Book Review: By A Charm and A Curse by Jaime Questell

By A Charm and A Curse by Jaime Questell

Blurb:

Le Grand’s Carnival Fantastic isn’t like other traveling circuses. It’s bound by a charm, held together by a centuries-old curse, that protects its members from ever growing older or getting hurt. Emmaline King is drawn to the circus like a moth to a flame…and unwittingly recruited into its folds by a mysterious teen boy whose kiss is as cold as ice.

Forced to travel through Texas as the new Girl in the Box, Emmaline is completely trapped. Breaking the curse seems like her only chance at freedom, but with no curse, there’s no charm, either—dooming everyone who calls the Carnival Fantastic home. Including the boy she’s afraid she’s falling for. 

Everything—including his life—could end with just one kiss.

My Review:

When Emma goes to the carnival with her friend Juliet she has no idea that she won't be leaving anytime soon. While waiting in line she locks eyes with a boy across the way who is helping a girl with a horse, but when a tumbler distracts her and she has a chance to look again, he's gone. Inside the carnival she tries to fit back in with her friend Juliet after years away from town. But when Juliet wants to reintroduce her to old friends Emma hangs back, deciding to get a fortune from The Boy In The Box Instead. 

But the boy in the box is no ordinary teenager and a bottle of wine and a kiss atop the Ferris wheel changes Emma's life forever. Suddenly she's the new Girl in the Box, the magic keeping the carnival running smoothly. Because of the person in the box, the rest of the carnies don't age, get sick, or get seriously injured as long as the person in the box is near by. And the only way to pass on the curse is to kiss someone else. 

This is the last thing Emma wanted from her first kiss, to be trapped in a transformed body where she can't feel anything with the only way out to inflict the same fate on an unsuspecting boy. Especially once she begins having feelings for Ben, one of the boys with the carnival, a boy with desires of his own to leave the carnival life behind for good. 

Is there another way to break the curse? Or will Emma be trapped as The Girl In The Box for  the rest of her life?

I requested this book because I loved the cover  and the blurb appealed to me. I was hoping for a book along the lines of Caraval or Freeks, which I didn't find but even so, By A Charm and A Curse was still an enjoyable, quick read.

This story reminded me a little of Pinocchio, which admittedly wasn't my favorite Disney movie, but I suppose it was a unique idea all the same. I liked the friendships Emma eventually found with Gin and the others and I liked Emma's romance with Ben, although it seemed a little rushed. Wouldn't you be a little cautious of anyone from the carnival, especially a guy, after the whole experience with her first kiss with the boy in the box? And the ending seemed rushed as well. 

Overall, I liked this book but it didn't stand out for me. I liked the carnival theme but the book doesn't seem like something that if you asked me a few months from now I'd easily be able to recall the details. It's a like, not a love.

My Rating:

🌟🌟🌟

3.75 of 5 Stars!