Name: Spectacular
Series: Caraval #3.5 (Novella)
Author: Stephanie Garber (Illustrated by Rosie Fowinkle)
Publisher: Hodderscape
Format: Kindle
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Christmas
Steam or Spice: None
Rating:
Synopsis: Goodreads
Snowflakes are falling.
Invitations are arriving.
And holiday magic is swirling in the Capital City of the Meridian Empire.
It’s Great Holiday Eve Eve. Scarlett Dragna is planning a spectacular Holiday celebration for the city.
Donatella is searching for the perfect gift. Julian is looking ridiculously handsome in green.
And Legend . . .
Well, sadly Legend is not a fan of the Great Holiday. Tella is hoping her perfect gift will change his mind. Unfortunately, she hasn’t found this perfect gift just yet. But it is Great Holiday Eve Eve . . . surely there’s some holiday magic swirling around.
Welcome, welcome back to the world of Caraval, where even holidays are not as they seem.
Review:
Spectacular is a novella that follows the Caraval series, and so there will be spoilers in the below for the series as a whole.
Stephanie Garber has become a must buy author for me I suppose! Because I purchased Spectacular without reading the summary and so I had no idea who or what this book was about! I was just excited to dive straight back into this world! Yes I know I can read the Once Upon a Broken Heart series, and I intend to this month! But I was already missing Scar and Jullian, Tella and Legend! That being said, I had certainly hoped that this novella was going to give us more of Scarlet and Jullian – it did not.
This novella follows Tella as she tries to find a gift for Legend who is not a fan of the Great Holiday. And initially when I started reading this I figured it was going to be a quick read about the different gifts she considered. I expected not to enjoy it. But then there was talks of another Caraval and I was immediately intrigued. I won’t say too much more as afterall this is a novella and I do not want to spoil anything.
I loved the writing, I was reading this on kindle and so I couldn’t enjoy the illustrations fully though they looked beautiful even in black and white! And I loved seeing that Tella just hasn’t changed! Scarlett seems to be settling into her new role and it seems she is enjoying it!
I loved this little Christmassy novella, and if Stephanie wants to do more of these short stories I’m so down for it! It was a really quick read that made me grin and made my heart happy. I very much enjoyed it as an addition to the Caraval series (definitely to be read AFTER Finale!).
“I might have outgrown toys, but I hope never to outgrow joy and dressing up and giving gifts.”
Reading With Tyler 
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