Girl on a Wire by Gwenda Bond (2014-10-01) Paperback – 1629

Girl on a Wire by Gwenda Bond is a Romeo and Juliet tale set beneath the big tent and high up on the wire. A feat Bond does well in this teen lit book that mixes romance, intrigue and dark magic into a novel of forbidden love and betrayal.Jules Maroni is a sixteen year old high wire walker who is following in the family business. But she is tired of the small circus route and dreams of making it big time. Only her family are outcasts in the circus world and when they are offered the opportunity to join the new Cirque American, the Maroni's must confront their nemesis, the Flying Garcias!But Jules won't pay attention to the drama and is intent on her own fame. Quickly gaining notoriety for being the girl who dances on the high wire. But family history is not put aside by others and totems of misfortune and bad luck are soon found on her wardrobe. Someone is cursing her and she needs to find out who it is before it is too late.Help comes to her from the most unlikely of sources. Remy Garcia. The young famous trapeze artist from the Garcia clan. Together they must unravel the mystery behind the feud between the Maroni and Garcia family before one of them ends up dead. Or both.This really is a Romeo and Juliet tale, even the names of the young teenage lovers is similar. But Bond modernizes Juliet into an ambitious and smart young woman. Quite capable of caring for herself. She does this without making Remy (Romeo) into a bumbling sidekick clown or a brooding, muscular (cause chicks dig a vascular man!) macho caricature. For that she deserves a very strong mention and praise.Both Jules and Remy are strong role model type characters.So here is hoping that this novel does not get lost or missed in the teen lit field. It deserves to be found and read and enjoyed.A very good read.

This book was a Kindle Special for September. The blurb about the story was interesting enough to make me download it, but I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I knew it was classified as young adult which can, in my opinion, be too sticky sweet or just plain immature, but I decided to give this one a go.And I am so glad I did. This is a wonderful, wonderful story set against a circus backdrop. Yes, a circus. The story centers around two families who have been circus performers for generations. The heroine and the hero are, at the age of seventeen, both seasoned performers. Both are fearless - our heroine is a wire walker and our hero is a trapeze artist. Their story is sweet without being sappy. And for those concerned about language or sex in YA novels, it's not in here.Gwenda Bond has written a very visual book that is full of color. Her descriptions of the circus, the lights, the costumes, the performers, the audience, are vivid and bright. But when things are dark, the darkness comes to life as well. I think it can be difficult for an author to bring happy and sad together so vividly, and Gwenda Bond has done it with style.And on top of all of that, there is a lot of circus history and circus lore in the book, and for a history buff, that's fun as well.Give this one a read. It's totally worth the time.

Girl on a Wire was an entrancing read. It is novel about a family of circus performers, circus life, fate, family feuds, magic (does it exist?), curses and love.This a well written, semi-fast pace novel about two great circus families and their years long feud. It all begins when Jules, the youngest in her family (including her dad, mom and grandmother), decides to go over her family's head and signs them up to be part of Cirque American. She has a 16 year old naivete that makes her believe this is the best decision for the Amazing Maronis.Very soon she learns that the Flying Garcias (the current spotlight performers of Cirque American) are not letting go of their grudge anytime soon. In fact, almost all of the Cirque American family are not fans of the Amazing Maronis. When Jules finds a suspiciously bad luck on her person and she falls for the first time since she was four, she begins to wonder about magic, the mystery of the family feud and what it means to take death defying risks.At the heart of the novel is love including Jules and a rival Garcia, two other teens (one struggling her sexuality), past infidelities, and a magical mystery.The mystery is woven throughout and its suspense is kept til the end with clues and red herrings mentioned along the way.There are some nice Shakespearean references if you look for them!Read it if you like: The Night Circus and slight magical realism.