“The Grand Circus of Colors: The Stepsiblings’ Escape”

The Grand Circus of Colors: The Stepsiblings’ Escape is a novella of 23,400 words, a prequel to the larger tale of the Grand Circus of Colors. This historical fantasy centers on a young adult forbidden romance between the almost step‑siblings Charlotte and Alexandre, blending magical realism with the mysterious flavor of the circus. Set in a post-Great War French town where ghostly echoes linger in the mist and a mysterious circus holds ancient secrets, the story weaves themes of grief, societal expectation, and the rebellious, undeniable spark of first love.

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In the grey, grieving aftermath of war and Spanish flu in Saint-Lazare-sur-Somme, sixteen-year-old Alexandre mixes his sorrow into pigments in his father’s painting shop. Fifteen-year-old Charlotte finds her only warmth in the scent of bread from the bakery beside her apartment. A brush of hands over a jar of azurite sparks an immediate, electric connection. Their secret walks through the mist—past wounded soldiers whose ghosts linger in the fog—become fragile islands of stolen joy.

That joy is upended when their widowed parents announce plans to marry, binding Alexandre and Charlotte as future step-siblings. Overnight, affection becomes a transgression. Forced into closeness while sorting through the painting shop, they uncover a youthful sketch of the town’s enigmatic, melancholy clown, Pierrot Triste, whose portrait now watches them with an inner knowing. Seeking escape, they find refuge in Madame Éloise’s toy shop, where the sudden, laughing jolt of a Jack-in-the-box startles them into their first shared, happy secret.

But their bond refuses to be confined. Hidden kisses in the workshop, desperate cuddles on the old sofa—their secret becomes a thrilling, terrifying choreography. Pierrot Triste watches with mournful eyes, warning that hiding only sharpens desire. When a hidden sketch is discovered, their parents’ wrath shatters the fragile new family, imposing suffocating rules.

Now, cornered by expectation and their own undeniable hearts, Alexandre and Charlotte face an impossible choice.

Can they survive the suffocating weight of their families’ grief and rules?

Will the mysterious circus that has always watched them offer an escape, or will claiming their love mean losing everything they know?

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This novella explores the collision of duty and desire, where love blooms in the cracks of grief. Sensory detail—bread’s warmth, linseed oil’s tang, river mist’s chill—renders the world as vivid as the characters’ yearning. It examines how young people inherit the burdens of their parents’ choices, yet carve out defiance through tenderness.

Balancing the electric chemistry of first love with the gothic atmosphere of a post-war town, The Scent of Impossible Things becomes a meditation on joy’s cost and the courage required to claim it. It is a story of forbidden love, resilience, and the haunting allure of a circus that promises escape, even as the world demands conformity.

Read Online:

• The Grand Circus Of Colors: The Stepsiblings’ Escape. Part 1

• The Grand Circus Of Colors: The Stepsiblings’ Escape. Part 2.