Review: The Puppeteer by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

 The Puppeteer is the second book in Kathryn Ann Kingsley's Harrow Faire series centering around the truly delightful Cora Glass. She was an every day girl who once dreamed of being a photographer before Ehlers Danlos Syndrome's chronic pain took her dreams from her and landed her in a boring 9 to 5. Now she's caught up in what she likes to call a Man-Eating Murder Circus, more or less compliments of Simon.  Oh, Simon, the Puppeteer. If you have been following Kingsley's work, you aren't going to be surprised by what I'm about to say.

I love that evil madman, and I love him even more every time Cora puts him in his place.
Romantic lead yes, hero, no. Evil, yes. Loveable, yes. Good guy? No. Sexy as all get out? Yes. Desirable? Yes. Sane? No. Do not forget this. Do. Not. Forget. This.

Ooh, our feisty heroine has so much delightful snark and wit coupled with a tenacity that just won't stop. She's smart and always ready to fight. I big puffy heart her, and it has nothing to do with all the ways she can bend, whether it's on stage or in her bedroom. Get your mind out of the gutter, none of that... yet. So far as I'm saying. You have to read it to find out.

And you have to read it.

This series needs to be read not just for the hotness, and there's hotness. Read it for the glorious characterization. Read it for the fact that you're not normal and neither are the characters. Read it for the heart touching way that Cora sits on the grass and carries on a conversation with a mute character. Read it for genuine human connection in an inhuman world. Read it because we are all living in isolated little pocket worlds these days, and that makes it all the more painful to see Cora's world being ripped from hers.

The menacing and eerie carnivorous circus has all the best setting vibes for this self discovery and otherworldly super dark romance. Do yourself a favor and give yourself permission to indulge and enjoy it. Just remember, I warned you. He's a not a good guy.

Ooh, I just can't wait for the next one! There's a series shaped hole on my bookshelf.

Review: The Contortionist by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

 

Remember the time you were driving on your daily commute and you saw it: that one thing that was just entirely not the way you remembered it being, and you were dang sure that you didn't see the changes taking place? That Mandela Effect feeling of "something is very wrong in the universe?"

Well, welcome to Cora's world when one day the long abandoned and decaying Harrow Faire is suddenly no longer abandoned or decaying, but open again and hungry for guests.

Kathryn Ann Kingsley creates a glorious blend of creepy circus and carny freak-show with modern wit and skepticism.  If I had to toss a few stories in a blender to lead you to The Contortionist, I'd start with Something Wicked This Way Comes, add a little The Night Circus, and follow up with some good old fashioned Black Butler. 

I'd just go with an emphatic "do read," but it's more than that. Read it for the way Kingsley writes differently abled characters. Read it for the spider's web of atmosphere. Read it for the way you find yourself wanting the heroine to walk into the maw of the beast. Read it for the villains: the gloriously sexy villains. Read it for the existential questions it begs you to ask yourself, like "what would you give," and perhaps a little more on the nose, "what's your favorite color?"

It's book one. I want to devour the whole series like a glutton. I want to bathe in the atmosphere, and glut myself on surreal nightmarescape. I want to drink this story in and roll it around on my tongue and taste all the sweetness with the faint bitter edges. Beautiful stuff.

Fans of Kingsley's work might be surprised that it isn't particularly graphic. Regardless, it's breathtaking. 

I'm looking forward to having this whole pretty set on my library shelf soon.

Review: Illusions of Grandeur by Kathryn Ann Kinglsey

It isn't like I read this book 5 times or anything. Because I totally at least skipped around one of those times, so only the first four count, right?

Okay, this bookk is the first in a lovely pair of exceedingly dark romance novels. Did I say dark? I mean Vanta Black dark. I loved it.

Like the setting, the architecture of the story is delightfully detailed and not quite as linear as you'd expect. It's perfectly delightful. Between ghosts, rumors of murder, a young woman starting over, a house full of old fashioned automatons, a charismatic magician, and a the true hero of the story, a little plastic octopus, it's a delightful story. Once you start following Alice down this rabbit hole, you won't want to stop.

Of course, this isn't for the prude out there. The story gets not only steamy, but explicitly steamy. But full props to Kathryn Ann Kingsley, when it gets super steamy, it's at least plot furthering. 

Beyond the delightful layers of dark paranormal mischief and even darker lusty goings on, I loved the world building that Kingsley did in this book. While the paranormal aspects are exceedingly far from normal, her careful world building gives it the uncanny magical realism feel that makes it seem like something that just possibly could happen, and I like that.

I recommend checking it out. I read Illusions of Grandeur free on Kindle Unlimited, but I liked it so much that after my third read through I bought it. 

The Chaos of Stars

The Night Circus

The Night Circus