Miraculum

Book Description: The year is 1922. The carnival is Pontilliar’s Spectactular Star Light Miraculum, set up on the Texas-Louisiana border. One blazing summer night, a mysterious stranger steps out onto the midway, lights a cigarette and forever changes the world around him. Tattooed snake charmer Ruby has traveled with her father’s carnival for most of her life and, jaded though she is, can’t help but be drawn to the tall man in the immaculate black suit who has joined the carnival as a geek, a man who bites the heads off live chickens. Mercurial and charismatic, Daniel charms everyone he encounters but his manipulation of Ruby becomes complicated when it no longer becomes clear who is holding all the cards. For all of Daniel’s secrets, Ruby has a few of her own. When one tragedy after another strikes the carnival, and it becomes clear that Daniel is somehow at the center of calamity, Ruby takes it upon herself to discover the mystery of the shadowy man pulling all the strings. Joined by Hayden, a roughneck-turned-mural-painter who has recently reentered her life, Ruby enters into a dangerous, eye-opening game with Daniel in which nothing and no one is as it seems and yet everything is at stake.

I saw this book when I was at the library renewing my library card and I thought I have so many books already but I was so intrigued by the description that I had to get it and read it. I am glad that I did it was a fun read!

The plot of the book is interesting and unique, it is a little mixture of magic and powers of the gods combined. I like that you learn more as the story progresses about who Daniel is and what power Ruby possesses and why he is drawn to her. I like that it is set in the carnival setting and the descriptions that the author provides really brings it to life.

I thought the characters were well written and I like that you slowly learn their background. I especially liked learning more about Ruby as I read and it made me think more of why she did what she did and how it played into her and Daniel’s story. I like that you have the perspective from different characters through the story. The supporting characters were pretty good, they didn’t have a ton of parts to it, but they did help progress the story along.

The writing was well done. The story was clear and progressed nicely. I liked the little twists that there were in the story and left you trying to figure out what was going to happen at the end. I thought overall it was a unique story and it was a fun read that I would recommend.

Book Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Reading Challenges: Historical Fiction RC, Library Love RC, Print Only RC, Golden Trio #34, Popsugar #12, 52 Books in 52 Weeks #46, Around the Year in 52 Books #39, Linz Bookworm #7, Dancing w/ Fantasy & Sci-Fi #52, & Bookiary 2019.