Carnival Fantastico

Carnival Fantastico is a standalone YA story that mixes romance, magic, and sinister gods for a carnival as you’ve never seen before. This story is told in alternating perspectives between Ignacio Olivera and Esmerelda. They grew up together after Esmerelda was caught breaking in and was indentured to Ignacio’s father to pay her debt. Through notes passed through the air vent, they fell in love until he was sent to the Blackbirds for training instead of running away with her.
A year has passed before a disillusioned Ignacio visits Carnival Fantastico to find evidence of his father’s crimes and runs into Esmerelda, who has been posing as a fortune teller for the last 10 months. The story proceeds along with a straightforward story of miscommunication and tense moments together that make this a perfect cozy romance read with a supernatural flair. Just past the halfway mark of the book, the truth comes out, and they can truly team up to uncover the sinister nature of the carnival and resume their epic love story.
Listening to an audiobook makes it much easier to learn how to say Tezcan’s name. The past letters feature both the male and female narrators speaking their parts, which is more engaging than reading them would have been. I like the spunkiness of Esmerelda’s character, and the narrator does a nice job of highlighting that aspect.
Overall, this is a cozy read that moves along at a nice pace and wraps up with a happy ending.

Esmeralda Montero, a thief posing as a fortune teller at Carnival Fantastico, sets her heart on winning the starring role in the carnival. What she doesn't expect, though, is running into Ignacio, the boy who broke her heart. When some from the carnival go missing, Esmeralda ends up teaming with Ignacio to find out what happened. All the while, she can't deny that the chemistry between them hasn't died.

What worked: Magical fantasy set in a carnival where mythology has a dangerous secret for those under the tent. Esmeralda is feisty and accustomed to not relying on anyone, especially since her experience has shown that everyone will leave her. When she runs into Ignacio, she's hurt and furious. The sparks ignite right from the start and build throughout this engaging, thrilling ride.

Ignacio is determined, and even though hurt by what he feels is Esmeralda's betrayal, he enlists her help to find out the truth behind his father's part in an evil plan that somehow involves the carnival. The chemistry between the two is undeniable. Even when most might give up, Ignacio persists in not only discovering what's really going on in Carnival Fantastico and the creepy ringleader, but winning back the heart of Esmeralda.

I liked the paranormal angle of this fantasy, where a greedy God has a deadly purpose. Seems that the ringleader has his own secret. A secret that he guards at all costs. And the carnival is its own character with its many mysteries.

There's tons of action, romance, betrayals, and a forbidden love that not even the Gods can stop.

Thrilling fantasy with a mythic twist that draws readers into the magical carnival world with two forbidden loves who withstand the odds against them.