25 Feb 2019

#BlogTour: DREAMER by Ja-Mel Vinson // #DreamerBlogTour

Hello and welcome to my blog tour post for

DREAMER by Ja-Mel Vinson!

I have a review of the book for you today plus a giveaway for a signed ARC of the book! Be sure to check that out below, along with everyone else's posts from the tour! But first, let's learn more about the book...


DREAMER

Author: Ja-Mel Vinson
Series: Dream Come True #1
Source: ARC via Author
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: March 19, 2019

Overall Rating:

Diversity Rating:
Summary:
The day before moving into her new dorm, college freshman, Maya Lilac, has a haunting dream that ends with her coming face-to-face with a second version of herself. After being haunted by the dream during move-in day, she finally comes in contact with her double, nicknamed “Lucent”, and learns that she actually has powers and can—among other things—make her dreams come true.


Maya’s heritage, however, runs deeper when she discovers that she’s the True Dreamer, a person reaching back as far as Joan of Arc that’s tasked with protecting her species, as well as the world, from any and all threats… including her seemingly-peaceful and non-combative double. But, not everyone shares Maya’s vision that her clone isn’t out to harm anybody, especially her mother. As Maya and her mother fight over whether Lucent is a legitimate threat, Maya trains in her now-active powers to fulfill her destiny of protecting the world, whether she has to take care of Lucent or not.
Purchase:

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way impacts my opinion.

I am so glad I signed up for the DREAMER blog tour because I probably wouldn't have picked up this NA Fantasy if I hadn't done so. I thought there were a lot of really good things about this one, especially the premise and the main character, Maya. However, there were some downsides to this that I think another round of beta readers and/or edits would have solved. Such is the case with self-published books, but I definitely still recommend checking this one out if you are looking for a true coming of age story!

I loved the premise of this one! A young woman embarking on the start of a new journey adds an extra layer on top of that: she has a clone that stole her powers as a child and now she has to learn how to use them to save the world. I will say that because of this, Maya tends to be extremely powerful, but not extremely aware of what is happening to her. This causes some of the plot to be slowed down because she - and the reader - need the explanation for what is about to happen.

My biggest complaint for this would be that the book goes into extreme worldbuilding details without giving the same attention for the plot itself as times. I found myself rereading some of the action scenes to determine what actually happened and definitely wanted more from the ending. However, I know this is the beginning of a series so I can't wait to see how this turns out in book two! 

This book was creative, exciting, and a really intriguing start to a new series. I loved how Vinson took characters that could have easily been your typical trope and added in layers of complexity through challenges such as college, family dynamics, and new relationships to handle. I loved that this was NA and I hope people who don't generally read NA (like me!) give this one a shot!

When not reading books or writing his own, Ja-Mel Vinson’s making lesson plans and going to class. A college sophomore that loves over-analysis and deconstructing video games, books, and movies, majoring in Adolescent English Education was the obvious choice. He lives in Brooklyn, New York with his mom and his cat, Blackie.

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1 comment:

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