Gifted: A Donovan Circus Novel (Donovan Circus Series Book 1)

This book clearly was not written for my tastes. I'll start by saying that.I believe if you manage to fight through all the reviews I've written you'll notice a decided lack of enthusiasm for certain things. Amongst my major peeves are angsty female characters and forced romances.Guess what 2 plot elements stood out when I read this book.The plot itself is based on a great idea. The main character was at times an endearing combination of pluck, fear and passion. The supporting characters mostly had potential.But the angst got to me. When the angst and indecision rose up, I wanted to set the book down. And it happened often enough because of the twisted murder/mystery that drove the plot.And the romance. I'll be blunt. If you like Twilight, or you like emotionless almost vampiric boyfriends for plucky urban fantasy heroines, than this romance will definitely please you. Personally, I wanted to take the "romantic male lead" and launch him into orbit. I very much disliked him and the entire romance thread. It was partly necessary to help set up the final scene, but I found it so annoying.And that left me giving this book a low 3 stars. Admittedly I'm not the market for this, but I still feel I should warn others like me who might be looking for something a bit different from their normal and will be disappointed if they expect this to be a story of a magic circus. There is a lot more going on, that takes aspects of the story away. Some might find what replaced it fun, but others will miss what this story was never meant to be.Overall, I give it a 3, and admit I won't be reading any more books in this series.

I grabbed a paperback copy of Gifted on Amazon after watching copies fly off a table at a book signing conference. There was this innate need inside me to find out what secrets were hidden on the pages. Full disclosure: I'm a total geek over X-Men. Total. Geek. I used to play the video game at the arcade (Storm was my favorite character to play as), I own all the movies, and I love supernatural ability stories--I'm also a huge Heroes fan. Why did I bother telling you all that? Because if you love those kinds of things, you're going to adore this book. Now, let's move on to the review so I can regale you with all the awesome.From a Reader's Perspective:I both loved and hated the main character, Lucy. She was spunky, smart, a bit weak at first, and someone I'd love to hang out with in real life. A couple of her tendencies irritated me at the beginning of the book, but once I realized where her actions were stemming from, they were a little more acceptable. Best of all, despite her being gifted, I could identify with her on a human level. Huge points to the author for that.Pacing was awesome, and I was able to finish this read in two sittings. Yeah, I was left wanting more, but not because there was a cliffhanger. It all stemmed from the awesome on the pages. Totally geeked out.Long's descriptions are rich and vivid, but they don't go on and on about each detail. She allows you to paint the scene in your mind by giving you nuggets to build on. My favorite kind of writing is when I don't have to skip pages to avoid getting bogged down. Needless to say, world-building was amazing.But let's talk about the plot! Up until the villain revealed themselves, I had no clue who it was. What fun I had trying to figure it out, though.My favorite character was certainly Lucy, but I also loved Brooklyn (she's so passive-aggressive awesome), Delia, and Bianca. I won't ruin the awesome by sharing what they can all do, but it's super cool. Their dialogue felt so natural, too.Oh, and the action! Yes, there's plenty of that. You get to see all the abilities at work constantly. I loved it.From an Editor's Perspective:There were no plot holes, and the flow and pacing were amazing, but the commas were kind of everywhere they shouldn't be and not where they should. So, I'll give half a star for editing.Rating:1 Star for creating a complex main character with layers I had to peel back1 Star for description and world-building1 Star for keeping the answer to the mystery elusive1 Star for all the action.5 Star for editing-.5 Star for fairy-like commas that flitted hither and yonOverall, 4.5 out of 5 stars. Everyone who's ever read one of my reviews knows I round up, not down, so this book gets a five click. Recommended for those who love books about paranormal abilities.

I find that I really love circus stories, and Long's the third author to give me that guilty pleasure.I liked the plot and the way nothing was too predictable. A few curve balls, a bit of right assumptions, but nothing too obvious. I liked the characters and their closeness, though they came off a lot younger than the early twenties they were. Cigarettes and alcohol hinted at how old they all were before it was confirmed in the lines, and although I would have liked to see a bit of maturity in their characters, it was still nice to see them so young. Not young in terms of naivete, but young in the sense that they weren't too jaded or serious.Lucy was an interesting character but not one I could get into at first. I liked her feisty attitude but her constant hold on her emotions made things more than frustrating at more than one point. It's not a problem so much as an irate thing as a reader because I have to watch her suffer with a problem before she finally gets a release. I guess that means the author actually did a good job at putting me through what she did.The bad guys were just horrible (in a good way) and I really wish she'd burned them longer. Grr. The writing was pretty good, though the dialogue was a bit long at times, especially when something crazy happened. I'd find myself skimming to keep the quick flow of the story. Slowing down to take in all the talking would sometimes slow down the climax for me, so it's more of a personal thing on my part.I'd recommend this book because it's exciting and I love the way the circus life was made in this. It's a new type of urban fantasy, it kept me entertained, and though I hate love-triangles, I didn't mind it too much because she wasn't really committed to either one.