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A Dream Within A Dream is a 2019 fantasy young adult
novel by Kristina Mahr. It was published by Uncommon Universes Press. It is the
second and final book in the Dreamworld duology. The first book is
titled All That We See or Seem. I read the first book in the series a
while ago, but I haven’t written a review because I read it back before I
started this blog. Perhaps I should’ve reread the first book in the duology
before reading this one, but I remembered enough of the details to be able to
follow and understand the story. The novel can be purchase here
The series follows a girl named Reeve who lives in a kingdom
called Acarsaid. She travels to another world, Tenebris, when she sleeps due to
a magical breach in the spell connecting the two worlds. In the first book,
Reeve travels to Tenebris and falls in love with a boy named Bran who lives
there, but at the end, a wizard in her kingdom closes the breach so that
nefarious forces from Tenebris can’t enter Acarsaid. In A Dream Within A
Dream, Reeve is still able to travel there in her sleep, but she’s
invisible to everyone, including Bran. She tries to find a way to reopen the
breach so that she can be with Bran, as a war between the two kingdoms looms in
the distance.
The three most important characters in this novel are Reeve,
the narrator and main character, Arden, Reeve’s fiancé who she’s set to marry
within the novel’s time frame, and Bran, the Tenebris soldier who she’s fallen
in love with and desperate to be reunited with. There are other characters that
play a significant role, such as Carrick, the king of Acarsaid and Reeve’s
uncle, Thrall, the court wizard, and Rancore, the villain of the series and an
evil wizard, but there’s not much I can say about them withour spoiling the end
of the series. Of the three most important characters, my favorite was Arden
since he was written with the most personality. He was complex, sometimes
putting forth a façade of indifference , while at others showing how deeply he
truly cares. Additionally, I found the dreams and goals he expresses to be the
most understandable and relatable. Trapped within the confines of his own
social class, all he wants is to see the world. Of all of the characters, his
desires are the most concrete and specific. I had trouble relating to Reeve,
which is unfortunate because in the previous book, I was able to connect with
her a little better. I know that I don’t necessarily need to like a main
character to enjoy a book, but I actually found myself rooting against her in
certain parts. Some of her actions didn’t make sense to me and I found myself
getting annoyed at her hopelessly romantic attitude. Unlike Arden, who had a
set goal he wants to fulfill, Reeve seemed to be of the mindset that if she can
make herself visible to Bran and reunite with him, all of her problems would be
solved. It seemed a little too simplistic. Bran is kind of a non-entity to me.
I can’t remember if I felt this way about him in the previous book, but nothing
about him stood out to me in this novel. He felt like a very cookie-cutter YA
love interest, and I found myself not being too invested in their relationship.
One thing that I enjoyed about this novel is that it wraps
all of the plotlines up. The magical barrier separating Tenebris and Acarsaid
is taken care of. The antagonist is defeated. The Arden-Reeve-Bran love triangle
is resolved. I know that may sound silly that I’m happy the last book in a
duology wraps up the story, but I’ve read a number of duologies that turned
into trilogies that then became longer series and, more often than not, the
series as a whole suffers. Everything is wrapped up in a nice little bow and
there’s no need for a third book. I also enjoyed the world of Tenebris, the
so-called dreamworld. The kingdom is dark, and depressing and there were
elements of it that I genuinely found fascinating, but they weren’t explored
enough in my mind. The sorcery keeping the two worlds separate and the rules of
how magic works in each world took a backseat to the romance aspect of the
story and that decreased my enjoyment. The cover art is also incredibly beautiful
and I like the mirrored world aspects of
it. A Dream Within A Dream has potential to be a more interesting story,
but it wasn’t taken advantage of.
While there were elements of the story that I enjoyed, this
book was a miss for me. Kristina Mahr’s
writing style wasn’t really to my taste. Sometimes the language got a little
too flowery. At points, I felt like she was repeating words to make a point
that the reader had already gotten. There were a few parts where I read a
sentence or a paragraph and it felt like they were intended to sound deep or
thought-provoking, but it didn’t really work. The pacing was also a little
weird. The majority of the pages are spent with Reeve thinking about how much
she wants to be with Bran or considering whether she should move on and marry
Arden. The dreamworld, which should be the focus of the series, took a backseat
to the relationship stuff. In fact, so much of the plot is driven by the
romance aspects that the ending feels completely rushed. The better part of two
books are spent building up Rancore as this massive threat who wants revenge
and will destroy anything and everything in his way. It’s disappointing then
when he only appears a handful of times in the entirety of the second book and
is defeated incredibly easily. The battle between good and evil could’ve been a
very interesting and high-stakes fight, where the tides keep turning. The good
guys are winning at first, but then Rancore turns the tables of them and it
starts to look like they might not triumph, making the victory sweeter. The
ending could’ve been a great magical fight but instead, its more of a one-punch
knockout. All in all, it didn’t quite live up to me expectations.
A Dream Within A Dream is a slightly below average
book. I wasn’t a big fan of the writing style, finding it a little distracting
at points. Some parts of the plot weren’t given enough attention or depth while
others dragged on a bit too much. Overall, my disappointment stems from the
fact that it’s miscategorized in my opinion. It’s categorized as fantasy and
the blurb makes it seem like a fantasy novel with some romance thrown in, but
it’s actually a romance with some bits of fantasy thrown in. It’s a quick read
and a pretty easy story to follow though.
Rating: 2.6 stars
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