The Circus Rose: Instagram Posts

Here are some amazing pictures of The Circus Rose by Betsy Cornwell that were taken by these lovely bookstagrammers. All credit goes to them and you can click the link to check out their Instagram. You can also follow me on Instagram @thindbooks and follow me on my blog! 

@belleeeey_

@paperbackdiaries

@chardpages

@read.andcreate

@melissa.montovani 

(click here to see her review)

@nerdy_little_julith

The Circus Rose: Author's Playlist

Click here to direct you to the Spotify playlist for The Circus Rose! 

List of music:

1) "Dark Night" Dorothy

2) "mermaids" Leo Kalyan

3) "Ans So Is Love" Kate Bush

4) "We Are Circling" Buffy Sainte-Marie

5) "Dust and Magic" Anna Tivel

6) "The Hustle" A Night In The Box

7) "Unsteady" by X Ambassadors

8) "Black & White" The Staves

9) "Bronze- Desert Mix" The Woodlands

10) "Helpless" by Buffy Sainte-Marie

11) "Time After Time" Iron & Wine

12) "Dark Childe" Marlon Williams

13) "If You've Gotta Go, Go Now" J Tillan

14) "Heart-Shaped Box" The Scarlet Furies

15) "Harvest" The Breath

16) "Galaxies" Laura Veirs

17) "To Begin" Alela Diane

18) "Lake Tahoe" Kate Bush

19) "The Weight of Things" The Gloaming

20) "Bridge" Slowly Rolling Camera

21) "The Beggar & The Theif" Piers Faccini

22) "Where I'll Find You" Joan Shelley

23) "Chilli Salt" The Breath

24) "Naked as We Came" Iron & Wine

25) "Cherry Wine" Holzier

26) "Tiger Striped Sky" Roo Panes

27) "To Be Alone With You" Sufjan Stevens

28) "I'm on Fire" The Staves

29) "Glory" Jamie N Commons

30) "Genius" Sia, Diplo and Labrinth

31) "Medicine Man" Dorothy

32) "Nothing Arrived" Villagers

33) "Even the Darkness Has Arms" The Barr Brothers

34) "I Love You, But I Need Another Year" Liza Anne

35) "Little Lover" The Barr Brothers

36) "Call the Days" Nadia Reid

37)"Dink's Song" Andrea von Kampen

38) "Need You Tonight" Welshly Arms

39) "Ain't Our Time to Die" Dorothy

40) "Lovers In A Dangerous Time" Frazey Ford

41) "Young Bodies" Sea Wold

42) "Horns" Bryce Fox

43) "Just to Feel Alive" Nadia Reid

44) "Carry Your Kin" The Breath

45) "Light Me Up" Ingrid Michael

46) "Foreigner's God" Hozier

The Circus Rose: Interview

An interview with Betsy Cornwell about The Circus Rose

About the book:

1.       How did you come up with the story of The Circus Rose?

When I was in college, I wrote a collection of fairy tale retellings that included the beginnings of my first two books, Tides and Mechanica. I started dreaming of a circus-themed retelling of “Snow White and Rose Red” way back then, eleven years ago now, but I didn’t start seriously working on it until late 2017, when I made the formal proposal of the idea to my editor. Thankfully she had faith in the project, and it took off from there! The Circus Rose is set in the same universe as my last three books, so it was especially fun to get to expand that world and its timeline; the four novels span about two hundred years. 

 

2.    Whose point of view did you like writing, Rosie or Ivory? 

I enjoyed them both for very different reasons, because their voices are so different: Ivory is an engineer and she thinks about things in steady, carefully-built ways, whereas Rosie has a really different view of the world, and her narration is in verse. On the days when I felt more logical, I preferred writing Ivory’s point of view, and when I felt a little more abstract or off-kilter, I enjoyed writing Rosie’s.

3.      Which of the characters from The Circus Rose are you the most similar to? 

I think at this point in my life I’m most similar to Rosie and Ivory’s mother, Mama Angela Blackwood: I’m a single mom trying my best to parent and build a business (as a writer and as founder of The Old Knitting Factory, a bed and breakfast that offers childcare-inclusive arts residencies to single mothers).

 

4.    What was the hardest part to write in The Circus Rose? 

To be honest, the whole first draft! I wrote The Circus Rose at a really challenging time in my personal life, right after my marriage ended, when I was learning how to make ends meet as a single mom. I’m really proud of the fact that I got the first draft done on time for my deadline: it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

5.      Where can readers purchase The Circus Rose? 

The best place to buy The Circus Rose is from your local independent bookstore! I’d also love for people to order from Black-owned bookstores like Brain Lair Books (in South Bend, the town where I went to graduate school), Pyramid Books, or Books and Crannies.

About You:

1.    If you won a prize for something, what would it be and why? 

Hmm . . . I would love to win a prize for getting up with my 3 year old at 5 every morning without openly weeping about it. That would be very validating. 

However, I hear they don’t give prizes for parenting, so I definitely think I could win some kind of cheese-eating contest. Cheese is my true love.

2.    If a director wanted to make The Circus Rose into a movie and wanted you to act in it, who would you be and why?

I love to daydream about my books becoming films, just like most authors do  . . . I would really love a stop-motion film like Coraline or The Corpse Bride, so I wouldn’t be acting in it, but I’d be delighted to voice a side character like Bonnie or Miss Lampton.

3.    What are some of your favorite tv shows and movies? 

My favorite TV show of all time is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My favorite movies are Ever After and Away We Go. I love anything with some whimsy or magic in it that also isn’t afraid to deal in big emotional, ethical, and/or political themes. 

4.    If you could have dinner with any 3 people (fictional, real or dead), who would it be? 

Angela Carter (my favorite writer), Cassandra Mortmain (the protagonist of my favorite book, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith), and Oscar Wilde. I think Angela and Oscar would dominate the conversation, but I’d kill to listen to them trade witticisms and I think Cassandra would too.

5.    What do you like to do when you are not writing? 

Reading is always my favorite activity -- love of reading is what made me want to write. I am also an avid cook and knitter, and I live near the beach in Connemara and I try to put my feet in the water every day.

The Circus Rose: Review

Rating: 4/5 stars
Review: 
The Greatest Showman meets Ink in the Blood. A retelling of Snow White and Rose Red.
This book was enjoyable to read and also easy to read. It's about two twins who are in the circus with their mom. They have a bear in the circus which Rosie believes a princess lives in there and Ivory thinks it's just a male bear. Then the people from the circus start disappearing after the tents caught on fire. The author's writing was beautiful and I loved the way she wrote the twins POVs. Ivory had a story to tell while Rosie's part was in the poem/prose form.

The story started off slow in the beginning and then it rushed at the end. The author did well explaining the story in the beginning because her writing was amazing but then, in the end, it was all rushed. The mystery of the book didn't last long and I wish it did but it would have been really good. I did like the characters a lot. They were all different and unique. Ivory and Rosie are twins but have different fathers which is cool and weird at the same time and the mom has a beard that shows woman power. The Bear plays a huge role in this book which was amazing and had a little "Brave" movie touches to it. I did enjoy this book but I wished it was longer.

Criteria:
Plot- ⭐⭐⭐⭐★
Main Character- ⭐⭐⭐⭐★
Other Characters- ⭐⭐⭐⭐★
Writing Style- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Pacing- ⭐⭐⭐⭐★
Ending- ⭐⭐⭐⭐★
Book Cover- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


*This book was given to me by the publisher to give an honest review in return.*

The Circus Rose: Welcome Post

The Circus Rose by Betsy Cornwell
Publisher: Clarion Books 
Genre: YA Fantasy and LGBTQ+
Age: 13+

Summary: A queer retelling of “Snow White and Rose Red” in which teenage twins battle evil religious extremists to save their loves and their circus family.

Twins Rosie and Ivory have grown up at their ringmaster mother’s knee, and after years on the road, they’re returning to Port End, the closest place to home they know. Yet something has changed in the bustling city: fundamentalist flyers paper the walls and preachers fill the squares, warning of shadows falling over the land. The circus prepares a triumphant homecoming show, full of lights and spectacle that could chase away even the darkest shadow. But during Rosie’s tightrope act, disaster strikes.

In this lush, sensuous novel interwoven with themes of social justice and found family, it’s up to Ivory and her magician love—with the help of a dancing bear—to track down an evil priest and save their circus family before it’s too late, (Goodreads). 

Purchase the book here:
Amazon     Barnes & Noble      Book Depository     IndieBound

About the Author: Betsy Cornwell is a New York Times bestselling author living in west Ireland. She is the story editor and a contributing writer at Parabola, and her short-form writing includes fiction, nonfiction, and literary translation and has appeared in Fairy Tale Review, Zahir Tales, The Violence Prevention Initiative Journal, and elsewhere. She holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Notre Dame and a B.A. from Smith College.

Mechanica was published in 2015 and has featured on several best of the year lists, including Amazon.com’s Best Young Adult Books and USA Today‘s Must-Read Romances. In a starred review, Kirkus called this retelling of Cinderella “a smart, refreshing alternative to stale genre tropes.” Mechanica is a YALSA Teens’ Top Ten nominee for 2016.

Betsy’s debut novel, Tides, was published in 2013 to critical acclaim including a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly, a place in the Bank Street Best Children’s Books of the Year, and a Bisexual Book Awards nomination.

Betsy has two more novels forthcoming from Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, in 2017 and 2018, (Goodreads).