Moving slowly and yet with great affect, this is an awkward read - it's theinterior of Danu, a tightrope walker, grown up in a circus whenloss of her parents clobbers her into almost another mind set - Morris 'saves' her by engaging in tense circus skills that require trust - but then it breaks up when they go to a nearby city. The locket her mother left her sets her on trail of Rosa ... a mysterious, grimbook, I had hard time sticking with it while recognising its skill.

Circus performer Danu is devoted by the deaths of her parents from a mysterious virus. She tries to survive in the circus, developing a breathtaking act with Morrie. The circus finds it cannot survive by touring small villages so head to the city of Matryoshka, Manu's birthplace. As Danu discovers the secrets held in her mother's locket she also loses that which she loves. Can the two ever be reconciled?

The writing in this book is wonderful, so gentle and slightly hypnotic that the reader is lulled into becoming engrossed. the story was a little too fantasy for me but I still enjoyed reading it as Richards is a voice to be admired.

On one of my regular scrolling sessions through Amazon, I noticed this book and I was instantly intrigued as the cover is gorgeous and the premise reminded me of The Night Circus which was one of my favourite books of last year. It follows Dana, a tightrope walker as she experiences a family tragedy that hangs over her as she is trying to move on, make new relationships and uncover the secrets of the place she was born, Matryoshka, known as the mysterious city of circles.

The book started fantastically atmospheric, dark and intriguing; also the travelling circus setting is amazing! The characters felt familiar and believable, it was entertaining on the whole and I liked the general mystery but I expected SO much more! The writing was, for me, overly descriptive to the point where I was skim reading paragraph after paragraph and I hated the romantic focus of the book as it wasn't romantic or tension filled, it was just frustrating and drawn out. I also wasn't overly happy with the ending and the reveal felt too predictable. I think part of my problem and disappointment with this book was my fault as I built it up so much and had high expectations. I would recommend it if it sounds like something you'd like.

This is a magical love story involving two circus performers. Although some may find it magical and entertaining, I rather felt it a bit slow and cumbersome.

The story itself is based around a girl, Danu, overcoming her grief and guilt at the death of her parents. Her only reminder of her mother is a locket, given to Danu on her mothers deathbed. Inside this locket she finds more questions than answers, as she travels with a moving circus as a tightrope walker to her home city - the magical Matryoshka.

I liked the atmospheric feel of the book. The circus environment was exciting and well detailed. I felt at times as though I had stepped into this other world of Matryoshka as the author did a really good job of describing it, and I enjoyed the process of exploring it with Danu and Morrie. However, there's no real sense of what's occurring outside of this environment. I couldn't tell you, for example, where this is set, or even if it's set in the near past or present or how time passed. At times, the writing style of this also seemed a bit overall 'whimsy' or flowery for me, and at times the prose did get a bit irritating.

The character development was ok, although at times the romance element wore a little thin. I also though Morrie often played a supplementary role to Danu, and the plot itself plodded along for far too long with not much happening. It did pick up towards the end enough to keep me intrigued enough to continue however.

This would be a good book for people who enjoy deeply poetic style writing of magical lands. Sadly, I found the writing style wasn't quite for me.

Yes, it's another book about circuses (Circi? Circes? Cirques?). I think I have the patience for maybe another 10 books set in circuses and then I'm deeming it an overdone cliché. Having said that, there's a reason people keep writing books like this. From Flight of A Starling to Showstoppers to Daughter of the Burning City the circus has captured the imaginations of authors.

In the case of City of Circles however, the focus is not on the circus as a venue but on two of the people within it. Danu loses her parents to plague/general disease in the first few pages of the book (so I don't think it counts as a spoiler) and the rest of the book is sort of a story of healing and dealing with long term grief. For personal reasons that theme is definitely resonating with me at the moment so I was prepared for an emotional but probably quite relatable read.

I did want to absolutely love this. I wanted it to be the beautiful story of finding oneself in the hard times with a little bit of fantasy thrown in. For some people that probably will be what this is. But for me...something was a little off.

I have never quite appreciated how people who don't like flowery language feel until I read this book. For instance, I'm a Laini Taylor fanatic so I can never comprehend why people don't get on with her writing. But in this instance I felt a bit like I was stuck inside a metaphor for the entire book and I wasn't really sure how to escape and get back to...anything actually happening. Which is silly because the plot of this book is actually wonderful. It's a love story and it's a story about finding oneself (both literally and figuratively) and some of the elements of the setting(s) are just fabulous. The 'City of Circles' itself is something I don't think my imagination could have cooked up in a million years. But when you're stuck in an amazing setting with a character whose misery is starting to seep into your very pores it's hard to appreciate that wonder.

It's not that this book was unenjoyable. I've actually given it a pretty high star rating because I think the core concepts are sound and the story is beautiful. But I think that if you aren't big on descriptive language and symbolism this book might become a bit too much to bear. I also don't recommend reading it if you are already feeling a bit down as it might drag you further into a languor.

This review is coming off awfully negative isn't it? It's hard to explain, but what I'm trying to say is that this is a book for specific people in specific situations. I imagine that, had I read it six weeks prior, I would have had a very different experience. There's something powerful in that, I suppose, the ability to create a book that could potentially go through that journey of grief with you?

I'll be interested to hear what other people think of this book, those in different walks of life. So if you spy a review do point it out to me!

If you think this might be a book for you City of Circles is available now!

By the way, I received a digital review copy of this book for free from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.