Fifteen

Every fifteen years, the stars align and the Jumlin tries to come to power, bringing him family together in the hope of a bloodbath to follow. And every fifteen years, a dreamwalker must try to change the present with the knowledge of the future.

In many ways, Ashling is a normal fifteen year old girl. She has a loving mom and the boy next door is her best friend. Unfortunately, her best friend, Tate, is in love with her spoiled and selfish foster sister, Nadette. She could deal with all of that, however, if it wasn't for the dreams. Every night, she dreams of her death, at the hands of the Jum. But are these dreams a foretelling of the future, or just dreams?

I really enjoyed this story. Though I was able to figure out early on who the bad guy was, there are enough twists and turns in the plot that the author is still able to sneak in surprises. I also enjoyed the mixture of Native American folklore with modern life and even time-travel themes such as the butterfly effect. The characters are - for the most part - well developed and characters you want to like. I was able to sympathize with Ash and I enjoyed traveling along with her on her tale. Tate... well, Tate I wanted to smack upside the head many time, but he's a teenage boy who thinks he's in love so he isn't exactly thinking straight. And as much as I wanted to shake him, the author wrote him that way, since even Ash gets exasperated with him.

This is a solid 4 1/2 stars. It's not perfect, but it's a YA book that I would probably enjoy reading again and I would be interested in other books by this author and/or in this storyline. Since this book is labeled as the first book in the Dreamwalker Diaries, I hope the author continues the story of Ash, Coop, Tate, and the Jumlin in another tale.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Great book! I would defnitely buy this for my junior high. It's a strange story in that this is all just something that happened to Ash one time. It's a fairly short term experience that nobody in her life can ever share with her but it's also completely life-changing. Even Tate can only listen to Ash and discuss his ideas about it, which explains why he makes the decisions he does. On the other hand, this story is original, action-packed, romantic... I can think of a few people who will enjoy reading it. Thanks!

Really enjoyed this book. I love books dealing with time travel. While I was bored at times and had to put it down a couple of times to finish other books, I still gave it 4 stars because I didn't think it deserved only 3*. I would have given it 3 1/2 * if that choice was available. I really loved Ash, Tate, and Coop a lot and can't wait to read more about these three interesting characters. I would definitely get the next book in this wonderful series.

Actual rating: 4.5

Dear time travelers, past and future,

This is why why time-traveling is so dangerous even if you have the best of intentions. There is always, always going to be changes, whether good or bad, past, present or future.

I like Ash very much. Probably because we share the same sarcastic humor.

I also can't get over the slang of the future. It made me laugh but also made me cringe like Really? Really? Get a wiggle on. That is so not darb.

Ash has a repetitive dream and it's not a nice one. Fifteen years from now she's to be executed and thrown in front of a hideous monster. But, as in Groundhog Day, she's able to change some small details every day that will eventually lead to massive changes.

I was immediately intrigued when I first heard about the book. It really sounded like something I'd like. And I did like it, but perhaps not as much as I thought I would. The premise is fantastic, it's kind-of time travel, Groundhog Day and Inception all together.But while Ash her story was interesting, there were some things in her life that bothered me.

Not a lot is explained about everything that has changed in this future world. It's only fifteen years and it looks completely different. Even the language. I would have liked to see a bit more worldbuilding there. In current day Ash her life, I mostly got annoyed by the character of Nadette, her 'sister'. I understand that's she's written to be the character you don't like, but that seemed to me the only reason she existed. The whole subplot with the college and the dreamlab didn't work for me either. Her struggling between wanting to stay awake and having to sleep was interesting, as was the dream-in-dream-to-the-past thing, although things got a bit confusing at that time.

I will definitely read the next book in this series!

Fifteen is the first book in the Dreamwalker Diaries.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I started reading and within a chapter I was hooked. The premise sounded fascinating and unusual, so I was really hoping this book would live up to that and it definitely did. The characters are engaging and, although not all likeable, you want to find out more about them. I feel like I finished it way too fast and now I want more about the characters! The story is clever especially when it comes to the subtle changes in Ash's future dreams. Some characters appear in multiple potential futures but are slightly different in each. Maybe a little more trusting, more guarded, or more jealous. Whatever changes, I liked how it was shown through their actions rather than Ash thinking 'oh he's different from before because...'
I really enjoyed this book and since the cover says book one I hope to see more of this story in the future!

Ash is like any normal fifteen year old girl; That is, if you count normal as someone who has terrifying nightmares each night. Nightmares that predict your own death. In a story of time travel, myths/legends and even romance, we discover exactly why Ash is plagued with this nightly terrors.

I started this book a week ago, and if I’m entirely honest, I wasn’t immediately won over. In fact, there was a point where I kicked myself for telling myself to never give up on a book, because I really wanted to. Am I glad that I didn’t give up? Yes. It had a slow start, I think this is partly because I didn’t connect with Ash (the main character) for quite some time, if anything, she annoyed me; but overtime I grew to really enjoy and admire her determination to save her town.

Tate was a favourite character of mine. He was the ultimate definition of a good friend, he was there for Ash throughout and believed her even when most normal people would think that she was completely loony. I hoped throughout the book that Tate and Ash would fall for each other and was fairly disappointed when more didn’t become of them.

The dream sequences were brilliant. I thoroughly enjoyed reading them. The level of detail and descriptions that went in to them heightened my ability to picture the scenes in my head – which left me terrified! The only thing that annoyed me slightly was the use of italics for them, sure enough italics allowed the reader to see that we were now entering a dream sequence, but it kind of strained my eyes a little when it was huge paragraphs of it (I know I’m probably being a little pedantic here)

The ending left me wanting more. I felt that even though some questions were answered, there was still a lot left to find out. This created a bit of a book ‘hangover’ for me, but one things for sure – I will have to read the next book to see what becomes of Tate and Ash.

★★★★

One of my pet peeves is when authors dumb down books for YA audiences because they mistakenly believe that teens don't care about content, style, or characterizations.

Jen Estes is not one of those authors. In fact, she could teach a few lessons to those who write for adults. Some of her strengths include witty dialogue and characters who are well defined. Despite the fantasy quality inherit in a plot dealing with a future full of evil Jumlins who either eat or enslave humans, the actions of the teenagers and their parents ring true.

It's easy to like our heroine, dreamwalker Ashling Michelle Campbell. Ash, a fifteen year old sophomore at Billings High School, has a difficult task. Somehow she must change the present to prevent the future demons from rearing their ugly heads and taking over the town. Her only clues to guide the process are her nightly dreams which progressively reveal the secrets of the future fifteen years to the reader. And once Ash thinks she has a handle on her mission, the situation totally reverses where present is past and future is the new reality. The only one she can confide in is her best friend Tate Witco who helps her deal with the universal plight of a teenager in high school as well as the repercussions of her nightmares. Add in some other players, such as nasty foster sister Nadette, beautiful popular girl Skyler Smith and her wealthy conniving father, a perceptive somnologist Dr Robert Deitz, future hunky boyfriend Nelson Cooper, a loving concerned mom, and an "adopted" caring Aunt Lavaughn and you have the cast of hometown life in Billings, Montana.

Somehow Jen uses her imagery to create well rounded individuals who seen familiar. People you would actually like to meet. The reader roots for Ash to solve her dilemma so that their world isn't destroyed by evil. They also want to comfort the teen when her astral projecting doesn't always achieve the planned results.

My main criticism is that the destruction and decay of Billings seems to be more extensive than the timeline indicates, but perhaps it is explained better in the upcoming books in the Dreamwalker Diaries Series. Of course, I'm suspending belief in reality by accepting the entire premise of this fantasy, but for some reason the story is presented in such a way that it all makes sense. Well, it almost makes sense. My new problem is whether to consider this Science Fiction, a dystopian novel, or a bizarre "Coming of Age" story. This book is one of those that any age can enjoy (unless you are prone to nightmares).

As an aside - while thirty might seem old to a teenage audience, don't make Ash's physical agility at that age the equivalent of a fifty year old. Remember, thirty is the new twenty.

So Jen, get a wiggle on and finish Diary #2 so I can find out what happens next. Four stars.

A thank you to Netgalley and Curiosity Quill for providing an ARC in exchange of an honest review.

I receive an advanced copy.

Ms. Estes has written a wonderful and not dytopian YA SciFi story.

If the blurb on the back doesn't catch you, the story surely will.

Ash is a refreshing character who is very much in the same place in life as all teens her age. She is socially awkward and has all the normal highschool problems. The only thing different about her is her dreams.

Ash's dreams take the story between her life Billings Montana now and 15 years from now. As the story moves on you realize that you've been mesmerized by seamless transition between the here and now and the future. I can't wait for book two.

Wow. Just sped through this book and want more. I don't think the ending was a cliff-hanger, yet the title says (#1), so I have hopes that I get to see more of Skylar, Tate, Coop and of course, Ash. Preferably not Nadette, but she's the character you just love to hate!

The beginning of this book was SUPER scary. At least to lil ole' chicken poo me it was. I don't want to get into spoiler territory, so I'll just say it was scary and that the reader and Ash figure out what is going on at the same time.

The characters NEVER delved into the TSTL category, EVER. Even when they had no idea what was going on, they reacted intelligently to the problems at hand. Ash made mistakes, but she LEARNED from them. I both loved Tate and wanted to smack him upside the head for being such a doofus, but maybe he did what he did as a sacrifice, to make sure the nightmares wouldn't become real.

There was a sort of love triangle, but not really. Ash was too busy worrying about saving lives to really think about cute boys, though she IS a fifteen year old girl, so she DID have those thoughts, they just didn't overtake her when she had business that needed her undivided attention. (choir of angels singing) An actual SMART female protagonist who does her thinking with her brain and not her hormones.

The ending wasn't perfect. It wasn't a HEA, but it was positive, by comparison to what could have been.

I completely loved this book. The characters were real and had common sense, the plot was super interesting and the bad guy was SUPER CREEPY. It doesn't have a lot of smexy stuff, but it has violence that could affect a more gentle reader, so I would put this as advanced younger reader to young adult, with adults enjoying this too. I highly recommend it.

My thanks to NetGalley and Curiosity Quills Press for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1212409040?book_show_action=false

Verdict: Witty and imaginative time-travelling story for teens.

I really loved this book. I’ve already recommended it onwards! The writing is clever and the pacing is fast. I felt the charm from chapter one and just knew I was in for something special.

Every time Ash falls asleep, she lives in her future self and must learn how to change the present in order to stop the future from being so messed up by a Lakota legend monster. It sounds a bit wordy when I explain it, but Estes does a fantastic job.

With two timelines interweaved, I’m glad the author manages to make both the present and future entertaining in their own right. The story is fairly complicated, but easy to follow and always on the move to the next twist with gentle steering so that it doesn’t hurt the brain.

Ash is a fantastic main character. She has the type of smarts that a protagonist needs, and her wittiness is never snide or contrived which makes her very likable. She’s still young and uncertain at times, but her experiences make her strong. We get to see her fail as well as adapt to her future life. This is particularly well planned because the reader starts off just as clueless as Ash, and so we share in her experience and learn with her.

As well as a Lakota monster, the future also holds Coop, who is amazingly hot, protective, and sees Ash as someone who she hasn’t quite evolved into yet. With some of the puzzle pieces missing, the romance is a bit odd to start with, and again I could relate to the way young Ash handled the situation.

Her best friend in the present is Tate, who is just as witty and a little more mischievous. Ash and Tate bounce off each other well as they try to fix the future. He was almost my favourite character, except he has a soft spot for a shallow and horrid girl named Nadette. If I had Ash’s ability (and I know it doesn’t quite work like this but) I would want to have a good chat with Tate about what the words ‘selfish’ and ‘user’ mean...

Here I go, talking about them if they are real. Usually I’ll go on about character consistency and development, but I couldn’t help but think of them as real people with choices. This story made me switch off my editor brain and instead enjoy the ride.

The sleep clinic material gets my approval too. From the word polysomnography, I perked up and expected the author to treat terminology like glittering generalities, if anyone knows what I mean... Instead I was impressed that Estes knows her stuff but perhaps made a few tweaks so that the plot works. I can live with that.

There were a few sneaky twists that I can smugly say I predicted, but even when you start to catch on, it doesn’t make the story any less interesting. The book certainly ended on an unexpected note. I’m still gushing over the narrative, too. I try to inject the same type of humour into my writing, but Estes is ten times better at it. I should have got a pen out and started making notes, but I was too enthralled by the whole thing I read it within a day.

I will definitely be sticking with this series. I don’t know how a sequel will compare or where Estes will lead us. All I know is that we can’t leave things like that, and I can’t wait to hear more from Ash!

When I turned the last page of this book to find that the story had ended, that the last few pages were now just acknowledgements etc, I actually went "no!!" out loud. Noooooo why did it have to end?! Talk about one of the best books I have ever read! From start to (untimely) finish I just loved it, could barely stand to put it down. The story was gripping and fast-paced, with awesome twists and turns everywhere you went!

*spoilers below*

Basically, Ash has been having the same dream about watching her future self get killed night after night, until one night suddenly she doesn't just watch her future self - she IS her future self! The next night the same thing happens again, but this time she manages to change what had happened the night before... and this sort of thing continues each night, as she dreams the same dream - and also finds out how to "start" the dream from about where the last one left off, so she can make more progress.

It's bloody awesome, and even more awesome when something she does in the present day suddenly makes her dream a completely different future!

But then things get even more messy when her Aunt Lavaughn is killed, and future/dream Ash manages to go to sleep WITHIN her future dream, so she can dream/go back in time to before her aunt was murdered in order to save her... which she manages, but the kicker is that now Ash's mother gets killed instead. And then suddenly Ash's two realities seem to have switched, so she's stuck in the "future" and can only dream about the past, ie. the present.

It was absolutely heartbreaking to watch her travel back and forth, and eventually manage to switch her two realities back - but each time, her mother is still dead. And she never manages to fix that and oh god, I want to cry and that reminds me I need to visit my mum next week.

I did guess that Dr. Dietz was the previous dreamwalker, and that Nadette was actually Laughing Bear, but these things weren't obvious at ALL from the start - they were the sort of things that you suddenly go "wait, hang on..!" about two pages before it all becomes clear.

Need sequel NOW, oh my goodness. This is a definite keeper!

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the concept was unique and different from anything else I've read. I connected with the characters. I thought they were well written. My one complaint was I didn't like the future slang.

Can you die in your sleep? Are dreams real? The premise of this book sounded fascinating and unusual and captured my interessed. Fifteen tells the story of Ash, a normal highschool girl with a geeky bestfriend, a fostersister and a mom working as a socialworker. Every night Ash fights and gets killed by a demonmob in her dreams. And every day she tries to figure out how to change her future to avoid getting killed.
I was hooked from the beginning and had ahard time putting it down. Since it is book one I hope that it doesn´t take too long for book two to come out. I´ll definitely have a hard time waiting and recommend this book to everyone who loves a good story about indian legends and timetravel.
I gave the book 5 stars on Goodreads and Amazon.

A 3.5 star review.

A bit slow to start, but once it did, it really took off, and had me turning pages as fast as my eyes could keep up. I think I read the last 66% in one sitting.

This book has shades of both "The Future of Us" by Jay Asher and the movie "Inception", as 15-year-old Ash discovers that her dreams show her the future, and that she can change this future by her actions in the present.

A fascinating idea, that unfortunately suffered a bit from seeming too rushed in places, especially near the end... which came a LOT faster than I had expected! For a moment there I feared that the author would leave me hanging in the worst possible way. Fortunately that wasn't quite the case, and once I got past my frustration of the book being over, I can actually understand why Jen Estes chose to end it where she did, but it was still abrupt enough to make me subtract a star from my rating.

Both Ash and Tate seemed older than their 15 and 16 years, and I think certain aspects (trying not to spoil anything) would have seemed more believable if they had been just a couple of years older. Also, Tate's action at the end seemed really out of character for him, but I'm hoping that will be explained in the sequel.

Because yes - I will definitely be reading the sequel. Despite my (slight) complaints about "Fifteen", I was thoroughly drawn in at the end, and want to know more.

This book is very good. In this book, a 15 years old girl falls asleep and then she is in her 30 year old body. This author did a great job with this book. I was mesmerized! I was not sure what was going to happen next or what happened to the town in this book. So many questions this book start you off with and then hands you many answers along the way. * I received this book from netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

This was such a fun read! It mixes Lakota legends of the Jumlin and the dream catcher with time-travel and The Butterfly Effect. So next to it being entertaining, it also taught me something.

I very much enjoyed the plot of this book. When reading you switch between ‘awake Ashling’ and ‘dreaming Ashling’. And because every time she changes something that affects the future (or possibly even her present), the story is basically rewritten a bit every time she goes back. This ensures loads of exciting plot twists and surprises. The focus however, is not only on saving the future. Ash has to do that and keep notes on who she is in the future and who the people surrounding her are, but she also has to deal with her present day teen-problems like prom, her weird stepsister, her best friend, her aunts bid for mayor etc. Jen Estes did a wonderful job of combining all these factors and making sure the story has a good flow and is easy to follow.

After reading the book I am still left with a couple of questions, like an explanation of what happens to Ash when she’s dreamwalking (both present-day and future Ash). I hope we will find out more in the next book. Nevertheless, this was a very interesting read, original, and I definitely want to read the sequel!