Rachel Langella is a new-to-me author, and I picked up Airs Above the Ground, her second entry in the Carnival of Mysteries series, because the premise intrugued me. It’s the story of someone who has lived much of his life in the Carnival and performs there as part of a family trapeze act, and who decides that it’s time for him to experience what life has to offer on the outside. There’s a slow-burn romance with an intriguing suspense plot simmering along in the backgtround, and the descriptions of the amazing feats of agility and strength performed by the aerialists in the story are vivid and detailed.

Mario Gallier has been with the Carnival ever since his family fled persecution on their home world and took refuge with Errante Ame. In Earth years, he’s about one hundred and twenty, but as those who live and work at the Carnival don’t age, he looks about fifteen. When his brother Paul takes him to see the Circo Del Artes (in Las Vegas), Mario is captivated by the utterly thrilling performance on the aerial straps, and when Paul suggests that they could incorporate the straps into their routine, he’s completely on board with the idea. He’s excited when Paul tells him their ticket includes getting to meet the starts of the show, and when he gets to meet straps artists Derek and Ilya, Mario is instantly drawn to the dark, intensely charismatic Ilya, who is kind and encouraging about his ambitions to perform on the straps – but who talks to Mario as though he’s a kid. Which really bugs him.

Mario doesn’t quite recognise the feelings Ilya had evoked in him, but meeting him makes Mario realise that it’s time for him to grow up. The omniscient carnival owner Errante lifts the magic that has stopped Mario from physically ageing, and tells him to trust that his Path will lead him to where he needs to be. Mario doesn’t know what that means – but after over a century with the Carnival, he’s not surprised by Errante’s cryptic pronouncements.

Six years later, Paul tells Mario that they have returned to the same world where they saw the Circo Del Artes, and Mario (now aged twenty-two) heads out to see if it’s still around. He’s disappointed to see that Ilya Mostov is no longer listed among the performers, but an internet search shows that Ilya now works at Circo as a coach – and turns up an announcement that they’re auditioning for new acts.

Ilya Mostov retired from performing on the straps when his husband Derek died from brain cancer two years earlier. After losing the man who had been the other half of his life, Ilya lost the desire to perform and now focuses on coaching and training, and is working on the Circo’s new show, Capriccio, which is due to premiere in six months. He’s on the panel auditioning potential new performers, hoping to find someone strong enough to cope with the physical demands of the straps and agile enough to be able to handle his intricate choreography. A few auditions in, Ilya sits up and takes notice when a young man named Mario Gallier flawlessly performs a very exacting routine on the rings, and Ilya knows, right away, that he’s found what he’s looking for.

Mario is a little disappointed that Ilya no longer performs, but is happy to be partnered with Patrick, an experienced silks artist, who, while not quite as able as Mario – who is able to do everything Ilya demands and more without any problems – is prepared to work hard to be the best partner he can be. I really liked this part of the story; the friendship between Mario and Patrick is well-done, and the practice scenes really come to life as the author describes the various exercises and manoeuvres undertaken by the two men in their practice sessions. Mario’s crush on Ilya hasn’t gone away and he longs for Ilya to see him as a man rather than as a performer, but learning that Ilya and Derek had been married (which he hadn’t known before) comes as a bit of a shock – and he realises that Ilya must still be in mourning and that he never really had a chance with him.

But everything changes suddenly when Patrick has an accident during practice. The show is weeks away from opening, and there’s no way Ilya is going to be able to find someone to replace him at this stage. If the straps act in Capriccio is to go ahead, he’ll have to partner Mario himself. As the days pass and the practice sessions become more detailed and intense, so Ilya rediscovers his love of ‘flying’, realising that by giving it up, he’s denied himself the one thing that could have helped him to heal. And at the same time, he and Mario are getting to know each other better off stage as well as on; somehow, as performers, they just clicked from their very first practice sessions, and they’re discovering that their affinity for one another is as strong personally as it is professionally. Ilya has to admit, at last, that no matter how hard he’s tried to distance himself, he’s falling hard for Mario.

As the rehearsals continue and Mario and Ilya become closer, Mario makes friends among the troupe, making the surprising discovery that a number of the other performers and crew of Circo also come from the Carnival of Mysteries and are supernatural beings, like him. Things are going well and Mario is enjoying life – until a number of unexplained disappearances and accidents with stage equipment point to there being something sinister happening at the Circo Del Artes.

Airs Above the Ground is an entertaining mix of paranormal romance and mystery that keeps the central couple at the forefront of the action. The first part of the novel concentrates on setting the scene and developing the characters and their relationships – and the tension really ramps up in the second as Mario and his friends realise they’re being targeted, building to a high-stakes finale when all is revealed. I admit that the identity of the person behind the attacks is fairly easy to work out, but that’s not the whole story so I remained invested in finding out exactly who and why-dunnit.

The romance between Mario and Ilya is very much a slow-burn, with Mario trying to settle for the friendship he thinks is all he can have of Ilya while Ilya is working hard to suppress and deny his attraction to Mario. There are some lovely scenes between them while they’re working on their routine that engender a real sense of intimacy and longing, and I appreciated how honest they are with each other and how well they communicate.

This is perhaps an odd thing to say, but the thing I struggled with is something I actually liked about the story. The aerobatics are superbly described and it’s clear the author has done their research and carefully choreographed those sequences – but sometimes they were too much; there’s a lot of minute detail and I admit that I occasionally glazed over a bit and skimmed to the next bit of action or dialogue. But maybe that’s a ‘me’ thing; on the whole those parts are very well done, and some are used beautifully to show the growing trust and intimacy between the two leads.

Airs Above the Ground is an entertaining paranormal romance featuring engaging protagonists, an incredibly well-realised setting and an intriguing mystery. It’s one of the strongest entries I’ve read in the Carnival of Mysteries series, and I’m happy to recommend it.