Sensational Happiness

Warning: This review contains spoilers, read at your own risk.

Sensational the accompaniment to Spectacle by Jodie Lynn Zdrok has left me feeling completely content.

The prose was elegant enough, and the characters all had me rooting for them and feeling their pain as if it were my own. The world-building with the Exposition and the theatrical world of the 19th century Paris made me crave more.

I was worried briefly because the beginning was a bit rockier from the first book and felt like the author assumed we knew who certain characters were (like Jules, who I thought was a female friend of Nathalie's because I know five girls named Jules and one male fictional called Jules. There were no pronouns of who Jules was except that Jules circled a map of the Exposition, or maybe that was Nathalie? Because she did that more throughout the book, but case in point, the beginning was disjointed and left me feeling confused.) Also, Christophe was still engaged to be married to a girl that Nathalie said she met, but later claims to have never met save for knowing the girl's name. (There is a lot of discrepancies like this in the book, such as it's two years after, but it'll act as only a year has passed.) And Jules is Nathalie's beau, so that brought out some of my bookwork prejudices (such as, if Christophe did not get together with Nathalie, the book would not be as high as the first).

I am happy to report Christophe, and Nathalie gets together at the end of the book, and I am on cloud nine now. (No more scheming required). These two characters will always have my heart and are in my top ten favorite character couples ever.

I knew the killer was working in the morgue, but I never ever thought it was who it was. I was guessing the one who saw her when she was at a low point or the new apprentice (oops).

I wish I could shut off the writer part of my brain because the ending left me with the perfect idea for the "next" story (which if the author happens to read this post is more than welcome to use because I could never do the characters justice). It's years later, and Nathalie and Christophe are married with kids of their own, and one of the kids has manifested an Insightful ability, and the story follows the kid. (Okay, okay, I just really want to keep reading about Christophe and Nathalie, but can you blame me?)

6 out of 5 stars (because they finally got together and I was in a bit of a reading slump before these books)