First off, thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
The Ringmasters Daughter is a historical fiction book about a young man named Machel living in France during WWII. He is forced to flee Paris as the Germanys start to invade, he ends up on a train that turns out to be a circus, where he meets a ragtag bunch of characters and falls in love with a beautiful woman named Frieda.
After finishing this book, I wasn’t completely sure how I felt about it. At times I enjoyed the story and then other times I found not much was happening. The book felt quite slow and a little tedious to read at times. While the troupe of performers we meet had the potential to make an incredible group of interesting characters it fell short for me. We hear a few background stories of some characters and while they are redeemable and show what tragedies the Nazis did cause, it always felt like the wrong moments for those stories to be shared. The romance between Michel and Freida seemed trivial, Michel sees Freida on the train for the first time and thinks she is beautiful and BAM he’s in love with her. Throughout the entire book, there is not much proof of them getting to know one another, just one day we find out who she is and just like that they are engaged and that’s that. In the end, this is a story about a circus, and while reading it I wanted to be able to see the sights, smell the circus smells but we only got small glimpses of those things. I was disappointed
In the end, this book isn’t bad at all there just doesn’t seem to be enough, I found myself wanting so much more. There is not enough whimsical circus descriptions, not enough war, not enough believable romance, and defiantly not enough plot twists to keep it interesting, I mean the title kind of gives something away. I want a historical fiction that will touch my heart and make me feel something, whether it be happiness or sadness, just something. This book didn’t do that for me. While I was surprised at the ending, we just needed more of that throughout the whole book. I think the writing felt a bit disjointed at times with irregular pacing. There were also a lot of characters which made it hard to form connections with them all. In the end, I think my opinion is there just wasn't enough; I needed more. If a lighter WWII story is what you are looking for, I say give this one a try, there is a touch of everything in this romance, tragedy, mystery, and war. But, if you are looking for a harder-hitting, deeper story this isn’t the story for you.
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