by Brooke Moss
Genre: contemporary romance
Expected publication date: July 7th 2012
Published by: Inkspell Publishing
Source: Advanced Review Copy from publisher
Format: paperback
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BLURB: At a town fair on the coast of Oregon, handsome Native American carny, Vincent Youngblood, bestows an unforgettable kiss on shy, awkward teenager, Charlotte Davenport. Then he disappears without another word, leaving her baffled and enamored.
Ten years later, Charlotte is still living in the small fishing town of Astoria, while being trained to--reluctantly--take over for her philandering hotelier father when he retires. After all, who else will do it? Her two perfect sisters are busy being married to their flawless husbands and having cookie cutter children, while Charlotte remains single, childless, and every bit as mousy as she was a decade ago.
As Charlotte struggles to climb out from underneath her judgmental parents thumb, the carnival rolls back into town, and Charlotte finds herself face to face with Vin again. He's back to run his father's carnival, walking away from a promising career in medicine he started in Chicago. Will her biased and judgmental family accept her relationship with a man who is not only a Native American, but works as a carny for a living? And what unsavory secrets bind the well-educated and seemingly superlative Vin to that ramshackle carnival?
After all, you can’t judge a carny by its cover.
Before you read this book, make sure you have tissues nearby, because this book will make you cry like a baby. It is so heartbreakingly good, it is just about impossible to put down. In the early morning hours, when I should be asleep, I stayed up to read this. I am not lying when I tell you that the book was worth the deep eye bags.
The feelings, plot lines and emotions portrayed in this story really has you sympathizing with the characters. The characters are engaging and I loved the humour throughout the story. Charlotte was very real, and had raw emotions. She was left at the altar, and she was stuck with a job and a possible future that she wanted nothing to do with. But then the mysterious Native American carny named Vin re-enters her life and everything changes for the better. She starts to gain confidence and she stands up to the dysfunctional family that has been harassing her her whole life.
I fell in love with Vin as soon as he entered the story. He isn't your average Carny; there's much more to him than grease, mud, and sweat. He is a smart, witty, patient, and romantic guy who loves his family more than anything else in the world. Reading about how their relationship grew was quite a journey. I laughed, I sobbed, I mentally screamed at them for being so stupid. Their relationship had it's ups and downs, and a lot of misunderstandings along the way, but every one of those was a vital step in strengthening their love.
Brook Moss' writing was gorgeous. It was witty and romantic, and paid a lot of attention to details. All of the characters had depth too them, and none of them got left out. The plot is very unique, I think. I haven't heard of any other books with this kind of story line.
The Carny is a really enjoyable read, but my one complaint is the pacing. I felt that it was too rushed at times, and some scenes left me hanging. The pace does steady itself and the story continues to draw you in after a while, so it's not too much of a big deal.
The only time I give 5 stars is if a book has stuck in my mind long after I've finished reading it. And I constantly found myself thinking of this book night and day; obsessing over the ending, going through Charlotte and Vin's conversations in my head, wondering about what could have happened if things didn't go the way it went, and all the other things that psycho readers do when they've finished reading a book that they would remember for a long long time. So, 5 stars it is.
THE NUB AND GIST: 5 STARS
