The weekend is almost here! If you follow me on Twitter, you know I have been busy and that has caused me to forgo the posting of Freebie Friday posts. Well, tomorrow is the start of me doing it again. I am finally starting to get ahead in writing my posts. I really need to stay ahead because I am going to BookCon in June with VIP tickets!! I will actually be in NYC for four days so that I am able to take a little short break from the kids and spend some time with my husband. It will be my first time at BookCon and I am beyond excited. Are any of you going? I’d love to meet some fellow bloggers there.
I think next week I will finally begin posting mother and son reviews. That is if I can get my son to sit with me and tell me what he thinks about the books. We are not done reading the Orgo Runners book yet but he has been enjoying it when we sit and read it. He likes to read when we make it fun but if he knows he can play Pokemon on his DS or play his Xbox or Nintendo Switch…he will choose those over a book. We actually implemented a new rule in our house. For every hour he plays a video game, he must read for 20-30 minutes. I’d love to start family reading time again but my younger son does not always want to sit and read. When he is old enough we will do that again, as well as family walks after dinner.
I am so excited to finally be writing this review! I finished the book a while back but it was hard to actually describe how it made me feel. So, I am sitting here trying to think of what to say other than it is amazing and you need to read it.
On to the book review…
Anna Undreaming (The Metiks Fade Trilogy #1)
Author: Thomas Welsh
Published: March 20th, 2018
Publisher: Owl Hollow Press
Book Length: 368 Pages
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Buy the book: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository (Use my referral ID: TheBibliophagist)
Anna is a student surviving the city, and she lives by a simple credo, “Never play their game; their game is always rigged.” For every man she has ever known, it’s a saying that has served her well.
That all changes on the night of “The Big Storm,” when Anna is slipped a date rape drug. Though she saves herself and her best friend, Anna is lost to the dark heart of the city and finds herself hunted by The Night Collectors. Unsure if these monsters are real or hallucinations, Anna nonetheless fights them as best she can. The battle attracts a stranger—Teej—who saves her using powers she cannot understand. He explains that she is an Undreamer and possesses the same powers, and in the future, he will not be the one to save her. She will save him.
But Anna is not yet ready to join Teej and stand against The Dreamers. She has difficult decisions of her own to make. Decisions she has always run from. She still has her partner’s suicide letter. It remains unopened. She still wears his ring, though she can’t seem to remember his face.
Anna learns of The Dreamers – artists so preeminent in their respective fields that they can paint, dance, sew or sing new realities – and as she travels through their creations, she learns that there’s as much beauty in the world as there is horror. With a complex conspiracy at work within the community of Dreamers that threatens to undermine reality itself, Anna will have to look deep within herself, and eventually have to face the horrors of her own past, to save her old world as well as her new one.
Anna Undreaming is a dark urban fantasy, and the first book in the The Metiks Fade trilogy.
The cover of this novel is a beautiful mix of blues and teals, the city lights drawing your attention. It is nice but would not normally draw my attention more than a little bit. What pulled me into this was the description fo the story. But even that can not give you an idea of how amazing this story really is. If you have not read this book please…do yourself a favor and pick it up or request a copy at your library.
This had to have been my favorite aspect of the entire book. Welsh has a talent for describing the world with such vividness that I can picture it as it unfolds before me. I felt as if I was in a new version of The matrix, hoping Anna would find a door out. There was so much information that it could have been easy for the author to dump it on readers all at once. I am thankful they didn’t. I enjoy learning about the world as it unfolds before the characters. To go a step further, there is a Glossary at the end of the book so that readers can understand some unfamiliar words or concepts in the novel. I actually read through it!
There is only one thing I wished was there, a map of the realm, but I understand how difficult that could be to do.
Anna: Anna is strong from the beginning and I really admire her for that. She tries to protect her friends even when they don’t want the help. the development of Anna is another great aspect here…honestly the entire book was great. Anna has no choice but to continue to grow as the story progresses. She is a heroine that I would love to know. Not only is she able to fight, but she is also intelligent as well, able to hold an intellectual conversation and that is what I crave in a friend.
I could talk about Teej and the others but Anna was really what stuck with me throughout the book.
I would do this book an injustice if I did not tell everyone to pick it up and read it. The original idea, great character building, astounding detailed world-building, and the overall writing…it makes this book stand out in a crowd. If you are looking for an action-packed, fast-paced novel that will suck you into the world…this is it. This is the book you want to try. There is so much I want to say but I just don’t know how to put it into coherent words…
Would you read this novel? Buy it or borrow it? If you have read it, what did you think?
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Excellent review!
Thank you!