Joshlyn Weaver has a list, and she’s going to check off every item or die trying. She needs to save Haley from the Death universe, hunt down her scheming grandfather, and force Feodor to return the souls he stole. Will would help her—if she’d let him. But since healing the broken bonds between them isn’t on her list, he’ll have to prepare to meet Peregrine on his own, and his investigation leads him to the dream-walker community’s strangest corners. When the Veil separating the Dream from the World begins breaking down, Josh and Will have to come together to stop Peregrine from destroying the balance between the three universes—and they’ll need Feodor’s help, which always comes with a price. With the three universes collapsing into one another, Josh must decide who she is and who she can trust in time to save the World, herself, and everyone she loves.
I received a copy of this book on NetGalley for an honest review.
I have to say, I thoroughly enjoy this book. Although I had not read the first two novels, it was actually pretty easy for me to keep up with things that had happened as there were details about things that made it all fall into place. I loved the plot, the whole idea that there are three planes that are kept separate was fantastic. All the way through the book I was constantly trying to guess what was coming next, and I always ended up being a little surprised by what did happen. The writing is also of a good standard and quality, I found it easy to read and follow and was not turning back pages with a frown on my face trying to work out what was going on.
This was one of the books that I started and was unable to put down until I had finished. I loved it and would recommend it.
This was by far, one of the longest trilogy I have read in a very long time. It’s not that the books were long but they felt very in depth as in each page felt as if was loaded with a lot of information and a lot of text. On my average, I’ll take around 2-3 days to finish a book but these pretty much took me a week at the minimum for each book so it completely ruined my reading schedule (sorry Emily! LOL). However, I still trudged on because I did find this series fascinating and certainly unique. I’ve read another series about dream walkers (not them specifically but people in the series had this unique ability), Diviner series, so it was interesting to see another take on this.
In this series, apparently dream walking was a whole society. It didn’t take any sort of special skills as long as you were born into a family who dream walked and apparently there were a lot of people who dream walked. So rather than it being some sort of unique ability, it was quite easy to simply train someone to become a dream walker (i.e. Josh’s apprentice who was a random kid from school originally). That being said, dream walking was still dangerous and you really had to train hard to become good at it because unlike the dreamers whose subconscious is in the dreams, the dream walkers body/soul is also there as well so any injuries incurred in the dream scape would also be in real life. This mean that someone can die while dream walking. Anyways, that’s the short origin for the story which I think is vital to understand before I really delve into the characters/plot.
Josh, the main character, is actually a female so don’t be confused because I was at first. She was super anal about a lot of things but that’s because she knew the dangers involved with dream walking. So she was very strict with her apprentice, Will. In general, I liked her as a character because I found her to be really confident, smart, and great with pressure and stress. Also, she had a good foundation with her friends and family. However, that completely flew out the window during the second book where I then found her to be…I don’t want to say, untrustworthy, but she could no longer rely on her friends. She took everything upon herself with the whole Feodor incident and became rather sneaky in trying to become stronger and more powerful. And then that led to a whole lot of problems. Thankfully, she got a reality check so by the third book, she was more normal again. I did enjoy reading about her struggles and her change from someone who tried to rely on herself (aka in book two) versus someone who learned to rely more on her friends/family and as a collective whole, make a decision. She definitely grew more wise and mature by the end of the series.
The other characters all played a major role in the plot development – Will, Deloise, Whim, Ian, Haley, Winsor and even Feodor. I think without the lot of them or if even one of them was missing, this book would not have been the same. They all matured and changed a lot throughout the series and that was most evident with Will, Haley and Feodor. Right from the beginning, I liked Will – he seemed like the average Joe but was considerate, charming and an overall great guy. So when this incident occurred and he freaked, it was kind of understandable. He was thrust into a life that he didn’t expect and he was trying to deal with it the best that he could. And by the last book, he matured a lot and realized what was actually important to him. Haley was the weirdo of the group. He was the quiet one and usually didn’t have too much of an input. Honestly, he was the one who trailed after his twin’s shadow but I think he grew up a lot and became more comfortable with himself and that really showed. The biggest surprise was definitely Feodor. I did not expect the ending to play out the way that it did with him. I 100% expected him to go back to where he belonged but that did not happen at all. But he also changed a ton so it was kind of understandable why Josh made her decision the way that she did. Not that many people would have the same level of compassion like her.
The plot was very interesting – there were a lot of ups and downs scattered throughout the books. A lot of action occurred too specifically in the first and the last book. I felt that the second book was really just a connector between the other books. I mean, without it, it wouldn’t have worked out but it didn’t do much in terms of plot building. It was really more for character development.
Overall, I did enjoy the series. It just took me a shit ton of time to finish it. However, if you enjoy books that are on the realistic fantasy side with some scattered magical things occurring, then these books would be for you.
I received an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review. After falling in love with Alloway’s Dreamfire novel two years ago, I never imagined receiving an advanced copy from Kit herself. Though I was over the moon, this has in no way influenced my review of the book.
Dream Forever picks up shortly after where Dreamfever left off. Refusing to deal with her broken heart, Josh turns to Feodor. The two are nearly inseparable, especially since Peregrine’s sudden disappearance. But when mysterious tears begin popping up, Josh and Feodor must come to the conclusion that the evil they face will require a much larger team. Meanwhile, trapped in Death, Haley struggles to come to terms with his deceased, yet stubborn brother. With the World, the Dream, Death threatening to converge as one, Josh and her friends must unite to prevent an apocalypse.
Once again, I was completely blown away by Alloway's writing and characters. I absolutely love her storytelling skills. The emotions she evokes in her writing is genuine and heartbreaking at times. Nevertheless, enjoyable and engaging all the same. There is never a dull moment. Despite most of the action taking place at the end, plot twists are equally as engaging and shocking.
From start to finish, Josh has evolved into a powerful young woman. Despite everything that was thrown at her, she always had the courage to stand back up to approach the situation from another angle. I admire her character, especially everything she has been through. Of all of the characters, Josh has changed the most. Like all heroes, Josh discovered that she cannot be victorious without some help.
I enjoyed the trio of perspectives. Stating the obvious, it gives the reader a better understanding of the characters and the thoughts/ideas inside their heads. Besides, it was very beneficial when one character acted in secrecy.
As the final book of the series, I was satisfied with the results. I am eternally grateful for the conclusion. I don't think my heart could've taken it otherwise. Overall, I absolutely love this series. The plot is unique and unlike any other young adult novels, I have read. The characters never cease to surprise me, no matter how well I think I know them. Kit's writing takes you on a mystical adventure that takes your breath away.
I really liked the way that Kit Alloway wrote this book. This book kept me on my toes just like the first two. This is probably my favorite out of the three because I liked how Kit was able to keep me engaged with the storyline. This book has a lot of turns I did not expect, which is one of the reasons why I liked it. I would recommend this book to someone who like twists and mysteries. This book, I would say, is realistitic fiction, because it might hapen, but I really doubt it would. This book talks about one of the main characters, Josh, reaching her full potential as a dream walker. She is someone that second guesses herself alot, but in the end she made it all right. Her family and friends, which some of them are also main characters, all had their own adventures waiting for them. Luckily, they all made it out ok with just a few scratches. Their adventures through and out of the dream world are very interesting to read about. I really enjoyed reading this whole book, and finding out what would happen to the world.
This is the third and final story in the Dream Walker series.
I won an uncorrected proof advanced reading copy of this book during a Goodreads giveaway. I am under no obligation to leave a review or rating and do so voluntarily. So that others may also enjoy this book, I am donating it to a senior assisted living facility.
Really satisfying ending to an awesome series. It was a little quick at times, and sometimes I didn't quite understand why certain things were happening.
But anyways, I wish this series was more popular than it is...I want to see fanart!! I really love the characters and I would love to see how others picture them.
Man, I missed these books and characters and the world. It had been a while since I read Dream Fever, so I was missing a lot of the callbacks, but the writing was lovely. The relationships were nuanced and wonderful. The author handles mental health in such a good, normalized way, and I love how she weaves very real, relatable themes into this very fantastic world.
I am so loving a happy ending. Through all the trials and tribulations this book put you through it was all worth it. A great book and series. The dynamics of the core group was terrific. Kit wrote a awesome book and series.
Quick & Dirty: A heartwarming conclusion to this trilogy that makes you think about friendship, life, death and dreams.
Opening Sentence: A corpse lay slumped on the floor in the center of the coffee shop, right in front of the holiday mug display.
The Review:
The final book in the Dreamwalker trilogy wonderfully wraps up this series that will make you think about life, death and the soul in a new light. You absolutely must read the previous two books in this series whether through the duology paperback Dreamworld or through the ebooks Dreamfire and Dreamfever in order to fully understand what the characters of this novel are going through to see their ending. I was a little worried about how this book would end but I was wonderfully surprised by how everything was pulled off.
Joshlyn has gone through a lot in the last two books. As the True Dream Walker, she has dealt with a lot of emotional issues that this title has given her. Josh doesn’t believe that she is the true dream walker but she has been trying to work on her dream walker powers. She has built up an unlikely truce with Feodor in order to help get Haley back from Death and to fight her completely deranged grandfather. In the meantime, Josh and Will decide to try again at their relationship and work harder to keep it together.
Josh’s grandfather hasn’t been seen since the events of the last novel. Josh and her friends and family have all been working separately in order to try and figure out how to make sure the dream world, Death and the waking world do not bleed together. But before too long, the bleed begins to happen and the world starts to get torn apart. The battle ahead is long, arduous and full of twists and turns.
The last novel left most of the main characters broken and this one sees them slowly try to piece themselves back together. I was happy to see that Josh and Will tried to talk out their issues instead of just running screaming from the room. I was hoping for a little bit more with Mirren while I was completely happy about the transformation of Haley throughout the entire series.
Dream Forever was a dark novel. There are many dark issues and even some graphic type dreams. I honestly didn’t have an issue with any of this but since this is a young adult novel I figured I would include this information. In the midst of all that darkness, I did feel a bit uplifted at the end of the novel.
Overall, this series was an interesting one for me to read. I really liked the idea of walking in dreams to help save the dreamers from terrible dreams but also from potentially unbalancing the world from the dreams bleeding over. I highly recommend this series for readers who like paranormal type stories.
Notable Scene:
“You think I’m a monster,” she said, and her voice was tight.
“No, I don’t,” Will told her. He took her hand, trying to distract her from the freak in front of them, but she tugged it away. “I’m just afraid that you’re losing who you are because of him.”
“But this isn’t who I am.” Josh lifted Feodor’s cape and used it to cover his half of the face, leaving only hers visible. “This doesn’t even look like me.”
The disparity was even more obvious now that she and Will’s dream version of her were side by side. The real Josh was wiry and hard, muscles constantly coiled in readiness, pale from too many house spent in the Dream, her eyes perpetually narrowed. The dream-Josh was beautiful—relaxed, enthusiastic, comfortable in her own skin.
“That’s how I see you,” Will said. “When you’re at your best, that’s how I see you.”
FTC Advisory: St. Martin’s Griffin/Macmillan provided me with a copy of Dream Forever. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
Note: I received an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
Dream Forever by Kit Alloway is the final novel in The Dream Walker Trilogy. It is a young adult novel that consists of genres including fantasy, romance and science fiction. I’m so sad that this trilogy is finally over, but this book was amazing! There was so much to love about this novel and this series!
Just like in Dreamfever, humour was used to lighten the mood. I really liked Whim’s jokes and comments, as it provided a different perspective on the situation – for example, while everyone was freaking out, Whim would make a funny comment, which demonstrated that he saw things in a light-hearted manner. I just love how humour was used – it contrasted really well with the tension or drama that was going on.
There were various plot twists in the novel, which kept me hooked on what was going to happen next – just when I thought I knew what was going to happen, there was a plot twist that totally threw me off (in a good way). Furthermore, there were no plot holes, as the conclusion and epilogue explained what happened to the characters. I thought that it was a really good ending to a great series.
My favourite character is still Josh, as she was responsible, loyal, badass and clever. I loved her development through the book – feeling unsure of herself before Will convinced her of how much he loves her. Haley is a notable character, as he also developed significantly in this book.
4.5 stars. Seriously, why isn't this series more popular? It deserves it.
From the world-building to the characters to the plot, Alloway expertly handles them all. The Dreamwalker world is intricately created and explained, fun to learn about and fun to be a part of. The characters are all realistic, dealing with both the fantastical problems of the world and their own inner and psychological turmoils. All the relationships in the story are so good! Whether romantic, familial, friendship, or that of enemies, they were all well-developed and dynamic. The whole series has had a good plot and story to it. There's never just a straightfoward storyline, but plenty of twists and turns to keep you on your toes.
Overall, love the story and the characters, and I'm sad to see it end.