When The Circus Leaves Town

The final book in the Ace and Monroe series, finds Ace leaving her familiar world and her boyfriend Monroe to explore the circus while she still can. What about their plans for college and beyond? When Monroe tells Ace he thinks she has lost her mind, she comes back with, "No, Monroe. My mind is well made up." Loyal friends and family are more bewildered as Ace's conviction grows stronger. They stay behind in their familiar town while Ace works to make herself welcome in a new kind of community, a subculture of binding loyalty and blood allegiances that is more and less than it seems. Circus travels long and weary roads, continually reconstructing its web of sawdust and animals, greasepaint and sweat, razzle and dazzle. Ace touches Magic, surely enough, and behind it, faces all the challenges of any other life. What sees her through her initial disillusionment is not the ability to shill or juggle, but daily practice of the oldest and surest magic: the exercise of love. (Length 56,000 words. Reading level: High School and above).