The Ladies of the Secret Circus

By: Constance Sayers

Narrated by: Emily Lawrence

From the author of A Witch in Time comes a magical story spanning from Jazz Age Paris to modern-day America of family secrets, sacrifice, and lost love set against the backdrop of a mysterious circus.

Paris, 1925: To enter the Secret Circus is to enter a world of wonder - a world where women weave illusions of magnificent beasts, carousels take you back in time, and trapeze artists float across the sky. Bound to her family's circus, it's the only world Cecile Cabot knows until she meets a charismatic young painter and embarks on a passionate affair that could cost her everything.

Virginia, 2004: Lara Barnes is on top of the world until her fiancé disappears on their wedding day. When her desperate search for answers unexpectedly leads to her great-grandmother’s journals, Lara is swept into a story of a dark circus and ill-fated love.

Soon secrets about Lara’s family history begin to come to light, revealing a curse that has been claiming payment from the women in her family for generations. A curse that might be tied to her fiancé’s mysterious disappearance

For more from Constance Sayers, check out A Witch in Time.

©2021 Constance Sayers (P)2021 Redhook

Critic reviews

"A spellbinding historical fantasy.... Fans of Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus will love this page-turning story of dark magic, star-crossed love, and familial sacrifice." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

"At times decadent and macabre, The Ladies of the Secret Circus is a mesmerizing tale of love, treachery, and depraved magic percolating through four generations of Cabot women." (Luanne G. Smith, author of The Vine Witch)

"Ambitious and teeming with magic, Sayers creates a fascinating mix of art, The Belle Époque, and more than a little murder.” (Erika Swyler, author of The Book of Speculation)

Loved it!!

Loved the story and the narrator. One caution, this is not a turn on for noise and keep up with the plot book. You actually have to invest the time to listen.

Interesting story

The narrator shouldn’t try to speak French. It’s really bad.. like curling your toes bad 🤣

A fun story of magic

Not too dark, though the magic all stems from dark places. The F-bomb is used occasionally- not for any discernible reason and could have been left out, but not overly used either.

I enjoyed the story. It reminded me of Night Circus, though this focus was more from the outside rather than the inside. There was also the aspect of disappearance/mystery that added a nice dimension as well. The one criticism is that the climactic scene was not very climatic.

Solid narration, though the male voices were often portrayed as the same feminine voice, making me have to think about who was actually speaking.
Overall a solid recommendation.

Brilliant

Just as brilliant as its sister novel, A Witch In Time!, this one explores more of the magic abd how it works, as well as Hell itself. I'm privately hoping Ms Sayers does more with this world she has set up.

Good story, poor narration

I have to agree with some of the other reviewers. The story was great, the magic wasn’t over the top, just enough to get you sucked in. But the narration almost had me stopping midway through the book. I was about to give up when I read the other reviews. I only got through it by listening at 1.3x speed. The narration was very slow paced, the accents were completely unnecessary, and the very random f-bombs were so distracting. If you can get through those hurdles then you may just enjoy this book! Maybe I should have just read it myself….

the absolute worst reader

I cannot listen another second. The reader is doomed forever to be a wanna be artistic perfirmer. She establishes a rhythm that is not only inappropriate to the text, the meaning of the words, the structure of the written sentences, the story being told, but also thoroughly distracts the listener on every level from the author's writing voice. I am so aggravated by the readers corny differentiation of character it's all I can do not to scream . I really wanted to hear the story, but the reader precluded all experience of this work.

Twists and turns

The reader has a wonderful mesmerizing, haunting voice that ads intrigue to a story that already twists and turns.

A Real Unexpected Treat

I'm so happy to not go by some of the reviews because this was truly one of those needle in a haystack type book purchases that you search for and rarely come across. It was a beautiful intriguing original story and the reader was great as well. One of the best novels I've read and I truly didn't know what to expect. And best of all, the ending made me feel full and content and we all know how hard that is to come by these days. Do not hesotate...Get it and enjoy!!!

pure awesome

loved the book, the mystery, slow reveal, and beautiful writing of it all. highly recommend it.

So creative!

I don’t think I’ve ever read a book quite like this before. The creativity and the unfolding of the tale was delicious. At first I was not impressed, but after realizing how the beginning intertwined the rest of the tale it all came together. A Really entertaining listen.

I didn’t care so much for the narration of the main character’s voice but all the other voices were great!