I like this book, but I’m dying for the cover. Finally, a cover highlighting the female protagonist to look as I imagine her; she’s straight-up dazzling. I enjoyed this YA read, but wasn’t blown away. Enchanted Jones is an aspiring singer, swimmer student athlete, and feeling like an outsider after her close family moves to the suburbs. She’s the only black girl in her school, and she’s trying to figure out exactly where she fits in. Cue Korey Fields, a famous adult R&B artist, who spots her at a talent audition and grooms her R. Kelly-style. Enchanted yearns to be a professional singer but is also at a tender age when teens are just trying to figure out who they are. She notices Korey’s controlling behavior but writes it off because he’s an adult, and she believes in him. Korey gaslights her and manipulates her family into trusting him. Tiffany D. Jackson does a good job showing the subtle ways that Enchanted’s abuser creeps into all parts of her life, taking advantage of her drive to be a singer and alienating her from her loved ones and friends. The book starts off with a shocking scene where Enchanted wakes up to blood everywhere and a body. The murder mystery element gets convoluted in the end and is ultimately where I lost interest in the book. I also found the plot was too carbon copy replica of the R. Kelly scandal. I wanted Enchanted’s story to be more of her own instead of what felt like a re-telling. With that said, it’s a book that will surely resonate with many young adults.

Whoa. Now this is a mystery and suspense thriller with a shut-the-front-door twist. A whole lot happened in this book, and it somehow worked. Often when authors try to cram 50 pounds of mystery/thriller into a 15 pound book, it bursts, but somehow, Lisa Jewell made this crazy plot completely plausible.  Daughter, Ellie, goes missing at the age of 15. Mom, Laurel, gets divorced and fast-forward ten years when she meets new guy, Floyd. Floyd’s daughter Poppy is a bit odd but reminds Laurel of Ellie in multiple ways. Laurel is completely enamored with Floyd but she begins to sense something is off. Just when she thought she would be able to put her daughter’s memory to rest and move forward with her life, secrets about Ellie’s disappearance begin unraveling. Laurel’s tightly wound life spirals, and the answers about what happened to Ellie Mack are shocking. This was an easy read and not too cerebral which is great when you just want to be entertained. All characters are assumed white.

Stick with me on this. You know that part of The Labyrinth movie where Jareth the Goblin King (David Bowie) tries to lure Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) with visions of this swirling, lavish ballroom after making her eat the poisoned fruit, and there are all of these opulently dressed people with grotesque masks undulating in and out of the screen? This book makes me think of that scene – magic, mystery, deception, darkness, masquerade. I loved it all but also felt strange about it at the same time.

In all of its black and white striped glory, the Le Cirque de Reves appears mysteriously - no fanfare, no announcement, no flurry of activity setting up tents. It’s just there one day, open in the evenings only, and after a period of time, it’s not anymore. Two magicians, Celia and Marco, have been groomed from a very young age under the tutelage of cruel instructors more interested in mind games and power than their innocent students. They are pitted against one another in a battle of magical wits and ability. Their competition plays out in ways that impact the other circus performers as well as the patrons who are so desperately entranced in the circus’ lure. But the magic instructors and the circus designers couldn’t possibly have planned for how the magnetism of the place takes on a life of its own, birthing both a love story and a tragedy behind and beyond the canvas flaps. The writing is lyrical and mystical, and the characters are dreamlike. The Night Circus is an alluring blend of the best in literature and magic.