About By a Charm and a Curse:
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.
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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.
REVIEW
I liked this one. This book captured my attention from the beginning and I read it pretty quickly. I never expected the curse to be broken the way it was even though once I found out I realized like duh that makes sense. I liked Emmaline. I kind of hated how the others in the carnival treated her. I mean shes making this big sacrifice and they are mad she doesn't want to stay in the box. I like Ben too. He was such a sweetheart. I think the romance moved a little quick in this one but it still seemed realistic to me. They were really a cute couple. I kind of hated Sidney in the beginning but towards the end he grew on me. I still don't understand his motivations in the end but a broken heart can make a broken man. Overall I really enjoyed this one and would recommend it.
JAIME QUESTELL grew up in Houston, Texas, where she escaped
the heat and humidity by diving into stacks of Baby Sitter’s Club and Sweet
Valley High books. She has been a book seller (fair warning: book lovers who
become book sellers will give half their paychecks right back to their
employers), a professional knitter, a semi-professional baker, and now works as
a graphic designer in addition to writing.
Author Links:
Author Website:
jaimequestell.com
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Excerpt from By a Charm and a Curse:
Leslie smiles at the girl with a mixture of pride and tentative hope.
“It took us a few days to get Sidney set up somewhere else, and I’m sorry about
that. But this wagon belongs to the occupant of the box.” Leslie strokes the
side of the ladder that leads to the door. “What you’re going through is
terrible, we know it is, though we can never truly understand. It’s a small
comfort, but we want you to have a place that’s just your own, a place that you
can use to escape.”
A weak, wobbly smile lifts the corners of the girl’s mouth as her gaze
roves over the outside of the wagon, a shadow of the smile I saw the other
night, when she was with her friend. I wonder what it would take to get her to
smile for real.
“What about Sidney?”
“Sidney can make do.” Leslie’s smile broadens into a grin. “Have you
seen the way he’s been eating? I wouldn’t be surprised to see him waddle out of
the cook shack one of these mornings like Templeton the Rat.” She dangles a
small copper key from the end of a length of faded red ribbon. “It’s like I
said—the carnival owes the person in the box. This is the least we can do for
you in return.”
The girl’s hand shakes as she reaches for the key, and she wraps her
slender fingers around it tightly, as though she’s afraid of dropping it. I
lose sight of her as she steps inside, and all I can do now is hope she likes
the wagon.
I turn to head home and feel the sickening lurch as my foot lands in a
slick patch of mud and whips out from beneath me. I throw out my arm. A flash
of white-hot pain flares through my hand, but I manage to keep my footing. I
step out of the mud that had nearly sent me sprawling on my ass, unsure as to
how I even missed it in the first place. Then my hand begins to throb.
A gash runs diagonally across my palm. Blood wells from the wound,
filling my cupped hand. The pain sets in, a deep pulsing starting in my palm
and radiating up my arm. I glance over at the trailer and see a splash of red
smeared along a sharp flap of metal. I must have sliced my hand on that as I
tried to grab onto something to keep from slipping.
Falling on carnival grounds doesn’t happen; the charm sees to that. But
my bloodied hand begs to differ.
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