Carnival Fantastico

Step right up to a spectacle of magic, mischief and secrets.

From the opening pages, I was hooked. Esmeralda is a runaway with sharp wit and clever tricks, hiding out as the carnival’s fortune-teller. She’s desperate to win the lead act in the Big Top Show, because it’s her ticket to freedom from the Commandante, the army leader she’s running from. I wanted to know everything about her and how far she’d go.

Then Ignacio walks back into her life, and I was invested. He has turned his back on the army to expose his own father’s corruption, and the last person he expects to find is Esmeralda. Their history is full of tension, and the letters from their younger years slowly reveal what went wrong. I kept turning pages, hoping they could find their way back to each other.

But old feelings aren’t the only thing they have to face. The carnival looks colourful and fun, yet the longer you stay, the more sinister it feels. Strange things happen behind the scenes, and nobody is telling the whole truth. The twist at the end caught me off guard!

Unputdownable. If you love second-chance romance, mystery and a setting that feels alive, this one is for you.