Jennet and the Manticore (Cirque Exotique #1)

Jennet knew it wasn't safe, hiding in a wild animal cage when she ran away to the circus. It wasn't safe to stay on the farm either. But this circus didn't have just wild animals in its menagerie. It had monsters. Creatures out of mythology, half nature, half magic--even though magic itself has almost vanished, leaving behind only these monstrous remnants. And Jennet had crawled into the cage of the manticore.
With the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and the face of a man, the fierce creature was intrigued enough by the puny human's daring in crawling into its cage that it decided not to kill her. Yet. And when Jennet's presence inside the manticore's iron-barred cage was discovered, the circus took her in.
They protected her from those who would have dragged her back to her servitude. They gave her a new home and a new family-- Marya the acrobat, Pip the clown, Casimir the Beastmaster, Joe Green the fortune-teller, Baltazar the manticore and the other exotics. They gave her an act. They gave her courage. They gave her love. They gave her magic…