Wanting to Run Away with the Circus
According to my Goodreads account I have read the book Kiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips four times. By my estimate, it might actually be more like six. There is something about this book that I love.
Daisy finds herself in an arranged marriage with Alex Markov, though neither of them wants to be married to the other. Alex drags her away to work in the circus, live in a travel trailer, and be his neglected wife until they can go their separate ways. So to tick off what it has that I adore in a book, it’s a contemporary, yet it is a marriage of convenience (or inconvenience in this case) story, they’re in forced proximity, traveling on the road, and best of all, it has a circus.
I love everything about the circus (except animal abuse, more on that later) and every time I find myself craving a circus romance I scour the internet for something worth reading.. and end up back at Kiss an Angel. I can’t seem to find anything else to scratch that itch in the same way. I’m here today to ask our lovely AAR readers for suggestions.
Do you know of a great circus romance I haven’t found?
Let me tell you about a few of the titles I’ve either read, or that I’ve come across, so you know what I already have under my big top, so to speak.
Kiss an Angel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips – As I said above, this is a contemporary romance, a road trip romance, a marriage of convenience, and so many other wonderful tropes rolled into one. It’s a big pile of dated angst I can’t stay away from. I would feel bad if I didn’t warn readers, however, that there are animals in the circus receiving poor to dubious treatment. Daisy tries to improve their lives as much as she can. Also, I always like to warn people that this book is kind of an odd duck that features weird woman-tiger telepathy and I can’t explain it but you just have to ignore that.
Buy it at: Amazon/iBooks/Nook/Kobo
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen – This is more historical fiction than just romance, about a young man in Great Depression who runs away from veterinary school to join the circus. I read it maybe ten years ago and really enjoyed it. I found the movie version passable. I think it is totally worth the read but if you have a tender heart for animals this one is going to boil your blood.
Buy it at: Amazon/iBooks/Nook/Kobo
Amour Amour by Krista and Becca Ritchie – A young woman named Thora wants to be in an acrobatic act on the Vegas strip and develops a romantic and training relationship with a skilled acrobat. I’m a Cirque du Soleil junkie and saw them four times in the last calendar year, so this should have been a shoe-in for me but it was flat. I wanted more circus than this provided and I think the concept had more potential than was met.
Buy it at: Amazon
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – I sometimes think of this as the book that everyone has read but no one knows the plot of. The Night Circus is what I would call Literary Fantasy, full of very lush prose, intricate writing, and book club potential. It is beautiful but neither the plot nor the romance are what will knock your socks off.
Buy it at: Amazon/iBooks/Nook/Kobo
Girl on a Wire by Gwenda Bond – A YA novel about a tightrope walker that bored me so much I gave up halfway through. If any romance makes an appearance I didn’t see it.
Buy it at: Amazon
These titles have been mentioned to be as worth reading, but I haven’t read them yet:
The Orphan’s Tale by Pam Jenoff
The Traveling Man by Jane Harvey-Berrick
Menagerie by Rachel Vincent
Please share some more recommendations with me! My preference is for contemporary settings but I am open to historical ones. They can be any romantic pairing but romance is a must. Paranormal is not a genre I tend to read but others might love a circus paranormal. Young Adult is a possibility for me but I’d prefer adult. Suggest away – and thank you in advance!
I’ve read the first two books of the Menagerie series by Rachel Vincent and really liked it. Romance is probably coming, but frankly, the series is relatively brutal at the moment and the leads just don’t have much time for anything but survival.
I did want to mention what the post reminded me of. Many many (you get the picture) years ago, I read a science fiction circus series by Barry Longyear. It involved a circus troop who ended up basically stranded on a planet and how they created the new world based on their circus customs and norms(City of Baraboo).. Some of it is incredibly sad, which may be why I remember it so well (basically animals don’t do well on the new planet-Elephant Song). The 3 book series ends with a book called Circus World, which takes place much later and we see the legends surrounding the original troupe. I know it doesn’t have anything to do with romance, and is out of print, but I was so excited to remember this I had to tell you all. S/F was my first fiction, or at least S/F Fantasy.
Kiss an Angel remains one of my older favorites. It has fantasy elements to depict the connection Daisy feels with animals but that all worked for me. I really enjoy the setting for this book and still find it to be my favorite SEP.
I enjoyed John Irving’s _Son of the Circus_ though not really a romance.
I really love Kiss an Angel! I’ve read it twice now and I don’t typically reread books. Sometimes you’re just in the mood for old school angst…I don’t even mind the tiger-woman telepathy!
There’s a YA novella called Of Silk and Fire that I remember liking. The main character is an acrobat but she’s suffering from memory loss. I think there’s some paranormal and romance elements, if I’m recalling correctly.