FIVE STARS
I found this to be a truly magical book, and the spell is cast by the writing itself. THE NIGHT CIRCUS is primarily about illusion and the nature of reality. Two old rivals challenge each other in a contest of what at first appears to be magical skills… to be carried in a spectacular circus that only appears for a few nights in one location and then somehow disappears as it moves on to another. One rival risks his most promising assistant, the other his own lovely daughter. And the two contestants only find out that they are locked in a life and death battle of survival AFTER they fall in love.