A beautiful and lush book, reminiscent of The Phantom of the Opera and The Night Circus. It's whimsical and dreamy and a little flat but fun.

i enjoyed this one, and the settings and descriptions were so beautiful! I am very excited to continue on with this series and see what else this author does with everything she has laid down!

A solid debut that deserves a higher rating than I'm giving it, but I felt like it all could have moved faster. The world was interesting and the plot, overall, well developed, but the pacing needed some work to really hold my interest.

I will not be giving feedback on this book as I couldn’t really get into it but I think others may enjoy it.

I am a huge fan of the Phantom of the Opera. So it should come as no surprise that I jumped - not fell - into love with this book. It was everything I hoped it would be and more.

I feel like I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if the pacing were more consistent. That being said, I didn't dislike it, I just probably won't be picking up the next book.

I loved Caraval and now I’m adding this to the list! Absolutely magical and spellbounding! I loved the voice and world building!

This book was one of the roughest reads for 2020 for me. The first half of the book felt slow but when it started speeding up things weren't too bad. I felt like on paper, theoretically I should have really enjoyed this book. It was romantic in the tingly way that I love most but it just was so incredibly long and drawn out. I have to say though that Kallia is SO COOL. She's strong, and witty, and obstinate, and tough and gritty, I just really really enjoyed her. She made the book worth the read.

I feel like there was a chunk missing somewhere--as in, I didn't really understand the conflict? Things were happening, but no one seemed very upset by them, and I'm not certain the overall story. Beautiful setting, but limited world building and a plot that doesn't have much to do.

YA fantasy isn't really my thing, but the premise of this book sounded interesting enough that I agreed to review the novel. Since I received an e-ARC, I didn't realize until about 1/4 of the way through how LONG this book is. In paper form, it's 464 pages! In my opinion, at least 100 of them could have been chopped, if not 200. That being said, the story was engaging enough that I finished. I'm not sure there was any point, though, that I couldn't have put the novel down. It's not that the plot doesn't have any action, it's just that it gets redundant and somehow wasn't tense or suspenseful enough to keep me riveted to the page, at least not for 464 pages. In addition, the finale leaves a lot to be desired. The story ends on a cliffhanger, of course, but without satisfactorily wrapping up much at all, which makes the ending feel unsatisfying, especially after wading through so many pages to get there. Its disappointing end decided me on the sequel—no thanks. WHERE DREAMS DESCEND leaves plenty of questions that need to be answered, but I just don't have the patience to plow through another thick tome to get them.

In addition, the characters are pretty ho-hum, with none being super original. Kallia provides a strong female lead, but while her confidence and determination make her admirable, her vanity and coldness make her difficult to like. For leading men, neither Jack nor Demarco has much personality or freshness. The women of the Conquering Circus are the most interesting characters in the book by far, but they are not fleshed out nearly enough. Same goes for Glorian - for a city full of secrets, it's not nearly as mysterious as it should be. A shame because it is the most intriguing part of WHERE DREAMS DESCEND for me.

All things considered, then, WHERE DREAMS DESCEND was just an average read for me.

This one was a DNF for me. I couldn't get into the world or writing. I also was not a huge fan of the Night Circus, and this felt like a combination of that and Caraval. I think fans of Night Circus will like this though.

Where Dreams Descend was a better book. The first book in a duology, it follows a young magician—Kallia—who escapes from a more powerful and dangerous magician that runs a club in the woods. She makes it to the nearest city and enters a competition with the intent to prove that women can be just as good as magicians as men. Ultimately, the narrative was mostly centered around romance—around Kallia and a infamous retired magician named Demarco, around Kallia and the man she ran from, Jack. The competition, the mystery behind it all, the magic, it faded to the back in favor of the romance getting more time and focus. Had the book not been so distinctly about challenging the patriarchy it might have seemed less egregious but as it is, there’s a subplot about challenging misogyny that is decentered in order to present a romance.

I didn't enjoy these characters and could not get immersed into this world. Looking at the summary of book #2, I had guessed the future couple pairing.

Unfortunately it's DNF at about 30%. Thanks to NetGalley for the e-book.

The Phantom of the Opera meets Moulin Rouge was spot on. There's a bit of a love triangle but I was okay with it. The atmosphere was killer and this book was a such a quick, fun ride. Really interested to read the sequel now!

Such high hopes for a dark, magical, mysterious book. Unfortunately, it did not deliver for me.

The pacing was extremely slow, so many characters to keep track of, a horrible, controlling romantic relationship is the premise of the first part of the story and then a new romance which goes from 0 to 60 (I didn't buy it) is the focus of the second part.

The world building was the best part of the story. A mysterious, magical city, dark and wonderous. A magical circus with a contest for best magician. So exciting!

Yet, where was the magic? There was hardly any!

I had to force myself to pick up the book for the first 60% of the book. Even though the ending was good, it doesn't make up for the other challenges, for me personally.

A magician’s contest in a secret town beyond the cursed woods. What isn’t there to love about that?! The magic system in this book was really well done, and I love the fiery spirit of our main character Kallia. I did find the story to be very slow pacing, but overall it was an enjoyable read. The plot of a magic contest to bring a town back to life, with a twist. This book had a lot of Caraval Vibes, which is one of my all time favorites.

DNF REVIEW • I can't even remember what compelled me to click that tempting "Read Now" button when I spotted it one day on NetGalley, but I think it was the hope that this would fill the Night Circus shaped hole in my heart. I should have known those shoes were too big to fill! I made it about 20% before realizing this just wasn't for me. There was something about the writing that made the story hard for me to follow, and none of the characters were compelling enough at that point to entice me to stick around. There wasn't a lot happening in the story, despite a promising opening, so the pace felt incredibly slow. When I realized I was avoiding picking it back up, I knew it was time to permanently put it down.

Truth be told, it took me a whole month to go through this book. Like a good bottle of wine, I didn't want to rush through this book. Kallia, the protagonist, was a fantastic creation. Without irony, she is the only woman I would ever refer to as my boss. The only downside to Aaros was that there wasn't enough of him to go around.

Daron was just the best man. I like to assume that maybe there are nice men in the world because of fictional characters like this. In conclusion, I thought this book was great and would strongly suggest it to anybody considering it for purchase.

2.5 stars rounded up

this just didn't work for me unfortunately. the main heroine started making me angry when there was little to no character growth. plus the magic system confused me so it just made everything feel off. Not sure if I will pick up the second book but it's looking more and more like a no.

All I can say is I can’t wait for the next book!!! The world building is amazing in this. I can’t believe she is a debut author. If you liked Caraval or the Night Circus then this is a must read. It was my favorite out of the three!!! Kallia is an amazing. I loved the fantasy aspect of this book the most!!!