I received this book via NetGalley for reviewing purposes. This has in no way influence my opinion.

This book needed more circus. A lot more circus. In the middle. This was like a sandwich. The circus was there at the beginning and the end, trying to make you think this was something different, but in the end, all the ingredients for a romance sandwich were still there. Issues with the circus? Yep, sure, but not mentioned again until the last 10%. Reconnecting with her mom? Sure, but not until the romance has run its course in the last 20%. It could have been an interesting and complex plot point through which character growth and flaw could be shown. Instead, it was brushed off as soon as it could in favour of an extremely checked teenage/high school romance, only to be brought back up again as a happy ending to everything.

There was no morally grey character. They were all either good or bad. There was no nuance, nothing different, nothing that gets promised with a circus theme or the idea of running off to the circus. There was so much that could have been done here, so many deep avenues to be explored, but they were, unfortunately, all glossed over or completely forgot about until the very end. There was no build-up and no payoff. ( )

Corey was 2 years old when she went to live with her aunt. For fifteen years she trained as a trapeze artist, traveling around the country with her circus family. When the circus reached a small town in California, someone set fire to their tent during a performance and, just like that, her circus family was forced apart.

With nowhere to turn Corey was forced to live with her mom, who she hadn’t seen in 15 years. Now that she wasn’t constantly moving around the country, she had to attend high school for the first time in her life. Knowing that the townspeople hated circus people, she vowed to keep her life as a trapeze artist a secret. The only one who knew her secret was Luke, a very handsome junior she’d briefly met at a diner the night of the fire.

As their romance began to take shape she began to notice things about him that didn’t seem right, almost as if he was hiding things. Her relationship with her mother was frosty, while she was hiding her past life in the circus, so who was she to judge? Though they both worked hard to keep their secrets, eventually, secrets have a way of being found out. When their secrets are finally revealed, it will change everything forever.

I commiserated with Corey and the decisions she had to make throughout the book, but I had a few problems with it. I wasn’t a fan of the ending, and thought the character of Landon was very stereotypical. Also, the whole premise of why everyone hated the circus was never addressed. Who caused the vandalism? However I will leave it up to you to decide if you want to read it or not.

Recommended for ages 14 and older. ( )