Ben Butterfield, ex-circus performer, is living out his days in a small backwater town. He spends much of his time dwelling on the past, pondering his glory days with the circus, and his first grand adventure-an odyssey across Missouri and Illinois to Bright Star, Indiana, during the Civil War. It was a journey that laid the groundwork for the man he would become, and on which he got to know the two people who meant the world to him, and still do. In...

"Water for Elephants meets The Night Circus in this World War II debut about a magnificent travelling circus, a star-crossed romance, and one girl's coming-of-age during the darkest of times"--

Waging a fierce competition for which they have trained since childhood, circus magicians Celia and Marco unexpectedly fall in love with each other and share a fantastical romance that manifests in fateful ways.

The Great Merlini, now retired, spends his days running a magic shop in Times Square, and his nights moonlighting as a consultant for the NYPD. Two occultists are discovered dead in locked rooms, appearing to have been murdered under similar circumstances. The list of suspects includes an escape artist, a professional medium, and a ventriloquist, so the crimes took place in a realm Merlini knows well. But in the end it will take his logical skills,...

Young Tessa is a diminutive girl, far too small for farm work and the object of ridicule by both her own family and the other children in their isolated Midwestern community. Her father seems to believe in nothing beyond his crops, certainly not education for his misfit daughter. When a mysterious, entrancing librarian comes to town, full of fabulous stories, earthy wisdom and potions for the lovelorn, she takes Tessa under her wing, teaching her...

Feeling apprehensive about how the 1898 Omaha World's Fair will change him and his Wild West city, ventriloquist and con man Ferret Skerritt falls in love with traveling actress Cecily, who discounts their relationship until the night they share a fateful gondola ride.