This is my second time reading this now, and I liked it more the second go around, I think. Probably because I’ve read the next book too, and the connective tissue is more there than I recalled initially, in my first reading of that middle book.

Boy, I think it’s amazing what a turn around Declan has in this one. I really disliked him going into it, and then things really click into place in a satisfying way. It is certainly an opening salvo of a novel as well. More so than the Raven Cycle, this is plotted as a series. It is less eclectic than that series, therefor. But I don’t mind it. I’m buying what it is selling. But I do wonder if the X factor for a five star read will be the last book - when everything is resolved and coalesces. Whereas the previous cycle I had two five star reads because they feel self contained and specific books I felt were much stronger than others. This could be in a bindup of all three and it might get a fairer rating. I guess we’ll see how I feel with the next ones.

Dream thieves and nightmares and Bride and forgery as a persona and Adam/Ronan and weird visions and government conspiracies. It’s a juicy, darker, yummier… uh, fiction. It doesn’t feel as fluffy and YA. The stakes are larger, though there’s mini heartache along the way, of course. The Factions are set to collide. What will happppeeenn everybody knows but me because the third book has been out long enough that I’m the slow poke!