Roman Circus by Carlene Rae Dater

THE PAGAN & THE PEN BOOK REVIEWS

Title: Roman Circus
Author: Carlene Rae Dater 

Author Site

Buy Link
Publisher: Noble Romance Publishing (Sweetheart Line)

Genre: romance

Length: 217 pgs. 

Other: M/F

Reviewed by: Keri Stratton Alley

About The Book: When Harmony Jane Jones loses her cat, her car, her job and her boyfriend, all within the space of a week, she does what any twenty-something woman would do—she runs away and joins the circus. With finesse rather than a whip, Harmony takes charge of her life, finds a new career and possibly the man of her dreams.

Prologue

Monday, I dashed out of my apartment wrapped in a towel after my shower to get the newspaper. My cat, Cat, closed the door, locking me out. I was late for work.

Tuesday, my office computer crashed. Unfortunately, I had neglected to back up my work for a while—I think it was a year. My boss was not happy.

Wednesday, the Number Ten bus flattened Cat. After corpse retrieval and burial arrangements, I arrived late for work.

Thursday, my car died. I had to take the Number Ten with all its horrid memories. I was late for work.

Friday, I got fired.

Saturday, Eric, my boyfriend of two years, broke up with me after he decided he still loved his college sweetheart, Bruce.

Sunday I picked up the classified section of the newspaper and saw this ad:

Life treating you badly? Ready for a change?

Run away with us. Come join the circus.

So I did.

The Review: I was hooked on this book from the prologue and much to my delight the sassy, tongue-in-cheek humor didn’t stop. Harmony is the kind of main character whose perspective I love reading. She’s smart, confident, creative, resilient, and her inner monologue is full of snappy, sarcastic, sometimes self-deprecating comments.

Ms. Dater’s supporting cast is equally entertaining. Delightfully quirky character descriptions give each character their own distinct personality. The dialogue is especially well written between Harmony and Zander, the hilariously droll circus manager.

The only part of the book I would complain about is the confusing interaction between Harmony and Roman, the circus owner. Because of the title of the book and the wonderfully written chemistry between the two I fully expected Harmony to be riding Roman’s circus pole by the end of the book. Instead she winds up with someone entirely different, and Roman’s character fizzles out to become mere background on a telephone. Though I have to admit it was entertaining to suspect Sam’s motives through the whole book only to find out that he really was as good as he seemed, I would have liked to see less of Roman.

Pagan Elements: n/a

Cover (Rated 1-10): 5

______________________________________________________________________

Disclaimer: Due to FTC regulations, any book reviewed on this site was sent for free by the author to The Pagan & The Pen. We are not paid to give reviews by Author or Publisher. Once review has been made, said books are deleted.