This book was pretty confusing. I felt like abilities weren't explained and the spirit world made little sense. I also didn't care for Caitlyn, it seemed like she was helpless for the majority of the story and stood by while people were being murdered. The "voice" kept telling her she was stronger than the Ringmaster and could beat him, but he bested her again and again.

I did think the powers people had were cool and would have loved more explanation on how they work, how people get them, and how they can be taken away. I also felt like Caitlyn's own powers could have a lot of potential but it wasn't clear.

The romance with Daniel was a bit instalove, but he did treat her well and tried to help her. I have questions about him still and think he may have a darker past than we know about.

The ending was frustrating to me. People died, but it was like oh no big deal, it's fine. And I felt like after all the darkness the characters went through, the ending was way too happy and perfect. Evil people need to pay for their crimes and that didn't happen here.

I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion

A Spectacle of Souls is about a small town girl named Caitlyn who suffers from constant headaches and hearing voices. When her and her best friend go to the circus in town, Caitlyn gets more than what she's bargained. She learns her headaches are caused by an unrealized psychic ability that the crazed Ringmaster hungers for. In order to protect the ones she loves, she must join the circus and defeat the Ringmaster.

The book starts off fairly slow. The plot is so bogged down with tiny details and useless information that it's hard to get into. The characters themselves are a bit flat and any chemistry seems a bit forced - ok, extremely forced. None of the relationships were believable to me. When something unfortunate happens to several of the characters, I couldn't bring myself to care at all. The only reason I gave a rating of 3 stars is the antagonist. So much more detail and thought went into this character. He could have easily been the main character and I'd be fine with whatever evil whims crossed his demented mind while he struggles to contain his own ability.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received this and as an eARC to read for free in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley and Jessica Julien for giving me access. Not only did I receive an eARC, I also had the chance to beta read A Spectacle of Souls prior to the advanced copy.

The moment I started this book, I knew I wouldn't be able to put it down. Well, I did, but only because of my dang duties as a mother - love my kids, don't get me wrong.

This story is a continuation of The Ringmaster, but the MC is the protagonist while the Ringmaster is the antagonist. In fact, this story might have been even more dark and competing than the prequel.

Jessica does an amazing job at drawing the reader in the story, submersing them in the world she creates. I cannot wait for book two for this story to continue because like the Ringmaster, I NEED MORE.

Since this story ends with tacos, can book 2 end with lasagna? LOL

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The cover of this book is really pretty and seems magical. Sadly the story does not really live up to it.

Okay, this book seemed a bit cheesy. The romance between Caitlyn and Daniel was the typical insta attraction that seems pretty prevalent nowadays. I do prefer when it isn't love at first sight. Also, Caitlyn has no common sense (neither does Vanessa). Although Cirque des Voles would have been really fun to visit with its illusions and magic, you should not go around drinking multiple shots of unknown liquids given to you by strangers! And you shouldn't let strange men into your apartment, especially if they made you drink something the night before! The adult me could not stop thinking about the poor choices that Caitlyn made and so I did not really enjoy the story.

The characters seemed pretty flat, especially at the circus and if one died, I did not really care. More should have been added to make the characters real.

The Ringmaster is a good villain though. I like the little excerpts with his point of view. He is creepy and evil. And he is the perfect description of power hungry, literally.

I was able to finish this book but I do not think I would read any more in the series.

* arc provided by netgalley in exchange for an honest review

A Spectacle of Souls is an average start for what I hope will be an amazing series . Hidden powers and dark mystery converge in a story reminiscent of Night Circus to create a familiar and yet eerie feeling for readers of the genre.

There is room for improvement in servral areas from a romance subplot that can at best be called insta love to seriously uneven pacing between the two halves of the book. Conceptually this is a very strong story and I have great expectations for the rest of the series.

I DNFed this book at about 30% of the way through. If you were looking for something similar to Caraval or The Night Circus then turn away as you will not find what you are looking for here. It is very poorly written with flat characters, an insta love, two supposed best friends who seem to do nothing but make personal and critical remarks to each other, and a flimsy plot that lacks any substance. It reads like it was written by a teenager and has been allowed to be published as a poor first draft.

Well that was interesting.

Some of the parts in here had me wondering “I don’t think they would do that..”
Cat seemed to be lacking common sense and it was irritating a bit.

Full review on my blog Monday.

I was drawn in by the beautiful cover and the promising summary. A mysterious circus! A motley band of unlikely heroes! A heroine that will fight before she bows to the villain! What was not to like?

It started off well enough and I was willing to forgive the occasional eye-rolling the book gave me (a fashionista, sexually adventurous best friend who gives the main character, a plain small-town waitress a makeover? I have never read that before /s; Caitlyn’s eye color described three times in the first two chapters). I loved the scene with the drinks (even with my suspension of disbelief that for a $15 entrance fee they also got free beverages) and it felt like a magical start to a great adventure. Sadly, the story fell flat after that.

I have never felt invested in any of the characters. The main character, Caitlyn, is simply boring. Eventually, she discovers her migraines were a result of her power, but even that did not make things better--her ~power~ started doing everything for her, Caitlyn just had to concentrate a lot. Vanessa, her best friend, feels like a stranger. She occasionally shows some care for Caitlyn’s health but mostly she just does what she wants. The villain, a mustache-twirling ringmaster, is not subtle for a minute. His intentions are always known, he’s always evil, there’s not a single shred of sympathy he shows towards anyone including his wife. Calm down there, president Snow.

It never felt like the New Adult genre it’s supposed to be. The characters are reminiscent of whiny teenagers. The story itself is an attempt on 3rd person limited POV, and there are even names for whose head we’re about to enter, but we’re also getting random insights into other people’s thoughts as well. Was it 3rd person omniscient? Why write names at the beginning of chapter then?

The romance is weak and insta-lovey. Daniel is ready to lay down his life for Caitlyn after a few days because they shared one tender moment together. He’s what? 24 years old? Already experienced in a relationship? He doesn’t sound like that.

The vagueness annoyed me. Daniel mentions they are “going to a place they’ve never been before”, what place? Are they still in the US? Are they touring in Europe? Did they go to the moon? Some of the less important characters are only referred to as “males” or “females”, even by the Ringmaster, who should probably know their names. Also what’s up with calling women females? It’s not a documentary.

Lots of plotholes--when you’re looking for the snitch, why not ask the guy who can sense truth to help? He was literally introduced in the last chapter! The Ringmaster has the ability to modify people’s memories and make them forget others, but this isn’t the middle ages, there are tons of documents and photos that would still hold the information about the person who disappeared, even if nobody’s memory does.

My thanks for NetGalley and Bleeding Ink Publishing for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received a digital arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If this would've been a book I had just checked out from the library or bought, I 100% would have DNFed it after the first few pages. I only pushed forward so I could actually review it fairly, knowing I did read the entire thing. It reads like a Wattpad story. The entire thing gives off fan-fiction vibes and while I have nothing against fan-fiction, that's not what I want in my published books.

Everything is prefaced by an adjective or followed by an adverb and the descriptions go on and on, especially in the first quarter of the book. I do not need a detailed description of every bottle and counter and piece of paper.

The only way to explain is to include some excerpts:

Caitlyn grabbed her dirty glass and made her way behind the counter. Her white tennis shoes slapped the linoleum in time with the jukebox. "I'm not sure, actually." she answered, tucking a rebellious strand of hair behind her ear.

...she teased, then turned her attention to the hot pink lacquer she was now delicately rolling onto her full lips.

Tossing Caitlyn a bottle, she motioned toward the mirror. Catching the small green container, she turned and sprayed the coconut scented liquid a half dozen times then ran her fingers through her hair. Flopping down on the bed, her long locks kissed the ground on the other side.

Those are just a few examples, but this goes on sentence after sentence. I know plenty of people have no issue with that type of writing and some even like it, but it's definitely not for me. I will say it gets a bit better once the author dives more into the "action" of the story, but it's still there to a certain extent.

There's just a lot of cringe writing and a whole lot of slapping and things being described in way too much detail. The "love story" feels like a joke. The characters lack depth and story feels bland, despite having such an interesting premise.

While some may enjoy this book, I definitely did not and wouldn't really recommend this to anyone. 1/5 stars.

I was excited when I read the synopsis of this book.

Unfortunately, the book didn't live up to my expectations. It wasn't very interesting and I never connected with any character.

I was given a free ARC and I am leaving my honest review.

2’5 stars
As soon as I read the synopsis of this book, I was highly intrigued by it. ‘The Night Circus’ is one of my favourite books ever and I thought this book might be quite similar in terms of style and the whimsicality of the story. I personally believe that having a Circus as a setting gives a lot of opportunities to the writer to play with magic, mystery, the different arts of performing, etc.
In ‘Spectacle of Souls’ we meet Caitlin, a girl who has a normal life, has a lovely friend named Vanessa and works in a Dinner. One day they receive the visit of a man who works in the new Circus that has arrived in town inviting them to the show the following day. Both Caitlin and Vanessa decide to go and that’s where Caitlin is going to start knowing a bit more about the weird things that have happened to her during her life, she’ll get to know more about this mysterious Circus and she’ll probably encounter some dark forces.
‘Spectacles of Souls’ is a book that I really enjoyed in some bits, but at the same time, it also felt quite boring in some other chapters. I loved the whole idea of the story, the ‘family’ relationship all the artists have between them, how they play with magic and their powers during the shows, etc.
On the other side, I found some bits of the story to be really slow. I mainly think it was the high number of unnecessary adjectives that made it go so slow. I also believe that most of the plot was highly predictable, there was not a single plot-twist that surprised me. I also have to mention the presence of animals in this Circus. Personally, I am 100% against animals being used in circuses performances and reading about the presence of a tiger and other animals pulled me off a little bit.
Overall, I think this was a good story but not developed in the best of ways. As I said, it is quite enjoyable in chapters and not so much in others.

<I>*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review *</i>
<b> 1.75 stars</b>
I wish I had better things to say about this, I really do. The description sounded so interesting - it sounded like Night Circus meets murder mystery, but instead this feels like a not-great fan fiction of the Night Circus?

The writing feels immature and very wordy for very little action, including needless dialogue, juvenile interactions (the first third of the book feels likewatching teenagers obsess over boys for the most part).

Further, the storyline was utterly predictable. I was promised dark and twisted in the blurb but instead got predictably bad decisions and mostly inane dialogue, with super cringey and one-dimensional characters , who lacked any depth and development.

I received this book yesterday and I have to say I really enjoyed it. I was a little iffy at the beginning it all felt kind of childish when it started and one noted but I'm glad that I pushed through the first couple chapters. It was a unique story line and I found myself devouring it when I probably should have been more productive. My main complaints, I felt like it dragged on for a really long time I found myself putting it down for a couple minutes just to give myself a mental break from all the extra filler info and I didn't particularly care for the fact that there wasn't an extensive amount of character development outside of Caitlyn learning about her abilities. Even though she was supposed to be this powerful psychic she just sort of watched as all of these people died around her that she supposedly cared about. I loved the story line and I can appreciate that the author came up with this unique plot. I would most definitely read something from her again if given the opportunity.

The concept of this book is quite magical. It promises mystery and being that it is “new adult,” I expected mature characters with a well developed plot and relatable dialogue. Unfortunately, I got none of that.
The characters who are post high school age act as if they are 15. The dialogue is cheesy and over the top. Sometimes dialogue is written that way on purpose, perfectly matching the vibe of the book, but that’s definitely not the case here.
The author would sometimes jump back and fourth between 3rd person pov limited to 3rd person omniscient and it never made sense. It was always very jarring and confusing as a reader during those moments.
This book takes place at a carnival shrouded in mystery but the villain lacks any sort of depth and the mysterious nature is abandoned pretty early, more so because I think the author just forgot to keep making it seem mysterious.
There was a budding romance that I felt would help inspire me to finish the book however it turned insta-lovey really fast.

I try to stay constructive with my reviews and I never want to discourage anyone from reading or writing a book, but this book fell quite flat for me.
Hopefully this book works out for you because unfortunately it didn’t for me!

Thanks to netgalley & bleeding ink publishing for giving me an ARC to read and review early.

Overall, I rated this book four out of five stars. A spectacle of Souls by Jessica Julien has a gorgeous deep blue cover and a summery that instantly made me excited to read it!

I’d like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Following Caitlyn and Daniel’s journey was amazing and intriguing, their characters were well written and pretty well developed. I would have loved to get to know the circus and it’s workers abilities a little better.

I absolutely love stories with magic and circus and mystery and cruel villains, while it took me a few chapters to become completely invested into the story, i eventually become hooked and could not put it down until I had finished it.

This review is available to be viewed on GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3369453581

This book has an absolutely stunning cover and a premise I was interested in: Creepy Circus. That’s unfortunately where it ended. The writing was over-written, descriptions went on forever. I didn’t really connect to the main character and her best friend seemed more like a caricature than a real person.
There were phrases used that no teenager would actually use and the romance felt rushed, there was nothing holding me onto it. I wanted to like this book but it was a bit of a slog to get through. At one point I just didn’t want to anymore.
I really wanted to like this book but it was unfortunately not holding my interest anymore. When you’re reading a book the thought “why do I need to know every detail about how this looks” should never cross your mind. But it happened a lot.

3.75 stars. I loved the premise and plot line of this story. The main characters were developed well and I was pulled in by the love story and the dynamics of the Ringmaster. The writing could have been better and the story could have held more surprises/layers, but I still loved it.

A Spectacle of Souls follows Caitlyn as she experiences mysterious headaches and migraines. When a circus comes to town, she meets Daniel: a hypnotic magician who seems to know what’s really behind those headaches. But there is something sinister going on at the circus, as Caitlyn struggles to unlock her dormant powers and regain her lost memories.

This book had a beautiful cover and intriguing premise. I’m always interested in a mysterious circus and magical powers. However, I found myself let down by the execution. The writing was cheesy, contained awkward cliches, and overall was very simplistic. This book felt confused about what it wanted to be. You could say it is intended to appeal to younger readers with the style of writing, but there were also cringy attempts at romance and trite instalove.

While I did laugh a lot, I don’t think I was supposed to find the book this funny. I thought the writing lacked a consistent flow and created more of a confused than compelling atmosphere. It was difficult to connect with these characters. This story could have benefitted from additional editing and perhaps more feedback from young adults. I understand that this book was trying to accomplish a lot, but it unfortunately fell flat for me.

Nevertheless, this book did succeed in making me want to eat tacos. Those taco descriptions really were spectacular.

A Spectacle of Souls releases on July 7, 2020. Thank you to Bleeding Ink Publishing and Netgalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received a copy of this book through Net Galley.

This book was just okay. It was well written and kept your attention, but I just couldn’t get into it. It really wasn’t a bad book. I went through it fairly fast and it was very easy to read.
Some of the characters were very interesting but others weren’t. I think that it would be very interesting to see the background of some of the other characters. I feel like this book mainly focused on Cat, the Ringmaster, Daniel, and sometimes Vanessa. If it would’ve focused on some of the other character, I think it would’ve been a lot better. I also feel like there wasn’t a lot of action. It was just small event after small event.
One thing I did enjoy was learning about Cat and watching her grow. She seemed very dull and depressed at the beginning but then towards the end she turned exciting. Once I got about halfway through the book, it got a lot more interesting.
I would recommend this book to someone who wants a quick and easy read. I wouldn’t recommend it to a lot of people. They would have to be a certain type of person who would enjoy it.

E-ARC provides by Netgalley and Xpresso Book Tours (thank you so much!)

A Spectacle of Souls is a bloody, drama-filled story about a girl named Caitlyn has secret powers. A contemporary novel that revolves around a troupe with a shady ringmaster, it joins a genre that has become incredibly popular with novels such as The Night Circus and Caravale, but in my opinion, it’s still able to stand out.

Firstly, I liked all of the characters, even the antagonist. Caitlyn is a kind-hearted, seemingly normal gal that cares a lot about her friends. I felt bad for her throughout the whole novel. Like damn girl.... talk about a baaaaaad time. She rarely had a break from heartache. The only thing I’m iffy about is her power (it’s definitely over-powered) but the twist with it is interesting. Daniel is a sweet and goofy guy and a cute love interest. The side characters have (for the most part) parts too small to judge but a few (Lottie, Vanessa, Meg etc) are all pretty interesting and I hope the next installment will give us better insight into their stories and personalities.

My one gripe with the novel is the insta love between Daniel and Caitlyn. I’m a total romantic but even I don’t jive well with insta love. I mean I get it but I like my novels to have the getting together part take more time. But Daniel is so likeable and caring that it makes sense? I feel like the long drawn out stuff comes with LIs that are less straight up good guy and Daniel is straight up just a good guy.

The antagonist.... I couldn’t help but feel bad for them. I won’t say anything but their ending actually made me happy. It goes against the cliche I see and that makes me veeeeery happy.

The writing style is simple and easy to read. I estimate that I read this in less than five hours. That’s not a bad thing though! When it gets to Caitlyn discovering her potential, it really gets going and is a breeze to get through.

The magic system is pretty interesting and the Spirit Realm seems like a very interesting concept. I bet it’ll be explored more in the next novel and I can’t wait.

Overall this was an enjoyable read (albeit pretty depressing for most of the novel! Very bloody....) and I can’t wait for the next book! I wanted more explanation and exploration of characters and I hope it’ll deliver!