By a Charm and a Curse by Jaime Questell

🌟🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Synopsis:

Le Grand’s Carnival Fantastic isn’t like other traveling circuses. It’s bound by a charm, held together by a centuries-old curse, that protects its members from ever growing older or getting hurt. Emmaline King is drawn to the circus like a moth to a flame…and unwittingly recruited into its folds by a mysterious teen boy whose kiss is as cold as ice.

Forced to travel through Texas as the new Girl in the Box, Emmaline is completely trapped. Breaking the curse seems like her only chance at freedom, but with no curse, there’s no charm, either—dooming everyone who calls the Carnival Fantastic home. Including the boy she’s afraid she’s falling for.

Everything—including his life—could end with just one kiss.

*Received this ARC through the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

This book had an interesting bit of quirkiness to it. I would expect nothing less from a book that takes place at a carnival with carnies. I loved the history behind the curse and found the different facets of it to be unique and intriguing. It seemed like the book was built around the curse with it being the main focus of the story. It was as if it was it's own character of the story. 
I would have liked to have had more character development within the book. I felt badly for Emma and Sidney but I feel like the author could have gotten me more invested in the characters and the curse that was forced upon them if she had focused more on the emotions and reasons why the curse is so horrible. She did this somewhat but I wanted to know more about the emotional turmoil. I wanted Emma's emotions to leap out and take hold of me as I read. I was able to feel the hardship that the curse was for her to some extent but felt outside of it. 
I also would have liked more story development. I felt that some of the things that took place in the story were things I have seen before which felt like cop outs. There are "bad guys" in the book that I didn't feel needed to be included in the story because the curse was enough of an issue to focus on. I also would have liked for things to have been more difficult for the main characters. Everything fell into place far too easily for my taste. I wanted them to struggle more  so that there was more desperation to break the curse. The ease made the curse seem like no big deal.