Review: Dreamfire by Kit Alloway

Dreamfire

Author: Kit Alloway

Series: -

Pages: 368

Publisher: St Martins Griffin

Release date: 24/02/2015

Amazon

Synopsis: (Goodreads)

Joshlyn Weaver has always lived with a big secret. Ordinary kids spend their free time going to the movies, hanging out with friends, and searching on the internet.  

But for her, an evening at home usually means entering people's dreams. For many generations, her family has been part of a very powerful and very secretive society of dream walkers. Tasked with the responsibility of lowering the world's general anxiety — which only leads to war and strife in the waking world — their job has always been to stop nightmares before they go too far.
By stopping nightmares while sleeping, they help to stop nightmares in real life. 

But when an ancient feud within the dream walker society resurfaces right when a seemingly unconnected series of very strange and very scary events start occurring during her dream walks, Josh finds herself in a race against time. The one true dream walker has never been known. Could she be the one?

Review: 3 out of 5 stars

This is a book I selected based on the beautiful cover alone! The concept intrigued me but there were certain aspects in Dreamfire that left me feeling quite confused so I am hoping this becomes a series.

Joshlyn Weaver’s role as a Dreamwalker is to enter people’s dreams and save them from whatever haunts them, a very interesting concept and the first scene really captured my interest. I liked Josh as a character but she did have a tendency to act before thinking and she put unnecessary expectations on herself and would then beat herself up over it – I don’t feel she progressed much as a character throughout the book because of this.

Partnered with Josh as her apprentice was Will Kansas, he was a likeable character but this guy took everything on board way too easily! I wanted a little hesitation or more questions and doubt but he accepted everything as he was told. He adjusted to his new role without any qualms. I did enjoy the friendship he had with Josh, it was sweet before it progressed to anything more. I don’t feel Will was as developed as some of the other characters.

The plot and world-building interested me, I love secret societies and dream walking was a new concept for me - I enjoyed the details about the ancient feud within the dream walker society as well as the bizarre and freaky events that were happening during the dream walks, it gave the book an ominous feel.

My biggest  problem with Dreamfire was the pacing, it  was oh so slow for me, it dragged and dragged and I was at times very bored and when that happens I skim, by about the half way mark it did pick up and things became interesting but it did take a while to get to this point.

I liked the descriptive imagery we have of the Dream world/Veil and how it all came to be, this aspect was done well and I enjoyed the secondary characters despite there being so many of them, I thought the villain was developed very well but I still have a number of unanswered questions so I am hoping there will be a sequel.

Despite my gripes with this book, I felt it was well-written and I did enjoy it overall and I hope with the way it all ended there will be a sequel.

Thank you to Penguin Books Australia for the opportunity to read and review Dreamfire.

About the author: KIT ALLOWAY writes primarily for young adults, having always had an affection for teenagers. In addition to writing, she plays various musical instruments, decorates cakes, mixes essential oils, and studies East European languages. She lives in Louisville, KY with her family and four very tiny dogs. Dreamfire is her debut novel.

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