Sunday 24 February 2013

Book Review - Awakenings

Title: Dream Magic: Awakenings
Author: Dawn Harshaw
Release Date: 2012
ASIN: B0075DZFUU

 Synopsis
Eric, a young boy, has enough of nightmares ruining his dreams. Determined to grow stronger, he tackles magical disciplines one at a time - be it flying, blade magic, or telepathy - and stares down his fears. But, will he survive the battles and the trial of nightmare mastery? And at what cost?



My Review
I received an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 
This is another one I've had for a while, so apologies to the author for keeping you waiting. I had a spare hour and a bit tonight and as this book is only 155 pages long I decided I could read it in one. 
Eric suffers from nightmares and is fed up of them, he then finds himself in 'dream camp' a place where you can go to learn how to fight your demons and learn dream skills. I think the concept behind this is excellent, it would be really fun.
Once there he makes friends with two girls Rose and Lucy and together they spend their time learning skills from flying, teleportation, conjuring fire, water, air etc. Basically magic! They have different 'teachers' to guide them in their skills. 
 I liked the basic innocence of the characters and their willingness to learn, the skills themself sounded cool too. I liked their lesson in flying, not sure I would have the courage to jump!
The only downside to this is that there is a lot of explaining with each new skill, a bit of backstory of how that skill works and has been learnt, I found myself skimming over parts of this just wanting to find out how they do and what use it has to them. I wanted there to be more relevance to them learning the skills, as it got a bit repetitive with each chapter just having them learn something else but never really use it. Towards the end there is a battle with Goblin like creatures where they then use their new found skills so it becomes worth it, but it's a heck of a lot of build up to get there. I don't know maybe I was missing the point a bit. 
I'm not saying I didn't like the book, because I actually did, it was a fun little read and a great idea, it just took me longer to read than I thought it would and was a little slow in places. But the characters charm and chemistry pulled me through - I wanted to know what happened to them in the end which is what kept me going. That's always a good thing if you can get invested in the characters. 
If you're looking for a quick magic read with a sense of charm and a look into a whole new dream world then this book will be perfect for you.
In the end I'm glad I read it. :D

My Rating
          

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