Girl on a Wire

Written by Gwenda Bond

A ballerina, twirling on a wire high above the crowd. Horses, prancing like salsa dancers. Trapeze artists, flying like somersaulting falcons. And magic crackling through the air. Welcome to the Cirque American!

Sixteen-year-old Jules Maroni’s dream is to follow in her father’s footsteps as a high-wire walker. When her family is offered a prestigious role in the new Cirque American, it seems that Jules and the Amazing Maronis will finally get the spotlight they deserve. But the presence of the Flying Garcias may derail her plans. For decades, the two rival families have avoided each other as sworn enemies.

Jules ignores the drama and focuses on the wire, skyrocketing to fame as the girl in a red tutu who dances across the wire at death-defying heights. But when she discovers a peacock feather—an infamous object of bad luck—planted on her costume, Jules nearly loses her footing. She has no choice but to seek help from the unlikeliest of people: Remy Garcia, son of the Garcia clan matriarch and the best trapeze artist in the Cirque.

As more mysterious talismans believed to possess unlucky magic appear, Jules and Remy unite to find the culprit. And if they don’t figure out what’s going on soon, Jules may be the first Maroni to do the unthinkable: fall.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Oct 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491504895

Gwenda Bond

GWENDA BOND is the bestselling author of many novels, including the Lois Lane and Cirque American trilogies and the Match Made in Hell duology. She wrote the first official Stranger Things novel, Suspicious Minds and created Dead Air, a serialized mystery and scripted podcast written with Carrie Ryan and Rachel Caine. Her nonfiction writing has appeared in Publishers Weekly, Locus Magazine, Salon, the Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. She has an MFA in writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives in a hundred-year-old house in Lexington, Kentucky, with her husband and their unruly pets. She believes she may have escaped from a 1940s screwball comedy. She writes a monthlyish letter you can sign up for at her website, and you can also follow her on Twitter.

Reviews for Girl on a Wire

[claireemckenna · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I received this book as part of Amazon's Kindle First program and I'm now kicking myself for not picking it up sooner.
Girl on a Wire was the most enjoyable book I've read in a long time. I found it unique, exciting and anything but predictable. Gwenda Bond's story made me feel like I'd joined a circus for the few days I spent following Julietta and the Amazing Maronis. The description in some of Jules' walks left me breathless with anticipation and a little dizzy picturing myself high above the ground.
I loved the intrigue of the superstitions of circus life and watching Jules come into her own as successful wire walker. With the amount of detail and research that clearly went into this novel, I would not be surprised to learn Bond herself was a circus performer - perhaps in another life?
I was so captivated by this book I can't quite put it into words, I surely will revisit this story again in the future when I need an opportunity to run away and join the circus.

[krau0098 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This is the first book in the Cirque American series and I just wasn't a fan of this one. I didn't realize that this was by Gweda Bond when I got it, just read the title and synopsis and thought it sounded cool. I have read another Gwenda Bond novel (Blackwood) and didn't enjoy that book either. I will endeavor to stay away from her books in the future. I did listen to this on audiobook which probably made this worse The narrator sounded very stiff and didn't do a good job of keeping track of character voices. For example she'd say something in Jule's voice but then it would be Remy who said it. Everything about this book was just poorly done. The two main characters were okay but didn't have much depth. None of the side characters were developed at all. The dialogue felt forced. The ending was completely predictable and anti-climatic, it was seriously disappointing to me. I was hoping for a story in a circus setting but I got more of a mystery about cursed objects causing issues at the circus. It was just kind of awkward and didn't have any the magic I was hoping for. Overall I almost stopped listening to this multiple times because it was just so mediocre and awkward to get through. Not recommended. This is the second book by Bond that I have been disappointed in, she just isn’t for me.

[agarcia85257 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Girl on a Wire by Gwenda Bond is a Romeo and Juliet tale set beneath the big tent and high up on the wire. A feat Bond does well in this teen lit book that mixes romance, intrigue and dark magic into a novel of forbidden love and betrayal. Jules Maroni is a sixteen year old high wire walker who is following in the family business. But she is tired of the small circus route and dreams of making it big time. Only her family are outcasts in the circus world and when they are offered the opportunity to join the new Cirque American, the Maroni's must confront their nemesis, the Flying Garcias!But Jules won't pay attention to the drama and is intent on her own fame. Quickly gaining notoriety for being the girl who dances on the high wire. But family history is not put aside by others and totems of misfortune and bad luck are soon found on her wardrobe. Someone is cursing her and she needs to find out who it is before it is too late.Help comes to her from the most unlikely of sources. Remy Garcia. The young famous trapeze artist from the Garcia clan. Together they must unravel the mystery behind the feud between the Maroni and Garcia family before one of them ends up dead. Or both.This really is a Romeo and Juliet tale, even the names of the young teenage lovers is similar. But Bond modernizes Juliet into an ambitious and smart young woman. Quite capable of caring for herself. She does this without making Remy (Romeo) into a bumbling sidekick clown or a brooding, muscular (cause chicks dig a vascular man!) macho caricature. For that she deserves a very strong mention and praise.Both Jules and Remy are strong role model type characters.So here is hoping that this novel does not get lost or missed in the teen lit field. It deserves to be found and read and enjoyed.A very good read.

[janarose1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Jules and her family find a chilly reception when they join the Cirque American. Jules quickly learns that her family, the Maroni's, has a feud with the Garcia family. While Jules and her father are hire-wire walkers, the Garcia family are trapeze artists. When bad luck items are planted on Jules, she realizes that the feud is stronger than ever. Determined to get to the bottom of who is working with the bad luck items, Jules finds herself in more danger than ever.I think this book will appeal to young teenagers a lot more than it appealed to me. I thought the book was a bit predictable. I did not care for the ending, I wanted something more dramatic, something more complicated. Overall, not a bad book, just not for me.