Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with the Audio-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The book follows Hannah, a pianist trying to solve the mystery of her Aunt's disappearance.

All Halloween essentials were covered; cats and pumpkins - a loooot of pumpkins.

I feel like many people would enjoy this book but it was just not for me.

Not much happened. Despite the high stakes, it felt like all the answers and solutions to the mystery just conveniently fell into the protagonist's lap without any effort which killed any chance of building suspense.

The premise of the story was good but the execution could use some work.

4/5 ⭐️This audiobook was a super easy listen! Got thru it in one day! The story was very intriguing to me with the dreams connected to Halloween, grimoires and cats! This story had Sabrina the Teenage Witch vibes with a mystery to it! Had a cute cliffhanger at the end so I might wanna listen to book 2 when it comes out!

Thank you to NetGalley, Inner Realms Publishing, and the author, Megan Mary, for providing this free audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
 
The Dream Haunters: A Metaphysical Mystery of Magick is the debut novel by Megan Mary and Book 1 of the Witches of Maple Hollow Series. The story follows Hannah Skye, who receives a cryptic letter from her Aunt Jewelia and who also experiences recurring pumpkin patch dreams that transport her to Maple Hollow, an enchanted island with autumnal vibes, crystals, and spiritual portals. There Hannah takes shelter in the mystical Skye Manor and learns more about her family lineage and the island’s inhabitants. The story is fast-paced, compelling, and easy to follow from beginning to end. The writing is filled with vivid imagery that creates an immersive and atmospheric reading/listening experience for readers.
 
Hannah is incredibly likeable and wholesome, yet also very naive at times, and her journey from the waking world to the dream world is an exciting adventure. Once in Maple Hollow, she quickly makes new friends as she inquires about the town and her aunt’s disappearance. The story definitely has the feel of a Young Adult novel, with a coming-of-age subplot for Hannah. Even still, there are powerful spiritual messages presented in the story that readers of all ages will appreciate.
 
Narrator Pearl Hewitt does an amazing job creating an atmospheric feel to the story with a suspenseful tone and perfect pacing. She vividly brings Hannah to life and provides entertaining and distinct voices for all characters, including a memorable talking cat.
 
Overall, this is a great story to enjoy in the autumn, with its inclusion of pumpkin patches, shapeshifters, and Halloween magick! If you enjoy stories that include the mortal world, spirituality, secret societies, and fantasy, along with charming characters, definitely add this one to your list! Book 2, The Dream Mirrors, is slated for release in May 2025, so it’s a great time to try this series!

I went in not knowing anything about the book. I listened to the audiobook. On the normal 1x speed, the narrator sounded like a grandmother reading a story. It was slow. Then I increased to 1.25 speed and got the story moving. It was an okay story. It wasn't gripping. Clean novel, no explicit sex or mature.

I received a copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

i saw the cover of this book and also in the audiobook category so i knew i had to try it out! it seemed like a fast and cozy read, which it was!

🦇 this was giving cozy fantasy vibes and it was so atmospheric! you definitely could feel the autumn within these pages.
🦇 i also could relate to hannah quite a lot: she loved thunderstorms, preferred animal company over people, basically was an introvert, never knew both of her grandads either.
🦇 loved the mercury retrograde inclusion, i find astrological things so fascinating!
🦇 it does read a bit too ya-ish but i was still enjoying it. i think even the teenagers could read this. the writing was also easy to get into and nothing too lyrical or hard to grasp.
🦇 i loved the idea of cats being able to talk to you in a spiritual manner. 🖤
🦇 it was a good time to read it as well because american congress confirmed days ago that aliens were in our oceans and since then i've gone into the rabbit hole regarding egypt's mysteries such as the pyramids and sphinx and in this book other dimensions and pyramids were mentioned also!
🦇 the idea behind the dream haunters is quite unsettling lol i have seen this done before but it'd be fascinating and scary if it happened in real life.
🦇 morgan was my favourite character. she came across as such a spiritual and emotionally intelligent person. kinda like a mentor to hannah at the same time. i loved their conversations.
🦇 music doing things that it did in this story was a bit cheesy though.
🦇 when stuff hit the fan at like 87% i did find it a bit cringy which made me decrease the rating from 3.5 to 3, i thought it was gonna be a bit better than that, but honestly i still liked it, it just wasn't my favourite.
🦇 this is the perfect book to read just before or during halloween as it takes place in october. and if you like cozy books that you just have a good and easy time with, you'll breeze through this!

The Good: The story line was good. A young woman, who was orphaned by her parents when she was young, discovers her paternal aunt is missing. Even though she had no relationship with that aunt, she has the desire to solve her aunt's disappearance. She learns that her aunt's disappearance may have something to do with magical abilities her family has: to protect people's dreams. The culprits: the Dream Haunters. Why? They want to permanently invade people's dreams.

The Bad: The author's writing was elementary. She overused hyperbole to describe situations.

The Ugly: The writing was inconsistent. There are multiple examples. However, three I can easily remember are as follows:

The first example is where the author describes that Hannah always wondered why it was so hard to make friends. All the while, Hannah continuously reaches back to a friend for help.

The second example is a part where the author describes how the moon in retrograde may be the cause of all that is going wrong. Hannah knew immediately that retrograde was the cause. Later, the author details that Hanna wonders if retrograde is the cause. (Additionally, the author expected the reader to know what retrograde was and how it could affect events).

The third example is where Hannah knew she had magical capabilities. Later, Hannah is wondering if she has magical abilities.

Overall, this book had promise if the author had a good editor and publisher.

Dream Haunters Centers around Hannah Skye and a sleepy town, Maple Hollow. Hannah is not having the best time and after a letter from her missing aunt heads to the mystical town and finds herself on a spiritual journey learning about herself, her lineage and the world.

It’s a rather cosy autumn set book with spooky vibes. The characters and setting are likeable but not developed in the manner I like. For me this book was all tell and not enough show. Whilst it’s a short read, I understand it’s hard to get the balance right however the characters being less developed than I would like, I didn’t find myself loving, hating or even understanding them that well.

I listened to this on audiobook and did enjoy the narrator Pearls voice and narration.

Hannah is feeling lost in life regretting and focusing on past events she can not change. When all seems lost she receives a letter from her Aunt, followed by a phone call from the police that her Aunt has gone missing. Hannah is pulled by the news and travels to her Aunts house where a mystery unfolds. She is confused by the disappearance of her Aunt, the abundance of cats and cryptic messages spoken by the locals. Not to mention the lucid dreams she has been having.

This book is a cozy read for young adults and adults.No romance or murders. Just a clean fun read.

I think a large variety of readers would be interested in this mystery and if you love cats, I guarantee there are many parts that will make you smile.

Thank you netgalley for allowing me to listen to this book.

It's very hard to commentate on this story because it just didn't appeal to me. There was zero suspense and just an all round meh of read.

Saw that this is book 1 in a series, I will not be picking it up unfortunately.

Hannah's mysterious aunt that she's never met goes missing and the journey she goes on to get answers also reveals a lot about Hannah and her family's history.

The idea behind this book was interesting. I do, however, think a lot of the intrigue gets lost in the murky world-building.

Really enjoyed this book I thought the characters growth was very well written. It's fast paced it has a talking cat. I don't think I will be continue the series because I there are other books that are better it's an okay book 3 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this read!

It was a little bit out of the norm for me personally and I found it sort of fell into that ‘cozy mystery’ vibe a little, but if you enjoy witchcraft, cute talking animals/familiars and a quest to discover a missing family member, you will likely enjoy this one.

I listened to the audio and thought the narrator did a fantastic job at portraying not only the human main character, but the voices of the animals too.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book

This was SO PERFECT to read right before Halloween. Magic, mystery, and spookiness!! Highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley for this audiobook ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Dream Haunters is about a woman, Hannah Skye, who is completely lost in the world and in her identity. She doesn't really know who she is and she doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. (Super relatable lol.) She finds a new purpose, however, when her Aunt Jewelia disappears from her family's town, Maple Hollow. So, Hannah decides to go to Maple Hollow and discover what happened to her. I received the Audiobook from NetGalley and Inner Realms Publishing about a month ago, and found that Pearl Hewitt is a pretty good narrator. (All opinions are my own!) Pearl's voice is smooth, accent is enticing, and I didn't find it hard to distinguish between speakers. The enunciation is pretty good and sentence flow was nice to listen to. Most of the time, I was able to shut my eyes and listen to Pearl when I needed to relax.

Overall, this book reads more like a middle-school/young adult adventure than anything else, so that caught me more off guard than I expected. In that regard, I didn't have to do a lot of reasoning or critical thinking to figure out what was coming next because Hannah would usually say it outright. Personally, I prefer more of the "figure it out" mentality, but otherwise it had a decent and unique story about pumpkins, cats, dreams, witches, and dream haunters (which was the coolest part, honestly). It was a cute read around Halloween time especially.

I listened to the Audiobook version which was narrated by Pearl Hewitt. She did very well utilizing different voices for each character. She also had great inflection throughout. I did have to speed the speech up to 1.5 because it seemed too slow otherwise. Normally, I listen to books at 1.25 for reference.
While the world building was good, the "Mystery" part felt more of a sidenote than focus. I appreciated twists on Magick that were created in this story but some of the explanations for it seemed lackluster.
If more focus had been on the aunt I believe that I would have enjoyed it more. To me, finding her was an afterthought in the storytelling.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with this ALC audiobook in exchange for my honest opinion!

I really wanted to love this book, but just found this one wasn’t for me.

Hannah, the main character, is struggling with strange dreams and bad luck when she finds out her aunt has gone missing. She returns to her families home town, Maple Hallow, where she begins to learn the truth about her family and herself.

While this book is full of all the things I would normally gravitate towards, cats, pumpkins, magic, a journey of self discovery, and all the fall feels, but I feel like the story itself fell a little flat. I wish the characters and the story itself had been more developed. Hannah easily overcame every obstacle she faced, which left me wanting more.

In some points in the book I struggled to distinguish which parts of the book were actually happening and which part were dreams.

The book is listed as YA and the story read as such. However, I do wish Hannah’s was represented as a teen which I feel could connect better with the story and the intended audience.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author/publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I will preface this review by stating that I typically read romance, and this is obviously not in that genre. That's on me for picking up a book that is outside of what I know I enjoy. That said, I'm sorry to say that this book just wasn't for me. I found the plot derivative and the approach to the metaphysical condescending. Our lead character, Hannah, was insufferably 'not like other girls'; a trope I loathe.

I will say, there were a lot of references to pumpkins, the metaphysical, magic, dreams, and autumn which made it on theme for Halloween. If you are someone who is spiritual, 'witchy', loves to hear about other peoples dreams, and loves a low stakes cozy autumnal mystery, you would probably like this book. This didn't hit for me.

A little slow at first, but once I got into it I enjoyed it. A fun palette cleanser, was perfect for spooky/fall season. I really enjoyed the pumpkin powers.

Too much tell and a lack of show makes for robotic flow.

I bumped the rating up to two stars because Pearl Hewitt's narration goes the extra mile. Also, the bare bones premise was promising.

Hannah has a string of bad luck. She loses her job and finds out her aunt is missing. She moves to Maple Hollow, a town where nothing is what it seems including the pumpkin patch. Soon after searching for her aunt, she discovers she has special abilities.

The weak execution with underdeveloped characters is where this book unravels. The writing is redundant, choppy, and riddled with info dumps. The storyline is wrought with cliches and stilted dialogue. The characters including the protagonist are two dimensional. Hannah's personality did not shine through for me. I didn't feel any connection, nor did I feel like I knew her once the book ended. Just the facts that happened without depth. Melodramatic villains better suited for a children's movie than a cozy fantasy put me over the edge.

I love to get lost in a myriad of worlds, but this failed to hold my attention. As much as I love talking cats, they couldn't save this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.

** I received an ARC copy of this Audiobook in return for an honest review **

A cozy Autumn/witchy story surrounding dreams and talking cats.
This is a quick and easy audiobook that will leave you right there with the main character surrounded by maple trees and pumpkins in a whimsical setting full of family mystery and intrigue.
Don't let the dream haunters catch you.