The Ladies of the Secret Circus by Constance Sayers

Dear novel, you had me at circus. I must admit, it wasn’t love at first page. In fact, at first there was some apprehension that you might turn out to be some sort of a women’s fiction situation with light magic involved, you know, the girly whimsical option. But to you credit, dear novel, you went darker and further and turned out to be way, way more exciting than I originally anticipated, so thank you for being awesome. I’m glad we met.
This one sat around my kindle taunting, promise a potential adventure but putting off with its girth. And it did, in fact, turned out to be a pretty long read, two days instead of one, but absolutely worth the time. Once you get past the initial estrogen laden set up, this novel’ll take you places, magical places. Like 1920s Paris, like a circus so secret it’s in its name with a most unusual of owners that was created for the most unusual of reasons in the most unusual way.
The story follows several generations of Cabot family, from the 1920s to mid 2000s. Once high flying (literally) and now fairly regular women, who each share a romantic tragedy. Is it a mystery? Well, not quite, but it’s in there. It does begin with a vanishing groom. But then it goes off to tell a story so wild, so beguiling, so original…it’ll absolutely transport you, much like a proper circus ought to.
The thing is there really isn’t a way to talk about all of these exciting plot elements without giving something away and it’s best (by far) to go into this novel knowing next to nothing about it, outside of the fact that it’s very, very good. I’m not sure if I ever read the plot summary past the word circus and if I did, I promptly forgot it by the time I decided to read the book and was very glad for it. This way the book got a chance to surprise me, which it did, regularly and pleasantly. I loved the direction it ended up taking, the gorgeously vivid descriptions, the historical aspect of it, the supernatural angle of it, it was a great adventure all in all. The characters were good too, but frankly the circus stole the show, absolutely. Nothing came close to how spectacularly imagined and lavishly executed The Secret Circus was, not even the titular ladies of it. Le Cirque Secret is a thing of darkly menacing beauty. And definitely worth the visit, if you dare.
For fans of books like Night Circus and all those who prefer their fairy tales dark and magic deadly and romance tragic, this is the ticket. Step right up, enjoy the show. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.