Shadow of a Dream by Molly Lavenza

​No Spoiler Book Review

Hope, or “Hopeless” as she is known by her enemies, is your average teenage girl. However, Hope is literally trying to survive high school. She is so sickly and allergic that it seems the entire world is slowly killing her. Will she even make it to graduation?

Nobody seems to expect anything of her. Teachers are constantly asking her if she needs to go home, and her parents are kind, but clueless. The only people who seem to notice her are the ones who try to make her life worse. The bullies.
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Until the new boy starts school…

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The story is a modern retelling of changeling lore. I don’t want to give too much away, but this book is Faerie Fantasy. There are changelings, faeries, a lux and other creatures. There is also telepathy, prophecy and other realms.

This is a short book, I listened to the audio and it was just about four and a half hours long. Since it is part of a series, I think of it as “Part I” of a whole book. When this book ends, the story is just getting started. Usually, I get upset at series that do that, but because this book is so short, it was fine.

The narrator, Carolyn Kashner, is a blogging buddy of mine. She runs the hilarious and helpful blog, The Starving Artist Blog . She paints, and cooks and apparently narrates audio books. So, basically she’s way cooler than pretty much everyone. Her performance is perfect for this book. Her voice is elven and youthful, exactly like Hope.   

The author has a strong “Young Adult” tone. Teens that read this wouldn’t feel like it was written by an adult, because it wasn’t. That’s right, this series was written by a teenager.

Lavenza’s writing comes across as a little direct or matter-of-fact sometimes, but it actually fits with the character, so I excused it. I am interested to watch Lavenza as she continues to find her voice. I would consider reading the other books in the series.

This book is a good option for fans of Young Adult Fantasy. If you enjoyed Beautiful Creatures or Cinder you would probably like this series.
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Goodreads Summary
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Perfect for fans of Frewin Jones' The Faerie Path and Aprilynne Pike's Wings series!

Have you ever learned a secret about yourself that could change your life forever?

When a mysterious and handsome boy showed up at my high school, all the girls wanted his attention. But who did he approach? Plain, less-than-ordinary me!

Words like changeling and dreamseer made my head spin as Declan, who claims to be my protector, tried to convince me that I’m actually a creature from the faerie realm, switched at birth with a human infant who is the true child of my parents.

Should I follow Declan's lead to discover the truth? How can I not? 

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