THE NIGHT CIRCUS 

- by Erin Morgenstern

"It's called Le Circue des Rêves, and it is only open at night..."
That was all I needed to read before I decided this was the book I was taking home from Barnes and Noble that day. 
I was on holiday in LA and literally ITCHING to read ANYTHING. 
I was done with A Court of Mist and Fury and for the life of me couldn't find a single copy of A Court of Wings and Ruin in any bookstore I went into so I settled on something that wasn't part of a series - and I wasn't disappointed. 

Morgenstern writes as well as Stiefvater does in regards to painting a vivid image with her words. Through the entire book I felt like I could close my eyes and see the Circus exactly as she describes right in front of me; the iron fence that circles it, the striped tents, the ticket booth, the giant Clock, the bonfire, the throngs of people wandering from attraction to attraction and interspersed through it all the dotting of red displayed by the Circuses own Fandom - The Reveurs (it makes me quite excited for the film possibilities).
She also manages to keep up the air of mystery and intrigue through the entire book so that you're always at the edge of your seat wondering where the next sentence will take you which I thoroughly enjoyed.
The troop of characters that we get introduced to throughout the book are exotic and enigmatic; Morgenstern only giving pieces of each character at a time, the puzzle pieces falling into places at each turn of the page.
We have Celia Bowen, our female protagonist, a gifted illusionist and daughter of the Great Prospero the Enchanter; a magician who unfortunately pushed the boundaries of his magic and is now an invisible shadow of his former self and Marco Alisdair, our male protagonist, an orphan boy chosen by the Mysterious Alexander to be his apprentice in a duel that has been waging for centuries between Hector Bowen and Mr A.H. 

Our protagonists are pitted against each other, entering into the duel knowing only that they have a challenger and that the circus is their arena. Celia works within the circus, close where she can control it where Marco does his magic from afar, orchestrating it's every move, working as an assistant to the Circus's proprietor, the quirky Chandresh Chrisophe Lefevre.
No one involved in the circus is aware that without Marco or Celia, it would not survive. Their magic creates a sort of time warp, anyone involved in the circus doesn't really age, the twins that are born within the circus have special abilities too - it's implied these abilities stem from the magic that runs from Celia and Marco.

Morgenstern takes us on an exciting journey of magic and mystery, secrets and heartbreak and a forbidden love story so well interwoven with the circus itself that the reader is terrified of the consequences. Highly recommend this book if you're a lover of magic or just wanting to get lost in something other than reality.
7/10