I enjoyed curling up to this book! I was happy to be able to get an advanced copy! To be frank I was not sure if I would like the novel due to not reading much LGBT genre books but OMG ! This novel was fantastic and wasn’t overly revolving around him coming out! I loved the fantasy aspect with this novel and can not wait to read more of Ryan’s work!!

I loved this book so much I legitimately hugged my iPad when I finished reading it. I laughed out loud, I cried, and I was completely invested in the world of Reverie.

I am not a huge fantasy reader, I have a difficult time finding fantasy books that I enjoy that aren't problematic. This book made me want to keep looking for more fantasy to read because I just NEED more books that make me feel the way Reverie did.

I was drawn in by this promise of "Inception, meets The Magicians, meets drag queens." A fantasy novel with drag queens?? A YA novel with drag queens where they don't solely exist to give an insecure straight girl confidence? I was all in.. This book did not disappoint me, I haven't stopped thinking about it since I first picked it up.

I was so so happy to read an LBGTQ+ book where the Kane's (our main character) story line didn't revolve around him coming out (I know it's important, I've just read the same plot so many times), but rather his sexual orientation just being part of him and his life but not being the only dimension of him. At the same time, the undertones of escapism, embracing your power, and facing your own toxicity were really powerful to me and are things that many of us have to face eventually, I think Ryan La Sala beautifully portrayed all of this in Reverie.

My only gripe with this book is I wanted to see similar growth with Kane's friends and more about their back stories, but this only leaves me with a hope for a sequel.

Kane has just woken up from a coma following a car crash that resulted in the destruction of a historic mill. The police want to know what happened, but Kane has no recollection of the accident, nor the previous six months of his life. After struggling with how isolated he feels from his life, Kane has a strange run in with a shadowy creature and is saved by a classmate who acts strangely around him. Kane finds some old photos that hint at what has happened in the last six months and some people who might be able to give him some more information. Armed with these photos, Kane confronts his classmates and is thrust into a strange and magical world of alternate realities that he must find a way to stop.

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The opening third of this book was beautifully written and engaging. I really enjoyed Kane's struggle with his memory loss. The writing was well done and the mystery of Kane's involvement with the accident was interesting and engaging. I found myself wanting to continue reading this plot line. However, when the Reveries began appearing, I felt kind of lost. The magical aspects of these Reveries were confusing and kind of hard to follow. I found myself feeling less connected to these parts of the story, which was a bummer since I really enjoyed the characters and the writing style as a whole. I also really loved the LGBTQ+ representation within this story. The queer representation felt authentic within the characters and not something just thrown in to check a box.

I can’t say enough about how much I enjoyed Reverie. It was a breath of fresh air! I devoured this book and still can’t get over the story. I cannot wait to see what else this author puts out into the world!

Lyrically written, it is easy to lose yourself within the pages of this book. From the first page, the language is flowing, easy, drawing you in to the characters and the plot.

This will probably be one of my more basic reviews, but the message should definitely still get across.

1) This book is gay in the most wonderful is ways and I absolutely love that.
2) Magical drag queens.
3) Kane, our MC, is extremely relatable despite the bullshit he's been through.
4) A villain who is TOP TIER material.
5) Side characters you actually like.
6) Wonderful world building that makes you never want to leave the comfort of your reading spot.
7) Vivid imagery, phantasmagoric, and just very creative descriptions and writing.
8) Lovely underlying meaning of finding yourself and connecting with others.

My issues:
1) Kane makes some shitty decisions, or some random actions against others, at times. It seems like it's used to make conflict, but there's usually no point to it.
2) While i liked the side cast, some of them could really use more fleshing out.
3) The magic system could've been explained a bit better. You understand it for the most part to ignore the issues, but they definitely exist.

My opinion:
I think this is gonna resonate with a lot of readers! Kane is a very relatable character, as are many of the side characters. I'm sure that this book will find its audience. Some people will love it to pieces, and others may find it meh. I don't think this is a book many will hate though, so if you aren't sure I'd still give it a shot! For me, I really liked it, but I definitely didn't love it. It was a fun book with some of the most beautiful writing I've seen. This is a must buy for me, despite me having issues with the book. If you're looking for a VERY queer urban fantasy novel, this one is such a good bet. I look forward to whatever else this author writes!

I received a digital advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This was such an interesting book. It wasn’t written in the usual young adult format. It almost was written more as an adult sci-fi novel. It was a truly unique story that pulls you in. This is one of those plot heavy books, it is not driven by its characters but it is made up for it by story substance. It was very fun to read.
My one real complaint is the magic system was very confusing, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was happening and how it was happening rather than enjoying my time. I reread a lot of the book just to figure out what was going on. I feel like we could have had the magic system explained a lot earlier and it would have saved a lot of headaches.
I absolutely adored that there was a solid LGBTQIA presence in this book. We need more books with a strong queer representation, and we get that with Reverie. Kane was by far my favorite character. Even though this wasn’t a character driven story.. Kane’s story was very compelling and had me very interested. I love that he was forced to battle his past even though he could not remember it.
Reverie kept me very excited through every page turn, and I found myself contemplating what was going to happen even when I wasn’t glued to my kindle. I really enjoyed Ryan La Sala’s writing style. He is incredibly honest and assertive in his writing and it is almost refreshing to the YA universe.
I really enjoyed Reverie and really hope we see this turned into a series. This is one of those stories that could easily have multiple books to follow and in my honest opinion.. It would make a stellar movie!
Thank you kindly to Ryan La Sala, NetGalley, and Sourcebooks Fire for the opportunity to review this book. This review will be posted on www.featheredfables.wordpress.com closer to the publication date.

Actual Rating: 4.5

I enjoyed this book so much! I loved this idea of reveries, when the subconscious of anyone can became real, making this book a interesting mix of fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, and everything someone can imagine. I think it's a really original idea, and one of the things that make me love this book so much.

I like Kane and his friends very much. All their personalities are clear, and they all feel real to me. All the trouble they went trough, all the things they have to accomplish together, make them such a incredible group of friends. I love especially Ursula and her kind ways. Kane is a very troubled carachter, and though I questioned his decisions a lot during the book, they all makes sense considering all the pain and confusion he is facing. I like how he navigates all the information he is getting, and I also love his relationship with his sister, Sophia. She is such a smart person, so loyal to him, and all the secrets he has to keep from her hurts them both so much. But I like that they keep loyal to each other and to themselves to the end.

Poesy is an awesome antagonist! I won't speak much about Poesy, because I think that discovering who she really is and what she really wants is a journey in itself.

But even with all the fantastic elements of this story, I think there is a lot of interesting thoughts about being queer, about friendship, about love even, that are very important in our real world.

I totally recomend this book!

Actual rating: 3.5

Reverie is the story of Kane, who has recently lost his memories, as he finds himself pulled into other peoples’ dream worlds and has to help unravel them. This story has a lot of promise and I especially adored all the casual queerness, but in some ways this book dragged for me. The beginning when Kane doesn’t know what’s going on felt like the unpleasant frustration rather than an exciting frustration of anticipating reveals, so I had trouble staying motivated to keep reading. About a quarter in, though, things start to pick up as more about reveries are revealed and we meet The Others - Ursula, Elliot, and Adeline. I wish they’d been more fleshed out and there was more development with their friendship, especially in light of Kane’s memory loss, but I did enjoy the magic of them. I think my biggest disappoint is Kane’s relationship with his younger sister, Sophia. It comes across as they’re really close, but what I actually saw was a lot of distance between them and distrust and just it wasn’t a good sibling bond. It makes sense with events going on, but at the same time I felt things were too easily resolved with them because in the end they’re acting like everything is fine and we don’t get to see them work through the pain and distrust they developed while Kane was first coming to know of reveries.

I think this book had a lot of potential and is a great premise, but the execution felt a little lackluster in some ways. I think it’ll definitely be loved by many and it’s important that a book with so many openly, unashamedly queer characters exists, and I love it for that alone. I’m looking forward to more from La Sala because I think he has interesting stories to tell.

The premise of the story is fantastic; the execution,however, not so much.

The idea of belonging and not belonging is deep and definitely true to defining much of teen angst. It just didn’t work for me. The characters were uninteresting - maybe I was expecting way too much from the summary. I didn’t connect to any of them. The dialogue seemed forced and unnatural. While I appreciate the author’s imagination, the reverie world building was all over the place and really confusing. I usually read a book straight through, but I kept putting this one down and kind of dreaded picking it back up.

I’m sure there are others who will absolutely adore this book, but it just wasn’t for me.

2.5 stars.

I really wanted to like this book. It was a highly anticipated release and the premise sounded amazing. But the magic system was so confusing, the writing style tended to be a little over the top in some places and I got lost throughout the story. It’s very obvious it’s a debut novel, but I think with growth, Ryan La Sala could be a really great author.

I wanted to love this one SO badly because Ryan is an absolute gem on twitter, but this just really did not work for me. I had such a hard time wrapping my brain around the reveries and an even harder time connecting to the characters. Everything just felt disjointed and messy and I am SAD.

Reverie by Ryan La Sala is certainly unlike anything I've ever read before. There are a lot of great concept here that in some cases I wish were explored more thoroughly, but overall I had nothing but fun reading this and found Kane to be a very real and relatable hero.

The Good: The idea of the Reveries and the Others was very unique and certainly didn't fit any cookie-cutter YA formula I've ever encountered. Kane too was a unique hero in that he constantly has to battle with his own past, but it's a past he cannot remember. I loved Poesy as well and despite her questionable intentions, she was endlessly entertaining and a sympathetic villain in many respects. The Reveries themselves were fun and weird and incredibly creative. I just wish I'd been able to experience more of them.

The Bad: Reverie certainly needs at least one more copy edit before hitting shelves (there were many obvious typos and redundancies) but that is more just mechanical issues. In terms of content I felt the one thing I really missed from the story was a little more detail and more of a slow-burn to the solving of the 'mystery' of Kane's and the Others' identities. Some parts seemed a little rushed and I think it hurt the flow of the story in sections.

TL;DR: If you're looking for something unique and strange and wonderful, Reverie certainly doesn't disappoint, and the wide variety of real and relatable LGBTQA characters (while still not feeling like "forced inclusivity") made this novel a joy for me since I'm in that community. I look forward to Reverie's publishing so the world can experience its splendor.

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the opportunity to R&R.

My thoughts:
HOLEY MOLEY.
I just finished this and Im having a hard time piecing my thoughts together. This book is so good!

This book had me at magical drag queens, but it is so much more than that.

The story begins with Kane trying to recover his memories after a car accident. From the get go I was hooked at the beginning the writing was flowery and overly dramatic and I got the sence that this was how Kane's innner monolouge is.

The world-building and the concept of the Reveries was compelling and complex. It was interesting how unique each one was for each person and how it all relates to ones thoughts and desires, and how a Reverie functions around those created stores and dreams but they can also twist into somethibg deadly

The characters where just as equally compelling. Each of their powers was an opposing reflection of them. I liked the complex nature of Kane's relatioship with them, your not quite sure who can be trusted. I also liked the dynamic between Kane and his sister.

The villian was the best part! She was dangerious from the moment you meet her she is a terrifying and imposing figure.....and fabioulus!!

As the story progressed I found myself wanting more, as Kane recovered his memories and the Reveries were explored each new discovery was just a tease to something greater to be discoverd and I loved it.

Also this book has some solid LGBTQ rep, Drag queen Villaness and Kane is Gay.

I totally recomend this.

I have been awaiting the arrival of this book since I first read the synopsis months ago and I am not in the least bit disappointed. It had all of the things I love and gravitate towards, fantasy, rainbow magic, drag queen sorcerers? But also a brilliant underlying message of reality and escapism, that’s what I took from it anyway. I think many lgbtq+ people can relate to a need to escape, building worlds within our minds where we can breathe and sometimes hide. It’s easy to hope and wish for a different reality, to dream one up. It is much harder to bend our current reality into something we don’t have to run and hide from. The plot to this story was brilliantly crafted and the characters all lovable in their own ways. I foresee this book becoming quite loved in the ya sci-fi/fantasy crowd. I loved it and can’t wait to hold it in my hands for real and relive the journey again! And dare I hope for a sequel? This really was a magical, thought provoking, dream of a debut for Ryan La Sala and I can’t wait to read many many more of his works to come!

A fun story about a young guy, Kane piecing his life back together after an incident occured that left him with no memory, and a criminal investigation.

Filled with queer+ characters, lucidity, and just plain whimsicalness- it was a gripping story!

I enjoyed the plot, and the romance arc was truly adorable!

Rating: 4/5

(This review will feature on my blog on December 24!)

This book came to me when I needed it most in my life!

Wow, where do I begin? To sum up this book? Upside Down meets Inception! La Sala created a whimsical world, and I loved it. I loved the characters, their depth, their quarrels, and banding together. I wasn't prepared for romance but I have to say I adored that part of the story, too. And yes, the drag queen sorceress as a villain...pretty epic in every fashion.

If you're looking for something weird [in the most fantastic way,] something different, something to draw you in, this is definitely it. I'm so sad for those of you who have to wait to read it!

I really loved the idea behind this story! I loved the reveries and the magic involved and how queer and beautiful this story was. I loved the friendship between Kane, Eliot, Ursula, and Adeline. I loved how they had formed this group to help other people. I love how each of their abilities were so well suited to what they needed and how the powers were the opposites of who they were. Kane was honestly a bit of a jerk protagonist half the time, but I loved his relationships. I love how close he was with his sister, how Sophia always looked out for him. I loved his friendship with Ursula and how they'd been friends since they were young. I loved Eliot and how he was always so nice and how he would correct people and was constantly the smartest person in any room. I loved Adeline and how she always did what needed to be done.

Dean was amazing and it killed me how he came out of a reverie and how he had to do what Poesy forced him to. I loved the bond between him and Kane and how adorable they were together. I loved them to no end.

Poesy was an interesting villain and I just loved her being a drag queen and everything about her as the bad guy, how Kane had looked up to her, how she was such a complex and amazing villain.

I wish we could have gotten to the magical part and explanation of everything a little faster, just because we spent so long wondering what was going on and not enough time getting to know the Others and Dean. I just wish we could have gotten more of them. But it was just such a good story and I loved all the characters and the bonds between them and how the Others work to save everyone and how they saved Helen and Maxine <3

It was a good book overall. I wanted to like this book much more than I actually did. I thought that the beginning was slow and it took me a while to get into it. There isn’t a lot of in-depth character development until you’re well into the story. The writing was good for the most part, but it didn’t really grab my attention the way I wanted it too. I still however found myself more and more into the book as it progressed. I just wish that the way it ended was the way it began.

I won't write a long review because I DNF this book at about 40%. I liked the creativity and the mystery elements, but it was too plot heavy and I found something about the writing style to be irksome. Reverie gave me "The Maze Runner" vibes, so I'll definitely be recommending it to younger teens, particularly boys. There's nothing wrong with this one, but it wasn't my thing.