Dreamwalker reads as a delightful cross between This is How You Lose the Time War and Can't Spell Treason Without Tea. It's not a romance, and has a reading style more akin to middle grade than my normal YA reads, but I really felt like this story encompassed the cozy, high-but-not-too-high stakes of a conventional middle grade novel well.

The main characters play very well off each other and I liked reading their dynamics especially as the book progressed and they both got stronger. Aliya and Luke/Luca, our main characters, are both going through life-changing journeys (albeit one in a fantasy world and the other in more modern-day London), but the connections they make show just how well some themes and coming of age stories work across genres.

I was worried this book was going to feel like a set-up to other books in the series, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was intricate and yet contained, that the main threads and conflicts were resolved without needing hundreds of more pages to feel like a conclusion had been reached.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and can say that any other fans of fantasy, middle-grade, or YA fantasy would enjoy exploring this story. Happy reading!

Also, thank you to LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program and UpLit Press for the free copy in exchange for a review!

A Spell for Drowning was the first book of its kind I've ever read. Part speculative fiction and part historical fiction, Ferrier’s combination of these is whimsical and terrifying in equal measure. The Fae, in Portscatho but also in most lore, are more terrifying than in the fairy tales. And in this story I loved how Ferrier explores the haunting myths and legends behind the Fae and their connection to the mortal world.

This book was rather slow in the middle, and I struggled with some momentum. Still, Kensa’s story and coming into herself was compelling, and I read to the end, wanting to see how things would come together. I did feel like her growth into herself was messy, just like adolescence as a whole. Ferrier told Kensa's story in a way that showed who she was, a confused and sometimes obstinate protagonist who took some time to find herself.

I didn't like most of the characters for who they were, but did grow to love Isolde, Kensa, Elowen, and Jack in their own ways. The depth of their connections was incredible, and the real reason I kept reading. My appreciation for their relationships outweighed my sense of frustration with the characters, who seemed juvenile and impulsive. (Though, Kensa is 16 or so, and very much acts like a teenager, so I can't fault her for that).

While this book took me longer to get through than I expected, I loved the connections to legends and myths, and the way that rewriting them led to this story. If you've read The Truthseer and show more the Goose or enjoyed the movie The Song of the Sea, you're likely to enjoy this book, however slow it may start out.

Thank you so much to LibraryThing and Alcove Press for the copy of this book in exchange for a review, and I look forward to reading any more of Ferrier's work that explores history and legends in a similar way. show less

I finished this book, almost out of spite. I did not like the relationship between the main characters until the last couple of chapters - the lack of communication between everyone involved was quite astounding. I did appreciate the strength of relationship between Alex and Elena, but the amount of "I just want to help" "you can't help me, I need to figure it out myself, just give me time".... But it was a lot. Could have been 1/2 the length and gotten across the same message, especially with such a limited cast of named characters.