The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The circus arrives without warning. 

No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. 

Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique 

experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves,

 and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel

 between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained

 since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors.

 Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left 

standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of

 imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco

 tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights

 flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone

 involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, 

hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

The Night Circus is a dreamy fantasy of a tale of two magicians. Celia, a magician by birth and  Marco, by learning, and they are bound by magic to battle their skills until a winner emerges. Unfortunately, the two end up falling for each other, and as they find out, the challenge cannot be broken, nor was a future between them really possible.

This wonderfully mesmerizing tale slips to and fro between the two time periods. It is necessary to be aware of the dates as you read -I know it has bothered some, but for some reason it didn't bother me in anyway. I loved the characters that made up this book - there were so many of them with their own independent minds and thoughts, so much so that I did feel disappointed that some of them didn't have bigger roles.

This is definitely one of my most favourite reads and I really hope that you will give it a try!