It Happened at the Fair

Title: IT HAPPENED AT THE FAIR

Author: Deeanne Gist

Publisher: Howard Books

April 2013

ISBN: 978-1451692372

Genre: Historical

Gambling everything—including the family farm—Cullen McNamara travels to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair with his most recent invention. But the noise in the fair’s Machinery Hall makes it impossible to communicate with potential buyers. In an act of desperation, he hires Della Wentworth, a teacher of the deaf, to tutor him in the art of lip-reading.

The young teacher is reluctant to participate, and Cullen has trouble keeping his mind on his lessons while intently watching her lips. Like the newly invented Ferris wheel, he is caught in a whirl between his girl back home, his dreams as an inventor, and his unexpected attraction to his new tutor. Can he keep his feet on the ground, or will he be carried away?

IT HAPPENED AT THE FAIR by Deeanne Gist is simply awesome. There aren’t many historical writers who grip my attention enough to make me set aside life for awhile and simply read. I didn’t get much done today, but I read IT HAPPENED AT THE FAIR from start to finish.

I had the Advance Reader Copy to read, and I laughed because apparently the author writes without vowels. Most of the words I figured out easily enough. Some, I never did get. Lllnnn. Or Ddds. I’m sorry. That means what? I hope this is corrected in the finished book.

I totally fell in love with Cullen and with Della and with a little girl named Kitty. I almost cried during a couple scenes in the book, so if you cry easily (I don’t) you will need a box of tissues. IT HAPPENED AT THE FAIR is a book you simply cannot miss. There is plenty of sexual tension in the book. There is also a long note from the author explaining all the liberties she took as an author, and what really happened-or didn’t, as the case may be. Discussion questions and an interview are included at the end of the book.

Don’t miss IT HAPPENED AT THE FAIR. $15.99. 432 pages. 5 stars.