Book Review & Giveaway - The Art of Disappearing by Ivy Pochoda

Synopsis:  How do you know if love is real or just an illusion?
When Mel Snow meets the talented magician Toby Warring in a dusty roadside bar, she is instantly drawn to the brilliant performer whose hands can effortlessly pull stray saltshakers and poker chips from thin air and conjure castles out of the desert sands. Just two days later they are married, beginning their life togethe ...more How do you know if love is real or just an illusion?

When Mel Snow meets the talented magician Toby Warring in a dusty roadside bar, she is instantly drawn to the brilliant performer whose hands can effortlessly pull stray saltshakers and poker chips from thin air and conjure castles out of the desert sands. Just two days later they are married, beginning their life together in the shadow of Las Vegas, where Toby hopes to make it big. Mel knows that magicians are a dime a dozen, but Toby is different—his magic is real.
 
As Toby’s renown grows and Mel falls more and more in love with his wonderments, she starts to realize that Toby's powers are as unstable as they are dazzling. She learns that he once made his assistant disappear completely, and couldn’t bring her back. And then, just as Mel becomes convinced that his magic is dangerous, a trick goes terribly awry during his Strip debut.

Exiled from the stage, Mel and Toby flee the lights of Las Vegas for the streets of Amsterdam where a cabal of old-time magicians, real magicians like Toby, try to rescue him from his despair. But he’s haunted by the trick that failed, and obsessed with using his powers to right his mistakes, leaving Mel to wonder if the love they share is genuine or merely a fantasy, conjured up by a lost magician looking to save himself from being alone.

First Line:  "I married Tobias Warring in the Silver Bells All-Nite Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas."

Random Quote:  ""Moving sidewalks and towering skymalls transformed the Strip into a synthetic biodome.  Like moles, we traveled through cooled tunnels from parking lots to hotels and from movie theaters to shopping malls.  Monorails ushered us from one casino to another, while gallerias and promenades sheltered us from the high midday heat.  Everyone - locals and tourists alike - worshipped the heat from a safe distance."

Review:  There is a trend in indie films and books to create quirky characters and then do nothing meaningful with their quirks - they're just sort of quirky to be quirky and often wander around the film or book with a dazed expression on their face and an emo haircut.  Seriously, everybody on the planet is quirky - let's celebrate that and make the actual bits and pieces of a character something that matters - because it does.

The Conjurer by Hieronymous Bosch - Image via WikipediaThe Art of Disappearing is full of characters with all kinds of quirks and idiosyncrasies that the author fleshes out with great dexterity.  This story of a conjurer who marries a textile designer to whom textiles and fabrics sing is full of the fantastical yet nothing is treated as a trick or an afectation or as filler.  Toby and Mel felt true to me in a way that characters in books often don't.

I loved this novel about love and letting go, about all the beauty in the world, and about longing after someone who's gone away.  This is a beautifully told story full of conjured rabbits and snowstorms and brocades that sing.  The Vegas and Amsterdam setting are perfect for it and there are many moments in this book that will stay with me.

Ms. Pochoda has written a fearless and marvelous story  and told it just the right way.  I loved it.


FTC Disclosure:  Copy received from the publisher for the book tour sponsored by TLC Book Tours.


Rating:  Orange

I am pleased to be stop on this wonderful author's book tour thanks to the nice folks at TLC Book Tours.  They don't tell me what to like and I tell you what I think.


Be sure to visit the rest of the stops on Ms. Pochoda's book tour and read this book - you won't regret it.

Ivy Pochoda’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Monday, October 4th:  Musings of a Bookish Kitty
Wednesday, October 6th:  Rundpinne
Thursday, October 7th:  Wise Owl Book Review
Friday, October 8th:  Chaotic Compendiums
Monday, October 11th:  Estella’s Revenge
Tuesday, October 12th:  Bibliofreak
Tuesday, October 12th:  Lit and Life
Wednesday, October 13th:  Books Like Breathing
Thursday, October 14th: The Tome Traveller
Friday, October 15th:  Bookworm with a View
Monday, October 18th:  Brunette on a Budget
Tuesday, October 19th:  One Book Shy
Wednesday, October 20th:  Kiss a Cloud
Thursday, October 21st:  Novel Whore
Monday, October 25th:  Daydream Believer
Wednesday, October 27th:  In the Next Room
Book Giveaway:    I am very pleased to be able to give 1copy of this book away (US only)!  Here's how to enter:

• Leave a comment on this blog with your email address to receive one entry.
• Follow me on this blog to receive another entry (if you're already a follower, just tell me in your comment).
• Follow me via Networked blogs on Facebook for yet another entry (if you're already a follower, just tell me in your comment).
• Follow me on Twitter and it's another entry (if you're already a follower, just let me know)
  
• Books will be delivered directly from the publisher so the giveaway is only for residents of the US. No PO boxes, please.

Winners will be announced on10/23!  Good luck!