CARNIVAL FANTÁSTICO

Former lovers reunite and uncover the sinister secrets of a traveling circus.

Time is running out for almost-19-year-old Esmeralda Montero. To stay in the Carnival Fantástico and earn enough to escape Costa Mayor, where she faces “a one-way ticket to the frontlines of war,” she must come out on top in the Running, a competition to determine the Carnival’s next brightest star. When Esmeralda finally receives an invitation to perform for the Running as La Paloma Blanca: Fortune Teller Extraordinaire, she’s determined to shine. She’s shocked to run into ex-boyfriend Ignacio Olivera, the son of the comandante who sent her to prison, with whom she has a complicated history. The cruelty of his tyrannical and murderous father, Héctor, compels Ignacio to defect from the army and expose his father’s corruption. While searching Héctor’s office for evidence, Ignacio finds flyers for the Carnival; on their reverse are mysterious letters written in the same ink Esmeralda used in her last letter to him, one that broke his heart. Esmeralda and Ignacio team up to help one another achieve their goals, soon realizing how much they need each other if they hope to survive and save their kingdom from threats they uncover. The leads’ second-chance romance simmers with passion and clever banter. Beneath her feisty exterior and his disciplined image, they long to feel special and worthy, feelings they validate in one another. Most characters in this early-20th-century, Latine-inspired world are brown-skinned.

Deliciously romantic and drenched in dark magic.