans who follow it whenever they can determine where it will next appear, and finally Bailey, a young boy who is completely enchanted with the circus.  While I read the book, I felt a vague sense of menace which never truly materialized, so it felt slightly incomplete for me.  Rating:  4