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I am one of those people who are hesitant to read "popular" novels and tend to judge them more critically from the start because of their acclaim, but I found myself pleasantly surprised with this book. I appreciated it for its story and feel that it lived up to the hype just for being able to transport someone who has never been to a circus into the world and make me visualize it so clearly. Having said that, maybe it isn't an accurate depiction, but frankly I don't really care. I sometimes get irritated by this site because of people judging authors on their writing style and completely overlooking the content of the story and the way it makes you FEEL. I simply review books on my gut reaction when i turn the last page; barring blatant spelling mistakes the style doesn't matter to me because it isn't the words but the experience I am looking for. For me, this book was very entertaining, colorful, and descriptive; it held a lovely balance between past and present and made me not only feel a part of the excitement of the circus life but managed to peel back the curtain and show the behind the scenes action that I found intriguing. Yes, the love story was contrived, but In my experience most real life love stories aren't wrapped in a pretty little bow, and if you take the circus aspect out of it, it isn't much different than most people's stories. The care home scenes were particularly very touching and because of their accuracy and honesty (my entire family works in a care facility, and I have seen residents day to day lives first hand) made me respect the author that much more. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is because of the ending; i feel like Jacob deserved better than what he got and the the author was just "throwing in the towel" after telling her circus story and didn't want to put forth the effort in thinking up a proper ending.