Caraval - Stephanie Garber

I'm not sure there is much worse to a book lover than waiting forever for a book to come out and then for it to fall flat. This book was just so....meh. Not bad, really. But definitely not what I was hoping. I wanted magic and romance and adventure. We got a heroine that was too stupid to live, a sister that was so horrid I wanted to set her on fire, and a love interest that I just had a hard time connecting with because the whole book gave me trust issues. The adventure was lacking and far too simple. The love was way too cliche and forced. The magic was hardly there at all. The whole Caraval show that the book hyped was never really shown. It was just in passing. I am so disappointed. I wanted all the magic of an Alice in Wonderland with the feel of a carnival. I just got a bit of a mess. At least it was an easy read. A blood-pressure-raising, maddening easy read.