Wattpad Recommendations

Dream And Nightmare_Annany

Title: Dream and Nightmare

Usernname: Annany

Genre: Adventure & Fantasy

Rating: PG13

# Of Chapters I’ve Read: 32/32 (completed)

Other Works I’ve Read: A Pawn in the End (short story)

Summary:

After a storm years ago took the lives of two families near Anah’s family beach house, her fear of the ocean has only grown stronger. But after her new neighbor, Jack, introduces her to a world she never knew existed filled with the magic and adventure Anah craves, she’s forced to confront her fears. As Anah and Jack search for answers, will their adventure turn into a nightmare?

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'The scarves around her neck and body tightened to the point where she could feel every fiber in the cloth against her skin. As she struggled and gasped for breath, she became acutely aware of the irony of her situation. All her life she had been afraid of drowning to death, and here she was suffocating on dry land.'

 

MY REVIEW:

I don’t typically read a lot of the genres that I find myself reading on Wattpad…which is a really awesome thing. Otherwise I would be missing out on ‘romance’ or ‘fantasy’ stories (both genre that I used to stay away from).

 My first reaction?

The cover…it was drawn by the author and it’s great to see original covers.

Oh and this is a fantasy story, I promise! The first chapter is a little dishonest and it might discourage some people, but I appreciated the time the author took to set up the story. The information given in the first chapter is important to understanding the characters.

This is another one of those authors who excels at the ‘showing’ part of her story telling. I loved being able infer qualities about the characters and understand them better without being told. Do you know what else I love?

Long chapters (something I am horrible at).

So anyway, Anah (M.C) is visiting this beach house with her family, when she meets Jack. Together they go on this adventure without knowing what they are getting into, which is really silly of them. This other world has fascinating characters…and that is the thing.

I love all the characters in this story…they are all complex and seem essential to the story. It really is remarkable, because a lot of the time…I could care less about most side characters.

I can’t say much without giving it all way (something I dislike about some reviews), but Anah and Jack go into the new world…meet some new/old people and fight some bad guys. This other world is in some crisis and they have to save the world…sounds typical but this story isn’t

There are a lot of unknowns in the story that keep a reader alert, and a couple fighting scenes that were pretty exciting.

Personally, I have a lot of questions…which is what a good book should do. It should make me think, it should make speculate…it should elicit some response (besides boredom).

UPDATE (08/31/13):

So I am in the middle of reading the sequel to this story, which is probably why I forgot that I had to update this review…and yes the first book is now complete!

I will try really hard not to get the first/second book confused, but forgive me if I blur the lines a bit. I will also try not to give too much away…you have to read the story if you want to know more!

So I think I left off with Jack and Anah looking for some adventures in the new magical world, and they definitely found them (or it found them).

Like I mentioned, there’s an evil character trying to kill them and take over the world (what else would evil people do), and they of course want to stop it (typical hero mentality).

What they didn’t realize was that despite this being the first time they hear of any of this, this is not the first time that this world knows of them….dun dun dun.

Needless to say that this is an action packed story, with lots of other stuff going on…family drama, love stories, friendships, enemies, magic, death…blah blah.

Every other chapter there’s a new twist, and it just keeps you on your toes! One day the evil person is good, the next all the people are dying or being possessed with evilness.

Sensing a theme here?  The evil/good line is a delicate thing in this story.

Also…I never know what is going to happen, I gave up predicting a while back (I can usually tell where is a story is headed). 

But this is all sorts of organized chaos…and I say this because it always makes sense. It never seems out of character or foreign to the story, which I think is a real talent.

This also means that there are different types of chapters: happy, creepy, exciting, sad…ect. I think the author does a good job of conveying each kind.

It’s also one of the few stories where every character seems relevant and I appreciated them all…even the ones I didn’t like much.

The ending did leave me hanging though. It was somewhat ‘happy’, but there were a lot of loose ends…so the story was in no way finished. It there wasn’t a second book, I think I would probably be really upset, but clearly the author had a plan!

Overall? Out of all the fantasy books that I am currently reading, this is one of my favorites and I would recommend anything from this author.   

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆

Author's Note-

Please check out Annany's interview!

Check out the sequel,  'Dream And Nightmare: Sacrifice.'

Or a personal favorite of mine, "An Unfortunate Resemblance."