This book was a pleasant surprise! I was not expecting to love it as much as I did and I'm so glad I finally decided to pick it up.

I never continued with Laini Taylor's DOSAB trilogy. The romance was just not for me and I think it took a lot away from the actual story. Unfortunately, this book does something similar. I really love Lazlo as a character. He is such a soft, precious boy. So pure of heart and willing to help anyone and everyone. He is all things good, and loves stories and living in the past. He is the definition of "dreamer" in all ways. I liked seeing how desperate he was to help Weep, and the journey he goes on to realize what actually occurred. But the romance really overtook the whole plot of this book. Everything was fine until about 3/4 of the way, and then we have Lazlo going from "Strange the Dreamer" to "Strange the Kisser." We literally have a whole chapter full of descriptions of him and Sarai kissing. I was not expecting to read a huge, long paragraph on lips, and tbh it made me super uncomfortable. And then they go off on a long date, and it seemed kind of pointless with everything else going on. While I'm definitely invested in the story and seeing what happens next, I am hesitant a little because of this romance. It is very instalovey. This whole book sort of has this underlying layer of love. Everyone seems to want it and I found it to be a bit concerning because I swear not every 15/16/17 year old is as obsessed with kissing or having sex as Ruby and Feral and Sarai (and to some extents Sparrow) were.

What I did enjoy was the story itself. It's so rich and detailed and fascinating and dark and horrific. I loved seeing how Eril-Fane wasn't a perfect hero. He did what was necessary to protect his people, yet couldn't live with himself for the horrible murders he had to commit. I liked seeing his regret and shame through Sarai and Lazlo's perspectives. And I actually enjoyed the little glimpses of his relationship with Azareen that we get to see. I was 100% into their relationship and actually would have liked to see more of that than Lazlo and Sarai. Weep is a beautiful city and seeing it in Lazlo's dreamscape was even better.

Laini Taylor has a wonderful way with words. They really bring the setting and story to life and everything just feels so tangible and real. That being said, a few things did annoy me. There's a lot of words used to describe things that I have legit never heard of before. It was a bit jarring and I actually sometimes had no idea what those words even meant (even with the context) and I was too lazy to bother looking them up. It's an interesting style of writing for sure, but I don't think it affected my reading experience too much.

This comes as no surprise, but Minya literally terrifies me. I'm quite intrigued by her character, but she's so frustrating and I kind of want to strangle her 99.9% of the time. I did like the glimpse we get into her thoughts, but I definitely don't think it excuses her actions. She's controlling and manipulative and abusive. And while I was expecting what happened at the end, it still made me angry anyway lol. I do love it when books make me feel this way though

Overall, 4/5 stars. Picking up Muse of Nightmares next!