The cover is what drew me in. It's absolutely gorgeous. I loved Night Circus and the cover definitely inspired Night Circus vibes. I also love the setting. Anything to do with WWII is an instant draw for me. The writing was beautiful and I really could see the scenes as the author laid them out. Unfortunately, the book started out slow and didn't grab me as much as I hoped it would. Thank you to the author and publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

I liked this book a great deal until I got to about 90%. The perspective switched from third person to first, and the pacing changed, both of which I found jarring and took away from my enjoyment of the rest of the book. I'm generally not a reader of WWII fiction, I chose this one because of the circus storyline. It's a stunning story based on actual events. A young man fleeing Paris before the Germans arrive hops aboard a train, not knowing it is a traveling circus troupe. While there are parts that are whimsical, for the most part this is a gritty story grounded in reality. It's a bit more gruesome in regards to the war and Nazis than I was hoping, though I'm still glad I read it. I enjoyed getting perspectives of people outside of Germany as the war was starting. This novel is also very much about how things aren't always as they appear. Everyone has a backstory you don't know until they trust you enough to share it. I recommend this one for readers of literary fiction and historical fiction.

It is 1940 on the eve of the Nazi troops arriving in Paris. 20-year old Michel lives alone in the apartment he once resided in with his now deceased mother. His neighbor convinces Michel to board a train to escape Paris. The train Michel stows away on happens to belong to small circus troupe. The circus is run by the ringmaster, Werner. Werner agrees to allow Michel to temporarily tag along working as a horse trainer, as long as Michel keeps to himself and doesn't talk to the circus performers. Michel finds himself drawn to Freida, the beautiful trapeze artist.

This book was a slow burn. We are pulled into this traveling band of outcasts slowly working their way across France under the shadow of the Nazis. We meet the various members of the circus troupe. None of the characters are developed very deeply and I didn't get that circus atmosphere felling as much as I'd hoped. The title of the book threw me off a little and was a bit of a spoiler. We don't learn who the titular character is until about 60% of the way through the book. This is the point where the action also picks up.

I recommend this book to historical fiction fans particularly those that involve a circus or carnival.

1940- Michel is only twenty one years old when Paris is invaded, to save his life he has to leave is home! He gets on a train on a hot summer night without realising that it belongs to the “Le Cirque Neumann”. .

Werner Neumann offers Michel a job caring for the company’s horses with one condition attached:Michel must keep to himself and never speak of what he sees behind the glittering curtain of the big top.

What secrets are hiding among the circus’ artists? And will Michel win the heart of the beautiful trapeze performer Frida?

This is a wonderful wartime love story but also a story about friendship,hope and sacrifice. A delightful read that will get you hooked from the get go!

The ringmasters daughter by carly schabowski
I have to say wasn't sure on this but it didn't grip me from the start I found it a little bit slow to get into the story but once I did I enjoyed it it is a historical fiction it tells the story of love life the war in Paris the characters just didn't grab me the story the plot didn't grab me but it is beautifully written and I had to keep reading to find out what went on so it must I must have liked the book just wasn't a book that I would recommend it didn't grab me i could not it so good but I did enjoy it

The cover for this book instantly grasped my attention, and the fact that the story line is based around the world war was also massively appealing to me.
The storyline itself was well thought out, and a wide variety of characters kept it interesting enough, but I just didnt fall in love with this book as much as I had hoped to.
Thank you so much for allowing me to access this book in return for my honest review.

We start out in Paris in 1940. The Natzi's are invading the city and people are on the run. We follow Michel Bonnet on his escape from Paris. Michel was an orphan and has enjoyed living in Paris close to his best friend. Michel was a horse trainer, but when his employer leaves him a note that he has left, Michel is left without a job. Michel's friend knows that even if he doesn't want to leave, he has to now. He gets him to the train station and there are tons of people trying to get out on the trains to escape the Natzi's. Michel's friend hears about a train coming through town that he can get Michel on. His friend ends up not going with him but gets Michel on the train to escape to a better life.

When Michel gets his bearings after being a stow away on the train, he quickly realizes that he is on a traveling circus train. When he starts to meet the important people of this circus, they offer him a job as a horse trainer for a stubborn stallion they have with them. What else is Michel going to do? So, he accepts the job and becomes part of this traveling circus.

This story had the potential to be really good, but it did fall flat for me after a certain point. I was hoping for an exciting life with all the circus lights and excitement and I just didn't feel that. Maybe it was just me and I had built up too much potential off of the cover of this book, so give it a chance for yourself. You might be surprised and fell differently than I do about this one.

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book and all opinions are my own. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

I thought I’d enjoy this book. The book and description looked really promising but it just fell short just slightly.

I was kindly provided an e-ARC by the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This novel is set in 1940 Paris and follows Michel Bonnet. When the navis invade, he takes refuge on a train belonging to a travelling circus.
I am a huge fan of historical fiction and I was especially drawn in by the stunning cover and circus theme. I find the circus an intriguing and mysterious concept.
I thought the writing was generally beautifully done, and there were a lot of interesting threads woven throughout – World War Two, the circus, some romance and mystery. I really enjoyed the start of the novel and was quickly drawn in, but half way through I started to unfortunately lose interest. The dialogue started to feel a little jarring at times and overall there was not enough focus on the circus for me, which was one of the aspects which drew me in to wanting to read it in the first place.
There is still a lot to admire with this novel though, it just wasn’t wholly my cup of tea.

I will not lie, I was originally drawn into this book because of the gorgeous cover. Unfortunately the book did not live up to the cover. I may have been expecting too much from it, as it had so many things that I love in a book, but it just didn’t come together for me.

I was provided a free copy of this ebook from @netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
When Michel stows away on a train escaping the Nazi's arrival in Paris, he soon realizes it's not an ordinary train. The circus troupe he meets allows him to stay and work as their horse trainer. A lot of this felt forced. Over half the book Michel thinks Freida is married to the Ringmaster. But... As you see from the title of the story, she is not! Seemed like unnecessary angst/drama. I also struggled to like Michel. He just kinda let things happen to him and never seemed to take action. People kept telling him what to do (including tricking him into even leaving Paris), and so he did it. The circus characters were interesting, and I was curious where the story was leading. The ending was pretty satisfactory, but overall not the best.
#TheRingmastersDaughter #NetGalley

This story fell flat for me. I had a hard time getting into it. The premise is great and that cover is beautiful, I feel like the story could have been more enagaging. I did not find myself wanting to get back to it when I put it down.

I loved the descriptive writing in this story. The characters were beautifully brought to life and the hardships of life under German rule were handled emotionally and sensitively.
The excitement of the circus was a huge contrast to the grey frightening lives of the everyday French people.
I loved it and would definitely recommend.

I fell for the mysterious aspect of the story that was described in the description. And I did get the mysterious feeling for the first half of the book. After that it felt kind of flat and I wanted to keep going with the mystery.

I did really enjoy the writing. There’s one scene where they are performing at the circus where it felt like I was actually there. I could see it all happen before me.

The ending felt kind of rushed and I would have wanted a more smooth ending. I would have wanted a different ending for the characters. But at the end I did enjoy the book and what it was telling us.

When the Nazis begin invading Paris in 1940, Michael Bonnet hops aboard a train leaving the city, not knowing he is a stowaway on a circus train. The name of the circus is Le Cirque Neumann and it is owned by Warner Neumann, a crabby man who does not want Michael to be a part of his circus, despite his obvious afinity for horses. He grudgingly allows him to stay, and as the days go on he becomes more and more a part of their band of misfits.
This book was really good. I was a bit confused about the title of the book because it didn't seem to fit until about halfway through the book. I enjoy books that are during World War II, so I thought it was an interesting book. I felt at times that it seemed to drag, with nothing much happening. The writing style changed at the very end, which threw me for a loop. It was almost like someone else had written the ending. Overall it was a good story, and if you enjoy books set in that time period then I think you will enjoy it.

'The Ringmaster's Daughter' has a lovely premise and huge potential but the writing always felt superficial. Emotions were told, not shown; we spent the entire novel following Michel but never got a proper glimpse inside his head. The characters all felt flat and two-dimensional. The plot was good, but one of the main twists was ruined by the title of the book - the other was excellent, and whilst the ending was predictable I liked it. This is by no means a bad book, but I wanted it to make me feel more.

The book is set in 1940s France. Michel has lived almost his entire life in Paris, save for some summers with family in the countryside, but now the Germans have invaded and Paris is unsafe. With the aid of his friend Bertrand, he manages to escape - stowing away on a train which happens to contain a circus troupe. After a rocky start, Michel finds himself hired to look after the circus horses - but there are no safe places to be in occupied France, and friction within the circus keeps mounting.

Michel is neither a likeable nor unlikeable character - not enough of him is shown to form any real opinion. I liked his obvious love of animals, but he always seemed very slow. The other members of the circus - Jean-Jacques, Giordiano, Serge, Odelie - were never fully explored, although they all had interesting backstories when they were revealed. Frieda, the titular character, was a caricature of a love interest - beautiful, with essentially no flaws, and hidden away by an overbearing father. Their romance was sweet but too much of an insta-love for my liking, with Michel deciding he was in love after all of two meetings. This may have worked better with less of a focus on the romance and more of a focus on the circus and its inhabitants during the war - a storyline with a huge amount of potential.

The ending was the best part of this - it was cliche, but in war novels especially it's nice to have a happy ever after, and it didn't quite go the way that I expected. I liked the direction Carly Schabowski chose to go, and appreciated that it didn't end well for everyone - not everyone can come out of a war unscathed. However, it would have had more impact if I'd cared more for the characters.

Overall, this is a fine story, but nothing special. It's missing that connection between the readers and the characters essential to get full enjoyment. As quick, mindless entertainment it works - anything deeper than that won't be found here.

Paris, 1940. Twenty-year-old Michel Bonnet lives on the edge of the law, finding work where he can breaking in horses on the outskirts of the city. But when the Nazis invade, Michel takes refuge as a stowaway on a rickety train bound for the rural south.

The train is property of Le Cirque Neumann – a travelling circus owned by the troubled and irritable showman Werner Neumann. Neumann offers Michel a job caring for the company’s horses – a lucky break, but with an unusual condition attached. Michel must keep to himself.

But as Michel finds himself pulled into the wondrous world of the great spectacular it becomes more difficult to keep his promise. How can Michel win the love of the beautiful and exotic trapeze artist Freida, when he’s been forbidden to even meet her gaze?

I was immediately drawn to this book because of its cover and also since I love history, especially stories relating to World War II, I couldn't stop myself getting attracted to this book.

While this book does have a cast of interesting characters and a few magical moments, I just couldn't get myself enchanted because there were parts in the book where,I felt the pace of the story slowed down a bit too much.

Also, I genuinely feel that the author should have thought of another title for the book because it literally spoils one of the main surprises in the book.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad book, I wouldn't mind recommending it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction.

Thank You to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC!!

After having finished this book, I wasn't completely sure where my feelings were. At times I found the story quite lovely and at other times I found not much was happening. The plot is reminiscent of Water for Elephants and maybe that was taking away from the originality of the plot for me. This book as a whole, however, had a lot of up and down moments and failed to have me on its grip most of the time. It was a nice read, but maybe I was expecting more and was somehow let down.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange of an honest review.

I really liked this book, I loved that it was historical through ww2, I love history. However i wish that there was a little bit more of the circus scene, but other than that I really did enjoy this book. I would recommend it to anyone, I also would love to read anything else by this author. Thank you net galley, and the author, and also the publisher for giving me the chance to review this book for my honest opinion.

Michel enjoys his life in Paris, working with horses and living near his dearest friend. But the Nazis are edging closer to the city, and even if Michel doesn’t want to leave, his friend knows he must. Michel ends up on a train heading south, only to discover the train belongs to a circus. Michel joins the circus to look after their horses, despite the hostility from the ringmaster. And Michel falls in love with the mysterious trapeze artist, although he feels she can never really be his.

Okay, firstly: I liked the first part of this book. Enjoyed it, and until about halfway through it would have maybe been a 5 Star, but everything felt off after that. The description at the start was intriguing, Michel a likeable if dim character, and the situations presented with the Nazis drawing ever closer made for some good tension.

But almost as soon as the threat itself is pressed on the characters, it lost the things that made it good in the first place.

Firstly, the title is The Ringmaster’s Daughter, but Michel spends a vast majority of the book not realising the woman he loves isn’t his boss’s wife. It would have been handled better if he found out sooner, but instead it’s stretched out for so long it becomes frustrating, it’s treated like a huge reveal, and even the conversations that take place regarding her are confusing. The way Michel talks makes it clear what he thinks, but not a single person corrects him.

And it’s built up as a great big love story, but Michel barely even speaks to her, just spends half his time lusting over her while sleeping with someone else.

The actual female characters here aren’t great. The two main women exist solely for Michel, never interacting with one another, and the others are barely existent in themselves, like mannequins that only come to life when looked directly at. By about three-quarters of the way through this book, I was frustrated. The dialogue was bland, the interactions between Michel and his ‘love’ felt like two fish who kept headbutting each other in a bowel, and the fact this was during World War 2 seemed forgotten for the most part, unless it was required for the plot.

So much of this story hinged on the idea of a ‘mysterious circus’, but we don’t even get to see the circus itself, and things are only a mystery because Michel cannot be bother to do much of anything. He goes from dim but likable to just dim and boring, never really doing much except reacting to what was happening.

This is set in France, when the Nazis invade, but you’d be forgiven for forgetting that during the book’s meandering plot. Michel, for the most part, seems happy to ignore what is really going on, to not pay attention to the way others are reacting, to ignoring the news they get filtered through to them. He just doesn’t seem to care about much of anything.

And then there’s the ending. The ending, which could have been really strong and redeemed the book, instead felt like it was tacked on, like the author had an idea in mind for how to end, but changed it at the last minute. The last section feels both rushed and too slow, with no real reason for it.

I was really keen to give this book a try. I thought there’d be a bit of magic to it, a grand romance, an intriguing setting. Instead, this book let me down, and it could have been so much better than it really was. I felt like the author had the ability to create something really compelling, but got bored of their own story, right when things should have got interesting.