I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Scarlett has never left the tiny island where she and her beloved sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval, the far-away, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show, are over.

But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. But she nevertheless becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic with the other players in the game. And whether Caraval is real or not, she must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over, a dangerous domino effect of consequences is set off, and her sister disappears forever.

Welcome, welcome to Caraval . . . beware of getting swept too far away.

Short and Sweet

After years of writing the Caraval master, Scarlett finally gets a reply and three tickets. All Scarlett has ever wanted is to take her sister to see the magic of Caraval in person. The only problem is the two sisters don’t have a way to get to where Caraval is until a strange sailor offers to take them. Things seem to go great until Donatella is taken and becomes a prize for who finds her first, now it’s up to Scarlett to play the game and be the first one to find her sister.

Characters

Scarlett: Scarlett is caring and her main goal in this book is to find her sister. Scarlett is like a mother to Donatella and is very protective of her. I did find her to be a little annoying at times mainly because she wouldn’t accept any help and thought she was capable of doing things on her own.

Donatella: Scarlett’s younger carefree sister. All Donatella wants is to leave Trisda and get away from their father. Donatella is very impulsive and will do what she thinks she has to just to get her way.

Julian: The sailor who comes to Trisda and offers to take the sisters to Caraval. Julian was a hard character to figure out her definitely had secrets he was hiding. I didn’t know exactly what he wanted he’s just a hard character to place. What is he doing? Why did he want to go to caraval? Is he actually trying to help Scarlett or not?

Romance

Scarlett and The Count: Scarlett is engaged to be married to a man she has never met, but they do write each other letters. We don’t learn much about the count mainly because Scarlett has very little information about him, but Scarlett did believe that he would be able to provide a better life for her and Donatella.

Scarlett and Julian: I wasn’t sure about these two at first but as the book progressed I was rooting for them. Scarlett found Julian hard to read and first and wanted to know exactly why he wanted to come to Caraval with her. But the more time they spend together the more they come to care for each and I loved it.

My Thoughts

~  The world in this book is so amazing and magical, nothing is as it seems and that’s exactly what Scarlett has to keep in mind while she plays the game. Scarlett gets swept into this world and has to differentiate whats real and what’s make believe.

~ Scarlett becomes more apart of the game than she ever thought she would. Her sister was taken and now she has five clues to figure out before any of the other participants of caraval.

~ Scarlett made some pretty big leaps of faith when she thought she knew what the clues meant and and some points I didn’t know how she put two and two together.

~ Every character that works at caraval was very interesting and they were all so different that they brought something to the magic of the book and making the world more realistic.

~ There’s a lot of secrets about caraval and past players and games and it was interesting to learn about.

~ The master legend was also a mystery mainly because we don’t meet him but we do but we don’t it’s crazy and kind of hard to follow.

~ The ending was great and it just makes me want the second book now, I want to know what else could happen that hasn’t already.

Overall

I enjoyed this book so much! There were so many twists and the world was so amazing it just kept me invested in the plot! It was a light and fun read and it’d be a great read for the summer. I feel like this is a book I can read over and over again! I can’t wait until the second book is released.