Eighteen-year-old Moira Mitchell grew up in the shadows of Vegas’s stage lights while her father’s career as a magician soared. More than anything, Moira wants to be a magician too, but her father is dead set against her pursuing magic.
When an invitation to join the Cirque American mistakenly falls into Moira’s possession, she takes action. Instead of giving the highly coveted invitation to its intended recipient, Raleigh, her father’s handsome and worldly former apprentice, Moira takes off to join the Cirque. If she can perform alongside its world-famous acts, she knows she’ll be able to convince her dad that magic is her future.
But when Moira arrives, things take on an intensity she can’t control as her stage magic suddenly feels like…real magic. To further distract her, Raleigh shows up none too pleased at Moira’s presence, all while the Cirque’s cocky and intriguing knife thrower, Dez, seems to have it out for her. As tensions mount and Moira’s abilities come into question, she must decide what’s real and what’s an illusion. If she doesn’t sort it out in time, she may forever remain a girl in the shadows.
Gwenda Bond wrote one of my favorite books ever, The Woken Gods. So when I heard that she ws writing a circus themed book I was absolutely on board. There seems to be some criticism out there and whilst I agree that Girl In the Shadows wasn't as amazing as I had hoped it would be but it was still a really enjoyable read.
I absolutely loved Moira as a character. She knew what she wanted and she wasn't going to let anything stop her - she was so fun to read about and I actually felt like she was fearless andirealistic. I also really liked Dez, despite his lying and blatant character flaws. I could tell that he really cared for Moira but he was also loyal to the other in his life. I was expecting some sort of love triangle involving Raleigh but it never reared it's head so yeah, that made me happy,
There were also some brilliant supporting characters; Nan Maroni, Dita, Jules... they were all pretty awesome and interesting as you would expect from a circus cast.
The magic storyline was quite slow but I did enjoy how everything resolved itself.
I did feel o some degree that this story didn't really dip as deep into the lore and depth that it really had to potential to. That being said, I did really enjoy Girl In the Shadows even if it didn't meet my The Woken Gods expectations.
Book released July 5th 2016 by Skyscape
Book received from the publisher/author in exchange for an honest review
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