Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

DNF at 25%. It's been over three years since I received this ARC. I gave it a go and have decided it is not for me. It interested me then and no longer does now.

I love the dark romance, almost horror vibe of this book. As an avid romance reader and a baby horror reader (mostly dark fantasy over true horror), this book hit all the right notes for me. I also love the thought of the Sandman as a real person (well, "real" being a bit subjective I guess!) I am a little in love with Sandman, and I'm not gonna lie, a little in love with Nora too!

Dream Keeper had such an interesting synopsis that I was dying (no pun intended) to read it. How interesting to be friends with the Sandman and how terrify to know something or someone is killing people in the dreams. But their friendship has an insidious reasoning. Nora holds the key to the Nightmare Lords freedom, and he is willing to play dirty to get what he wants. Highly recommend.

This book is vividly full of nightmares that will make your skin crawl. I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked this book up, but descriptions that made me truly shudder was not one of them. This book propels readers into a world of dreams, somewhat reminiscent of Freddy Krueger, and just as chilling. While I enjoyed the premise and world building, I struggled to find a true connection with the characters. I was rooting for them for sure, but never truly felt as though I got to know them, which made plot points plod on at times and also built confused feelings surrounding some character choices. However, these slow paced moments coupled well with moments of exciting action. Overall, this was a very well written, young adult adventure that I am sure the targeted demographic will love.

A solid YA novel that was a good purchase for my library. Students have read and enjoyed it, and I purchased it because of this review copy.

While it was technically well-written, I found it confusing and was unable to connect with the characters.

Offering a interesting take on a horror-fantasy trope, Dream Keeper tantalises the reader with a dark take on the Sandman. A deliberately woven novel, that intrigues and keeps anticipation wild, a strong entry for a new series.

Not gonna lie, the cover drew me in before the synopsis even caught my eye.. I liked the idea of a nighttime visitor who you are drawn to and start a relationship with, so the love between Nora and The Sandman was definitely something that had me drawn to the story, because I just had to see what would happen between them. Of course, this isn't just a happy romance story; there is another dream visitor that is far from Nora's friend and threatens her relationship with The Sandman.
When people started dying around Nora, I was 100% on board because I love dark things, so I was hooked! This book is definitely different, dark, and easy to get hooked on with a bit of romance to counterbalance the darkness. I really enjoyed this read and am looking forward to the next installment.

I couldn't wait to start reading this but was disappointed very, very early on.

Although this is a fast paced book, which was great, unfortunately, I was so confused about what was actually happening with the basics like the world building and the magical system - y'know, the bloody basics of the book.

The premise of this book is very different to any that I have read before and I found the book very interesting. I also didn't guess the ending, which is a plus. The story was really well written and I am looking forward to the next book, which I have no idea what's going to happen!

The Sandman is a mythical being that is the master of dreams. Using his sand, he puts people to sleep and rules the world of the night. In Dream Keeper, the sandman is real and in love with a young woman named Nora. Nora holds within her the power to effect the world of the night. She has the power to tip the balances between the Nightmare realm and the Dream realm, which makes her and her loved ones a massive target for The Weaver: the master of the Nightmare realm. She has this because of the Sandman, and he is relying on her not to cave and give in to the Nightmares, because if she does, all will be lost, in the Night world and in the normal human world.
Twisted and waaaaay darker then I was expecting, this book has a hard focus on nightmares and horror movie level monsters and has almost no normal dreams or happy things (which is what I was expecting). Yah, this book is shockingly graphic and scary. It has grewsome self mutilation, multiple self murders through mind control, and a disturbing scene of self murder by pen violently being stabbed through the throat. Which leads me to my biggest complaint. Absolutely horrifying things happen in the real world to the main character (a normal teenage girl) and we are expected to believe she can just handle it and not have a massive mental breakdown. Its so unreasonable I was taken right out of the story. I don't know about you, but if a woman throat stabbed herself in front of me and my best friends killed themselves by ripping out there own eyes right next to me I WOULD LOSE MY CRAP! I'm talking about mental breakdown after mental breakdown, PTSD to the nines, becoming unable to see anything but the horror. Nora just takes it, brushes it off and keeps going. All of those events happen in the real world, those characters are ACTUALLY DEAD, and Nora is worried about if Sandman's affections are genuine. It was by far the worst part of the book. Otherwise it was a pretty okay book, and I give it the rating of THREE AND A HALF STAR OUT OF FIVE!!!

*I received a copy in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley*
Ever wondered what Freddy Krueger might feel? Or if someone would love him?
Well, in Dream Keeper, we get to know what I would call his "cute little brother", the Sandman, who to my surprise, isn't evil at all.
It actually was a cool idea to begin with, and I really felt bad for Nora, especially as the book evolves, but sadly there was loads left unexplored. I really hope the next one gets better!

I found this book less than thrilling. I was 50% through before i even cottoned on to who was who. The constant use of I when switching through characters drives me mad. There was not enough explication of the fantasy world or the people within it. I feel like this is yet another young adult book where action overpowers narrative. I dislike it so much it will probably get optioned for film rights and make loads of money. I won't be reading the rest of the series

The premise of this book intrigued me. I’m a sucker for old legends and lesser known stories reimagined, so this held promise. And while I enjoyed certain themes throughout it, I sadly ended up DNF’ing around halfway through, after finding myself skim reading chapters.

The writing didn’t quite pack the punches the story needed for me and I found it dragging in places. I may return to this one again in the future.

My thanks to NetGalley and The Parliament House for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was so excited to read it, because the premise sounded absolutely amazing, and I thought I would really love this book, but turns out I was pretty disappointed with its outcome, and had a lot of problems not only with the characters but with the plot itself.

One of the main problems I had with Dream Keeper was that there was hardly any information or explanation neither about the magic system nor about the world building, and keeping in mind that those two were two of the main focuses of the story, it only made the story much more confusing, and that made the reader ask themselves a lot of questions that were left unanswered. It felt as if we were thrown into this magical world/story and were expected to know everything that was going on.

The characters were a bit choppy and not flashed out. The interactions between them throughout the story felt super forced and awkward, and at times their conversations could have been edited out, because it seemed like they didn’t add anything to the story and were only there to add more words to the book.

The romance was another thing that I wasn’t the biggest fan of. It was too rushed and shoved in your face, and I couldn’t see any chemistry between the two characters.

It’s true that Dream Keeper was very easy to read and super fast paced, and there were certain parts that kept me interesting to see what was going to happen next, but overall that didn’t redeem the rest of the book, sadly.

This book seemed to drag on and on. I could not get into it at all. Everything seemed like i had read it before and after almost a month of forcing myself to read i finally gave up around the 50% mark.

This book was a hauntingly beautiful beginning to something wonderful! I loved everything about this book and can't wait to get more from this author. Straight to the top of my favorites list. Thank you Netgalley for the free earc in exchange for an honest review.

When I saw Dream Keeper on Netgalley, I just knew I had to have it.

A retelling of the Sandman, the weaver of nightmares, and a young girl caught up in the middle of it all? Sold. A YA story or romance, fantasy and magic? Sold.

A Lord of Nightmares, and a Lord of Dreams.

A Night World, and a Day World.

It ALL just promised to be SO. AMAZING.

I mean I just…loved it…

With the description above basically giving away the ENTIRE book, I realize that it would be vastly unnecessary for me to give my own synopsis. So, let’s just jump right in, shall we? I have a feeling this review if going to be short and sweet.

Well…short and sour.

This book had a TON of promise, but really fell flat for me. The reason for that MAY be because it feels like it targets a younger audience, Pre-Teen/Teen, by the characters coming across as childlike and adolescent rather than somewhat mature. The author chose to use phrases like “sorry, not sorry” in one instance, and then words like perturbed and grotesque in the next. Though the writing is VERY descriptive and paints a beautiful picture of the dream and nightmare world, I felt like I was caught in a wind tunnel of conflicting writing styles. At one point it feels eloquent and mature, and the next it is simplistic and feels cheesy. I almost felt like I was reading a soap-opera at times.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a strong connection to Nora and the Sandman, especially when it came to their romance. When the reader starts this book, they are thrust right in the middle of the story. There isn’t much of a premise, so it eventually “backpedals” you through past events to catch you up. Sometimes this works in stories, but in this case, it was just confusing. Due to the quick start, and even quicker romance, it doesn’t give the reader adequate time to connect to Nora and the Sandman. The Sandman ended up sounding like a brooding teenager even though he’s supposed to be decades old, and Nora didn’t seem to have much of an emotional response to the murders around her…which is strange. Shouldn’t she be freaking the f**k out? I would be! So instead of exciting and fresh, these characters came off as quite dull and unimpressive.

The flow of the writing and the structure of this story also left me a little unsettled. With the beginning starting from nowhere and being rushed, it made me think that this series was going to be PACKED with exciting moments. I mean, it would have to be for this to be a trilogy and start that way, right?! Well, yes and no. I wasn’t bored while reading, but I DID feel like there wasn’t a lot of meaningful and necessary moments happening. Things felt a little out of order, or rushed in spots and slow in others. My editing brain kept wanting to rearrange different paragraphs and sentences, so it was a bit hard to get through.

Another confusing aspect was that a bunch of REALLY important characters didn’t come into this story until the end. By the time I got to these new characters, I was already checked-out of the story and skimming the lines. Maybe if they were introduced earlier, it would have kept my attention and interest more. I thought the character of Baku was very creative, so I wish he would have had a bigger role and made a stronger connection with Nora or the Sandman. It could have been a memorable and amusing duo for the reader to get hooked on.

This really came off more negative than I was anticipating, which is unfortunate. This story had a lot of great ideas and moments, but I think some final editing could have really improved it. Though I am slightly curious to see if the writing and characters improve in book two, I probably won’t be picking up the next copy. With the characters and flow of writing falling short, Dream Keeper turned out to be a real dud for me. This is of course, is just my opinion. A lot of other readers really enjoyed this story, so don’t use my words as law. Even though you could. 😉

Dream Keeper by Amber R. Duell was kindly provided by publisher via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. So I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Dream Keeper was my first book by Amber R. Duell. I must say, she delivered an amazing dark YA fantasy romance that partly takes place in a real world, and in dream and nightmare realms with gruesome murders, scary nightmare creatures and a cute romance.

This unique story griped me from the very beginning and didn't let me go till the last page. The book was thrilling, dangerous, dark but beautiful and imaginative at the same time.

Dream Keeper was written in dual POV - told from Sandman's and Nora's sides, both of them were interesting and strong characters, also the villain of this story was intriguing. I enjoyed every aspect of this book - the plot, the writing, the world and characters. A great beginning to a new and exciting YA fantasy - The Dark Dreamer Trilogy, to which I'm giving 4.5 stars. I can't wait to read the next book.