3.5 stars!

When I picked up this book at a book sale, I thought I had found a real gem. The summary was intriguing and so was the beginning of the plot: The book is set in the mid 1800s up to the early 1900s and is focused on Le Cirque de Rêves (french for „The Night Circus“), as well as it‘s main attractions. And with attractions I do not simply mean people, I mean magicians. Celia and Marco were raised with only one goal in mind: Winning the game that each of them are being trained to win. Only that love (as always, even in life) makes things a little bit more difficult. I tried liking this book, I really did. The plot was promising - but in the end it suffered from severe wasted potential. The possibilities this book had make me want to scream: The love story that popped up out of the middle of nowhere and should have been introduced more delicately could have had the perfect enemies to lovers story that would have had us all SCREAMING! But instead it happened all very cliché-like and too quickly. The typical love at first sight without even knowing each other? Them both being literal Mary Sues with their only personality being that they have magical powers? Please. When they both were at the verge of dying, I didn‘t even care! And that right there is a bad sign because I am normally the first one in line bawling out my eyes and praying for the happy end!!! Another aspect is the circus. It was a nice idea. It really was. And the author really tried to give it that mystical flair that would make us want to go there, be in it, be a part of it - but I think she sometimes took it a little bit too far. The parts in the book that are supposed to be written in „our“ perspective only made me wish they did not exist at all, since they distracted me from the actual plot and distanced me from the timeline that was already pretty confusing, especially in the beginning. And we have so many different views on the circus but it somehow still did not lure me in enough. But the thing that bothers me the most, especially when looking back, is the lack of answers we get regarding all the 10000 questions that pop up in our heads while reading and that are OPENLY ASKED by Celia and Marco: What are the rules of this weird duel? How to Alexander and Prospero know each other and what made them go against one another? Oh, SO MUCH POTENTIAL! We could have had a great and dramatic background-story!!! We could have had meaning, betrayal, eyes-tearing and dramatic-sobbing love. But nothing. Or Marco‘s backstory. Who was he? Where did all that talent come from??? Is everyone just simply born with magic?! Well, that makes it a basic-bitch kind of thing. And the magic used in this book is never really explained. It‘s linked to the circus. All right, I‘ll grant you that argument. But where do the magicians draw their powers from? From themselves? From spells? From nature? Does a „magical bloodline“ enhance your powers (see Celia and her father)??? I NEED ANSWERS!!! Soooo to conclude: All in all I was just very disappointed. There was a promising start - but the plot I could have come up within just a couple minutes of daydreaming would be more exciting. I am so, so sorry, but it‘s the brutal truth.

mystical, enchanting, full of secrets even after the end page.

~~Der Cirque des Rêves (Zirkus der Träume) erscheint ohne Vorankündigung, mitten in der Nacht. Von außen ist er schlicht – schwarz-weiße Zelte, kein buntes Jahrmarkttreiben. Aber sobald man eintritt, eröffnet sich eine Welt voller Magie: ✨ein Labyrinth aus Wolken, durch das man wie schwerelos wandert ✨ein Eisgarten, in dem alles – Bäume, Blumen, Statuen - aus funkelndem Eis besteht, das im Mondlicht glitzert ✨ein Zelt voller Flaschen, die beim Öffnen Erinnerungen und Geschichten freisetzen ✨Vorstellungen, bei denen die Grenzen zwischen Illusion und Wirklichkeit verschwimmen~~ Der Zirkus selbst hat mich am Buch am meisten fasziniert… wie gerne würde ich diesen Zirkus einmal besuchen?

felt more like an aesthetic pinterest board than an actual book.