Review: The Swan Gondola

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18079482-the-swan-gondola" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Swan Gondola" border="0" src="https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1387171955m/18079482.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18079482-the-swan-gondola">The Swan Gondola</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/131724.Timothy_Schaffert">Timothy Schaffert</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/765710846">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
A lush and thrilling romantic fable about two lovers set against the scandalous burlesques, midnight séances, and aerial ballets of the 1898 Omaha World’s Fair. <br><br> On the eve of the 1898 Omaha World’s Fair, Ferret Skerritt, ventriloquist by trade, con man by birth, isn’t quite sure how it will change him or his city. Omaha still has the marks of a filthy Wild West town, even as it attempts to achieve the grandeur and respectability of nearby Chicago. But when he crosses paths with the beautiful and enigmatic Cecily, his whole purpose shifts and the fair becomes the backdrop to their love affair.<br><br> One of a traveling troupe of actors that has descended on the city, Cecily works in the Midway’s Chamber of Horrors, where she loses her head hourly on a guillotine playing Marie Antoinette. And after closing, she rushes off, clinging protectively to a mysterious carpetbag, never giving Ferret a second glance. But a moonlit ride on the swan gondola, a boat on the lagoon of the New White City, changes everything, and the fair’s magic begins to take its effect.<br><br> From the critically acclaimed author of The Coffins of Little Hope, The Swan Gondola is a transporting read, reminiscent of Water for Elephants or The Night Circus.<br><br>-- My thoughts:<br><br>I loved EVERY minute of this book. I stopped and reread sentences and lines, eager for each word, savoring it because it ended way too fast. I loved Ferret. He was a good guy, a little down on his luck. But that seemed like it changed when he met Cecily. I just think everyone should read this book. It is that amazing! I will think about this wonderful read for years to come!<br><br>You start out with Ferret landing at the sister's home, and then we go back, way back to find out why. Why was in he that balloon? I loved the bit of mystery, lots of love, friendship and more in this fabulous book! Read it NOW! You won't be sorry!<br><br>I received this book from Goodreads first read program in exchange for my honest opinion!
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