Hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

From Amazon “The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will.”

I listened to this halfway on audio and then read the rest. It was as wonderful as everyone has been saying. The language is beautiful and sets up a totally original story.

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

From Amazon “his stunning and steamy debut chronicles the adventures of Nan King, a small-town girl at the turn of the century whose life takes a wild turn of its own when she follows a local music hall star to London…”

I read this just because I was browsing the digital books on my library website and saw the description, “Victorian erotica” right in the middle of the Christian fiction. I was surprised that my conservative library had something like that.