Friday, July 27, 2012

Review: Circus Summer by Kailin Gow



Circus Summer (Circus of Curiosities Book #1) by Kailin Gow is a YA Dystopian Fantasy -
Releases July 2, 2012

In post-apocalypse America, every season, the Circus of Curiosities visits the city, bringing with it the most fantastic circus acts that are beautiful, majestic, curious, and death-defying. Every season performers for these acts are chosen from the young men and women in each town, trained, and sent to perform in a live grand performance, performed literally to the death. Two performers from Sea Cliff, a beach town at the outskirts of The Center find themselves chosen to be in this Summer's Circus Act. Both must win at any cost, but could they ignore their feelings for each other? Leela Sinclair needs to win in order to get to The Center where she can get medical help from the best physicians for her ailing mother, plague with a condition no one have heard of. For Zachary Nile, his reasons for becoming a performer at the Circus is more mysterious.  Only the ringmaster and the Circus of Curiosities owner Dex Hightower (Dr. Dex) knows what the touring Circus is really about amidst the magic and splendor.  Despite the Great War and the poverty surrounding the land except for the towns fortunate enough to be near the Center, Dr. Dex and the Circus performers all know, "The show must go on."




Review:


I am going to start by saying that I had HIGH expectation for this book. I really hoped that it was a mixture of The Night Circus with The Hunger Game actual game part, but sadly it wasn't as good as I hoped.

The story was slow to start on the fighting parts. The world building wasn't much for the first half. We knew the world was a mess with the war and the plague. But throughout reading the book, I didn't feel the danger. I kept on thinking that the world was its normal self. The book was more romance than I liked. The book had a lot of potential to be epic kick butt awesomeness! But it was not there. When you get past the half way point, things get more...mysterious, which in term made it more interesting. You get introduced to the Invaders and the Rebels...and also weird lab experiments. Ohhh~ The book began to reveal more of its layers and I started enjoying the book more and more.

Leela was such an amazing character! She was so caring, smart, talented! Leela at times seemed too perfect. She and Zachary were almost instantly good at the trapeze. That was kind of odd but I guess I rather have that than a 70 page description of how hard they trained day and night, holding on to each other while sparks flew...puke! Oh that reminded me how I love Kailin's works! They are short and concise.
Thomas was sweet, understanding and protective. He was the perfect childhood-friend-who-wants-to-be-something-more. He was that teddy bear that you want to hug when your life was messed up. He was Bolin-like. Great Ash, you just made a Korra reference again. Zachary was an amazing guy. He was almost like Thomas, other than the fact that he was not.

Overall I enjoyed Circus Summer but not as much as I hoped. I only wished the "actions" started earlier in the book.



About Kailin Gow:
Kailin Gow is the author of over 100 books, with the majority of them for young adults. Her most popular series are:  The Frost Series, PULSE Series, Desire Series, Wicked Woods, Steampunk Scarlett Novels, and more.  A full-time author, she is also a producer, having worked in radio, television, and film.  She grew up in Southern California, lived in Texas and England, and had traveled extensively around the world.

PS: If you buy Circus Summer email the receipt to info(at) theEDGEbooks(dot)com and tell Kailin that you heard the book from me, I can win some goodies, which I will share with all of you guys!

2 comments:

  1. I love the combination of The Night Circus and Hunger Games. It is always disappointing when a book is slow at the beginning. I have found that I have difficulty connecting to the characters and what happens to them when not enough action is presented. It does sound like a good book, though, and I think I'll give it a try.

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    Replies
    1. I am so glad we have the same view :D I couldn't had put it better myself. Thank you so much for reading. It means so much. <333 :)

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