That Time I Joined the Circus

by J. J. Howard

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

I haven’t had much luck with circus books, at least not Fantasy ones. Maybe a realistic Contemporary is more up my alley? Well, That Time I Joined the Circus didn’t disappoint me for the most part! It was a very fast and cute read, but quite different than I was expecting.

Lexi is a self-proclaimed music sob. She’s one of those people who thinks listening to anything in the Top 40 is beneath them. I was worried I was going to hate her, since I generally cannot stand people like this, but I actually warmed up to her pretty quickly. Besides knowing everything about obscure music, Lexi is also a bookworm, good with kids, and can read tarot cards. Of course her many talents come in handy when she’s trying to earn her keep at the circus. I did have a couple of eye rolling moments, because it was quite convenient how each of these things came into play in various circus jobs.

That Time I Joined the Circus alternates between present and past. The present, of course, is Lexi at the circus searching for her mother. The past is the preceding months, and they aren’t as interesting. They don’t disrupt the flow of the story, at least for me, because they show us more of who Lexi is and the life she’s leaving behind. I did wish that there were less of these chapters, since the book is quite short and I wanted to see more of the circus life.

However, these flashback chapters make more sense at about the two-thirds mark. This is also where the story takes an unexpected turn. It seems like the ending focuses more on Lexi and her best friend, Eli, making amends after the events of the day of her father’s death. There really is hardly any focus on her mother. In fact, once Lexi arrives at Circus Europa, there are no more mentions of her mom until she finds her at the end. Even then the focus still seems to be on her and Eli.

Let’s talk about the romance briefly. Of course there is a romance. A really strange love triangle, at that. I was nervous that it was going to be a love rhombus, but one of the candidates is removed almost immediately. It still comes down to Nick and Eli though. I already mentioned that Eli is the best friend with which some drama occurred, but Nick is the super hot circus boy. It’s basically instalove, and I didn’t buy it. They had known each other for only a few weeks, so yeah. Not a fan of the romance in this one.

In the end, That Time I Joined the Circus was a delight to read despite my complaints. It’s definitely a unique story and loads of fun. There’s some serious parts as Lexi is missing her father and learns the truth about why her mom left. But overall it’s a pretty fluffy read with a great cast, and the cheesy ending left a smile on my face.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.