Girl on a Wire by Gwenda Bond

Girl on a Wire by Gwenda Bond

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis:

A ballerina, twirling on a wire high above the crowd. Horses, prancing like salsa dancers. Trapeze artists, flying like somersaulting falcons. And magic crackling through the air. Welcome to the Cirque American!

Sixteen-year-old Jules Maroni’s dream is to follow in her father’s footsteps as a high-wire walker. When her family is offered a prestigious role in the new Cirque American, it seems that Jules and the Amazing Maronis will finally get the spotlight they deserve. But the presence of the Flying Garcias may derail her plans. For decades, the two rival families have avoided each other as sworn enemies.

Jules ignores the drama and focuses on the wire, skyrocketing to fame as the girl in a red tutu who dances across the wire at death-defying heights. But when she discovers a peacock feather—an infamous object of bad luck—planted on her costume, Jules nearly loses her footing. She has no choice but to seek help from the unlikeliest of people: Remy Garcia, son of the Garcia clan matriarch and the best trapeze artist in the Cirque.

As more mysterious talismans believed to possess unlucky magic appear, Jules and Remy unite to find the culprit. And if they don’t figure out what’s going on soon, Jules may be the first Maroni to do the unthinkable: fall.

My Review:

I knew it!

**Spoiler Alert!** I knew Novio was the culprit, and I'm still upset about the death of Sam. I cannot believe such a small character but a great one was killed off. I see why Gwenda Bond worked that into the story, and it worked well. It was like a punch in the heart, then to follow that tragedy with a breakup, man! I'm usually not a sucker for fairytale endings (don't get me wrong, I like them sometimes, but...) but I'm so glad this one did. Everyone deserved it, including me.

Ok, now that that is out of my system. This was a great book. I started out with the expectation that this will be set in the circus' hayday, much like The Night Circus or Water for Elephants, but it wasn't. I wasn't upset that it wasn't either.

I think that Jules (MC) was a strong character and although she had many of those traits that can annoy us readers (i.e. being stubborn and selfish, etc.) she used them to become a better person in the end. I liked Remy right off the bat, although I was leery that the author was setting me up only to be disappointed later on. I loved Dita and her uniqueness (her qualities are not often found). I love Sam and thought he was a perfect sidekick to Jules, although he didn't have as big of a role as I would have liked.

Now, onto the characters I didn't care for, Novio & Nan. Novio gave me an eery feeling right away and despite the fact that the author kept trying to steer us away from him as the "villain", I always suspected. Nan, she was a selfish crazy woman, who, had she just been honest with herself and her family, a lot of tragedy could have been avoided.

The great wire walker Bird Millman (1890-1950) was born Jennadean Engleman in Canon City, CO. She starred in Ringling Bros. Circus

Read from October 08 to 21, 2014

Top 5 Genres*: Young Adult, Fantasy, Mystery, Fiction, Romance
*According to Goodreads
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My ratings system
5 stars - I absolutely loved it
4 stars - Good book and would recommend
3 stars - Decent book, but wasn't spectacular
2 stars - Not good, but was able to finish it
1 stars - Did not finish (DNF) and I don't usually rate a book I haven't finished (just to be fair to the author)

View all my reviews