Review Detail

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.