An exceptional, break-out, coming-of-age novel from the talented Betty Trask Award-winning writer, Will Davis

A true life Water for Elephants, Queen of the Air brings the circus world to life through the gorgeously written, true story of renowned trapeze artist and circus performer Leitzel, Queen of the Air, the most famous woman in the world at the turn of the 20th century, and her star-crossed love affair with Alfredo Codona, of the famous Flying Codona Brothers. Like today's Beyonce, Madonna, and Cher, she was known to her vast public by just one name, Leitzel. There may have been some regions on earth where her name was not a household expression, but if so, they were likely on polar ice caps or in the darkest, deepest jungles. Leitzel was born into Dickensian circumstances, and became a princess and then a queen. She was not much bigger than a good size fairy, just four-foot-ten and less than 100 pounds. In the first part of the 20th century, she presided over a sawdust fiefdom of never-ending magic. She was the biggest star ever of the biggest circus ever, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, The Greatest Show on Earth. In her life, Leitzel had many suitors (and three husbands), but only one man ever fully captured her heart. He was the handsome Alfredo Codona, the greatest trapeze flyer that had ever lived, the only one in his time who, night after night, executed the deadliest of all big-top feats, The Triple--three somersaults in midair while traveling at 60 m.p.h. The Triple, the salto mortale, as the Italians called it, took the lives of more daredevils than any other circus stunt.

**How do you trust the ground when all you've known is flight?** Seventeen-year-old Corey Ryder can't remember a time when she wasn't gliding through the air of Cirque Mystique's big top on a trapeze. When tragedy strikes and Corey narrowly escapes from the burning circus tent she once called home, her life is forced to a sudden stand-still. Now back in high school and trying to fit into small town California, Corey faces living life with two feet firmly on the ground. When her friendship with local golden boy Luke Everett starts to grow into something more, Corey must learn to perform the high-wire act of being true to who you really are. The Greatest Showman meets Gilmore Girls in this romantic, bittersweet and beautiful YA coming of age novel.

From the founder of flying-trapeze.com, this book illustrates the fundamental principles, techniques and equipment of Flying Trapeze. With hundreds of clear and simple diagrams illustrating tricks gathered from trapeze schools around the world, this is an invaluable reference guide for the recreational trapeze artist.

Explains how uncertainty can become a catalyst for reinventing one's life, offering a guide that demonstrates how to let go without a safety net and overcome life's transitions to seek new fulfillment, success, and accomplishment.

"Six-year-old Louise Trapeze lives at the circus and can't wait to fly on the trapeze until she discovers that she is afraid of heights"--

Loretta’s mother was a trapeze artist in Europe, the star of the famed Rodzirkus circus, before she walked out on her drunken husband and his debts while on tour in Australia. But a life in 1960s suburban Adelaide was always going to be difficult, even if she does land herself the most handsome young barrister of the town, and Leda’s behaviour raises more than a few eyebrows. Leda’s father, handsome barrister Gilbert Lord, has no interest in his past, but hidden in a wardrobe are the journals of his ivory merchant great-great-grandfather who led an expedition to Australia’s desert interior to search for elephants. For Loretta, growing up in her mother’s flamboyant and often outrageous shadow, life is stifling and at times brutal. But the harder she tries to separate herself from her mother, the more she longs for her attention and love—and the more she finds that the past is inextricably woven into her own life and who she is. The Trapeze Act weaves stories of the circus and the doomed ivory expedition through a novel that is at once a heartbreaking tale of the search for acceptance and a celebration of the lustre and magic of life.