Not all illusions happen on the
stage.
Wren Lockhart,
apprentice to master illusionist Harry Houdini, uses life on a vaudeville stage
to escape the pain of her past. She continues her career of illusion after her
mentor’s death, intent on burying her true identity.
But when a rival
performer’s act goes tragically wrong, the newly formed FBI calls on Wren to
speak the truth—and reveal her real name to the world. She transfers her skills
for misdirection from the stage to the back halls of vaudeville, as she finds
herself the unlikely partner in the FBI’s investigation. All the while Houdini’s
words echo in her mind: Whatever occurs, the crowd must believe it’s what
you meant to happen. She knows that if
anyone digs too deep, secrets long kept hidden may find their way to the
surface—and shatter her carefully controlled world.
The Illusionist’s
Apprentice is the second book in Kristy Cambron’s Jazz Age Entertainers series, coming after The Ringmaster’s Wife. I really, really enjoyed The Ringmaster’s Wife, so I have been
looking forward to reading this sequel for quite some time, though you wouldn’t
know it considering how long it sat on my shelf before I finally got around to
reading it. I’ve been behind on my reading for quite some time now, and on my
reviewing as well considering the fact that I read this book almost 2 months
ago. And honestly, I would’ve thought I would’ve been raving about this story much,
much earlier, because I cannot BEGIN to tell you how much I loved it. This book
blew me away. It really did. Kristy is a master of weaving together captivating
stories with a perfect combination of mystery and heart-wrenching emotion, and
she will forever be one of my all-time favorite authors.
Wren Lockhart is such a perfectly developed character. From the
beginning, she is a mystery, hiding her true self and her life—and her secrets—behind
the vaudeville persona she has created. But as that life—and those secrets—begin
to crash down around her, there are so many choices she must make about who she
is and who she wants to be. Her newfound partnership with the FBI challenges
her privacy, and her heart, as they race against time to solve a mystery far
more complicated and far reaching than they ever imagined, a mystery that will
only serve to further tear Wren’s life apart.
Let me begin by telling you that Kristy did a perfect job
with this mystery. I had no idea who
was behind it all. Until the very last second, I was just as confused as the
rest of them, but as the threads started to come undone, I was completely blown
away by what I found. I don’t think I’ve read a better written deception, with
a more believable motive or a more perfectly hidden culprit. I don’t want to
give away anything, because I want you to be able to experience the same surprise
that I did, but I just want to praise Kristy’s skills for a minute. If you like
any type of mystery or suspense, read this book. Seriously. It’ll knock your
socks off. And coming from someone who also LOVES to find raw emotion and heartbreak
and REAL characters in the books she reads, this book is also perfect for
lovers of touching stories of pain and redemption featuring things like those.
All in all, I don’t feel as if I’ve even come halfway close
to adequately describing to you all of the reasons to read this novel, or all
of the praise Kristy deserves for the masterpiece she has written. There was
never a moment when I wasn’t completely captivated by the story, pulled in by
the mystery and the characters and the glamour of it all, never a moment when I
felt that a scene or dialogue was lacking. There is absolutely nothing negative
I could say about this story, not that I was trying. I don’t make it a habit to
say negative things about writers and the books they’ve worked so hard on, so I
really love it when there isn’t anything to be said. Because as a reviewer I have
to be honest, but as a writer I hate to criticize, because I know how hard it
is to create a book out of something like another world that only exists in
your head.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, The Illusionist’s Apprentice easily earns all five bookshelves, and
a place on my all-time favorites list, and I would even venture to say that it
makes it into the very top of my favorites. (I know that last part doesn’t make
sense, but I can’t say the top “25” or whatever of my favorites, because I don’t
actually have a number since there are so many books I absolutely love. That’s
why I just have my all-time favorites list and leave it at that. But this novel
easily makes it closer to the top of that list). I highly recommend this novel,
and the rest of the series and any other book Kristy has written or will ever
write, because she is phenomenal. Read
it. Read it again. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Happy reading!
To see where I’m linking up, check out my Where I Party
page.
No comments:
Post a Comment