Little Circus of Wonder: A Love Story

THE CIRCUS OF THE EARTH AND THE AIR

“A sweeping allegory of lost love and the quest for self-discovery and inner fulfillment, this debut novel by Brooke Stevens is nothing short of astounding. Arcane, enigmatic, disturbing yet wondrous, the tale plucks the fine line between reality and illusion like a string on a banjo.”

-Roy Richard, The Boston Herald 2/13/94

“Brooke Stevens's first novel is full of mysterious circuses, the grandest of which occupies a hollow mountain in the center of an island...His novel at times reads like a love letter to that most exotic of lives.”

-William Ferguson, N.Y. Times Book Review 1/23/94

“Stevens' novel is like a mysterious, haunting dream, rich in allegory and deeply personal symbolism. The images of the circus and stage are so vivid that you get a real sense of their physical qualities as well as the magic and mystery deep within that make them work...I found that I was drawn to the characters and their story, even long after I had finished the novel.”

-Chuck Groth, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch 5/10/94

“Suspense, novelty and exoticism blend to make Brooke Stevens' The Circus of the Earth and the Air a riveting tale...Stevens captures and traverses the porous border separating thrill from terror in a child's world. Here, that world is our world, as circuses are for children of all ages.”

-Andy Soloman, The Chicago Tribune 2/13/94

“Stevens mixes fantasy and reality easily in a book that won't be easy to forget.”

-Bob Trimble, Dallas Morning News 4/3/94

“Incredibly ambitious, especially for a first novel, Circus successfully juggles elements of action, adventure, mystery, poetry, metaphysics, psychology, and allegory. And-oh, yeah-it's a love story...The end result is a richly textured, dynamic novel that turns its own pages...”

-Dan Leone, The S.F Bay Guardian 2/94

“This amazing first effort by former circus employee Brooke Stevens provides a mesmerizing view of the circus life that will forever haunt readers whenever they view a circus advertisement.”

-Joan Hinkemeyer, The Rocky Mountain News 4/10/94

“Stevens writes like nobody else in recent memory; John Gardner's The Sunlight Dialogues is the closest comparison I can make. Like Gardner, Stevens can make impossible scenes somehow plausible.”

-Jeff Guinn, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram 2/20/94

“...unfolds in such a universe, where logic derives from intuition and nothing is what it seems...[Stevens'] ideas on the subject heighten the significance of Alex's experience, providing a context in which he can hunt for Iris both physically and spiritually, while at the same time coming to terms with himself.”

-David Ulin, LA Times 4/3/94

“These opening pages, reminiscent of the harrowing Dutch movie "The Vanishing," maintain a careful balance between the mundane and the fantastic, disbelief and panic. There's an irresistible tension in the story of a man who literally loses his wife and has no idea how to find her.”

-George Packer, Washington Post Book World 3/6/94

“Weird and elusive as a handful of smoke is this first novel by Brooke Stevens, a story set in a circus whose performers exist in the dreams of us all...Stevens is an elegant ringmaster. This first novel is rough around the edges, ragged because of an excess of energy and enthusiasm more than anything else-but it is inhabited by a cast of delightfully entertaining performers.”

-Paul Pintarich, The Oregonian, 2/13/94

“...unreels like a dream of drowning, acid-etched on the brain. Stevens spins a fantastic, entrancing tale, an entertaining, insightful and sometimes moving allegory about creating, performing, love and loss. Spare, uncluttered prose propels the novel and strengthens its spell.”

-Jan Cottingham, Arkansas D. Gazette 1/20/94

“...an hypnotic page turner that's sure to grip the reader.”

-Michelle Howe, The Newark Star-Ledger 1/20/94

“...the action is continually shifting from the nearly incomprehensible to the nearly normal. Yet there is never a moment when the book is not utterly fascinating, and the many spells woven on the characters seem to rub off on the reader as well...an amazing first novel that strikes repeatedly at the core of the notion of the performer, the performance, and the unknown.”

-Eloise Kinney, Booklist 5/15/93

“The dreamlike aura of Stevens' first novel is the stuff of both bliss and nightmare, reminiscent of the fiction of Ray Bradbury, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Franz Kafka and, of course, the films of the late Federico Fellini.”

-Nancy Pate, The Orlando Sentinel 2/8/94

“It's tough for a brief synopsis to capture the unique mix of realistic suspense and metaphysical adventure in "Circus", but the narrative momentum is so strong that most readers will probably finish the book in a few sittings.”

-Joseph Meyers, The Connecticut Post 2/20/94

"Stevens' book is well-imagined, well-peopled and well-plotted and it ascends to rarefied heights..."

-Dorothy Smiljanich, The Tampa Tribune 3/6/94

"The book climaxes as the last ten pages reveal the mystery, and the ending keeps the reader holding on until the final, shocking line."

-Kathy Kuhl, The Iowa Press-Citzen 2/17/94

"After reading a few pages of this first novel, you will be hooked. No, mesmerized. Fascinated by its ability to draw you in and to keep you reading, even when parts of it make you squirm with discomfort."

-Peggy Eastman, The Sunday Cape Cod Times 2/13/94

"[Stevens] keeps his balance-and sustains reader interest to the end...It's a daring, challenging book that wobbles on the wire some but reaches the end intact."

-Grant Burns, Flint, MI Journal 4/10/94

TATTOO GIRL

“…a page turner that provides outlandish insights into male and female sexual pathology while luring one into a fantastic universe.”

-Boston Phoenix, May 11, 2001

“…Stevens darkly enchanting novel will keep readers in fearful suspense until its very end… both hard-bitten realism and the magnificent wonder of a fairy tale.”

-Dallas Morning News, May 27, 2001

"Brooke Stevens is one of those authors who knows all about your nightmares. He taps effortlessly into the murky corners of your brain where you keep the things that spook you. "

-The Hartford Courant, March 4, 2001

“This dark, disturbing thriller about a traumatized girl found tattooed all over with fish scales is a guaranteed page-turner.”

-HEAT Magazine, London, January 19, 2002

“…exciting, involving and quite unmistakably original.”

-Literary Review, London, January 2002

“…an unusual and imaginative novel… It’s a strange and disturbing book, vividly descriptive and occasionally touching.”

-Sunday Telegraph, London, January 19, 2002

“In direct prose, both unflinching and lyrical, Stevens explores many of the themes that made his first book so compelling: the ideas of human cruelty, salvation, and insanity's grip on the collective unconscious are set against a circus backdrop-and the result is a twisted coming-of-age story filled with the surreal horror of David Lynch."
-Booklist, March 15, 2001

“…another violent, atmospheric, and suspenseful tale from Stevens. This time, though, Stevens has eschewed the surrealism that figured so prominently before to create a more cohesive, tightly drawn story… [An] intelligent, poignant, and vividly imagined page-turner.”

-Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2001

KISSING YOUR EX

"Kissing Your Ex is a phenomenal novel . . . Stevens has written a close to the bone story that I think anyone who has ever had a great love will relate to . . . Go and buy Kissing Your Ex, an extraordinary novel of love. It has my highest of recommendations."
--Romance Reviews Today (A Perfect Ten)

"...another insightful and clever novel to be added to Brooke Stevens already impressive literary resume. As well, it is an imaginative piece that lulls the reader quietly and then grips hold with a compelling force that doesn't lessen until the complete story is told.

"--A Romance Review

"With a soft, exquisite writing style, Stevens pens a compelling story that brings Maddy and Jack to life. He chronicles their past shared dreams, realistically capturing the emotional highs and lows in flashbacks, as they shatter one by one. A thoughtful and thought-provoking novel that's an absolute gem."

--Donna Carter, Romantic Times Gold Star (Phenomenal).

"A mesmerizing tale of the many ways to get it wrong on the way to getting it right, Kissing Your Ex makes you remember the perfection of your first love and regret everything you've ever done to tarnish that memory."

--Rachel Cline, Author of What to Keep

"Kissing Your Ex unfolds with the quiet intimacy and unaffected candor of a late-night conversation over a couple of bottles of wine. Brooke Stevens's tender, scrupulous history of one love's flights, devastations, and renewals is a touching meditation on the risks and realities of dreams, on what is lost to time and damage and human fallibility, and what endures."

--Tim Farrington, Author of The Monk Downstairs