Reviewed by Stephen K
TITLE: Let Your Heart Smile
AUTHOR: J.B. Buell
PUBLISHER: JMS Books
LENGTH: 15,015 words (approx 71 pages)
RELEASE DATE: July 31st , 2021
BLURB:
Niki Georgiev lives and works in Draganov’s Flying circus as a disabled clown. Each day he paints a smile onto his face, though he hasn’t felt like smiling for some time.
When the circus gets a new act in, flashy stunt bike riders, Niki gets a surprise. His childhood friend Conner Flinn is one of the riders and has returned to the circus a big star.
Niki doesn’t expect Conner to remember him, much less want to spend time with him as he’s just one of the clowns.
But not only does Conner notice Niki, he also asks him to join his act. Will Niki finally have a reason to smile?
REVIEW:
Can one sue an author for failing to signal a stop? This is the engrossing story of Niki Georgiev who’s grown up part of a traveling circus. When the book opens, he’s in the midst of a well-deserved pity party because, while working as a roustabout he was involved in an accident, and ended up losing his left arm. While the circus folk have banded together and support him like family, he’s now working as a clown and is feeling like less than a man due to his disability.
When the star of the circus’s flashy new act turns out to be his scrawny childhood buddy, now grown into a sexy man, and that man is clearly interested in him, Niki’s perspective is suddenly shaken. When that man apparently wants him (and not just as part of his act), things seem to have taken a decidedly upward turn.
However, this novella ends much too quickly. The sympathetic and genuine characters and the circus atmosphere draw us in, everything is starting to get better (and interesting), but “Wham” it’s plottus interuptus. The story ends so abruptly that I swear I hit my head on the closing credits. Even many short stories have longer, more satisfying denouements.
At about 15,500 words I didn’t expect an epic, but I felt like there was so much more I needed to know. Vaudevillians used to say “always leave em wanting more.” but this just ends too quickly. I would have easily rated it a four or more had it continued, but I felt that I needed to deduct at least half a heart for not posting a warning before such a precipitous end.
RATING: 
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