This was not for me. it felt very much...all over the place in a way. I did not care for or enjoy the characters.

I rarely read this genre as the more 'heavy' fantasy books take me much longer to read, but I did find I enjoyed the change and was glad I picked this one to read!

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Netgalley and Scary Hippopotamus Books for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.

Man this book got really intense on both sides of the genre spectrum. We have the real world where sisters Ashlyn and Penny are in comas from a really bad car accident – thank goodness they didn’t die but I mean with everything they had to go through, which option was better? – and then the fantasy world where their coma takes them and basically holds them captive in their own right.

It also sucks that Penny sees this journey as a way to escape from her disability, and while I may technically understand the symptoms of cystic fibrosis – I don’t have it so I can’t understand it on that kind of personal level – but I also understand wanting to escape reality because it sounds that much worse. I just wish that she didn’t have to be held captive by some dark lord type of person in a fantasy world to escape from the daily hardships. All the while both of the girls are still in their coma and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.

I don’t know how I feel about the real world and the fantasy world being tied together like this, but it makes sense that the physical body would start to deteriorate the longer the brain is out of commission like that. I also don’t know if I would have had both worlds in one novel like that, although it does make for a semi-reasonable cause for why the girls wind up in this world. It’s interesting though that both girls end up in the SAME fantasy world while in their comas, so that’s something.

I feel like this book also got a little dense at times with the subject and plot, which probably explained why it took me a while to get through. Nothing wrong with that, but it definitely didn’t make for a light read for me. I was worried about both girls honestly, although I don’t know who I was worried about even more.

The back and forth between real-life, physical distress and fantastical, mental/emotional struggle was what drew me to this story and what kept me reading until the end.

As much as I appreciated this concept, I'm having a hard time hyping up much else. I couldn't get passed the overwhelming use of references from pop culture and mentions of American locations/sports teams. Most of the book and film cameos were recognizable, but as a non-American, I felt left out half the time and the other half like I was having the star-spangled banner shoved down my throat.

If less effort was placed in brand placement and more in character development, I think I would have had a better time with this one.

If the author had stuck to a tight storyline this might have been an out of the park homerun. Unfortunately, he is all over the place and while he seems to realize the need to rein in the tangents, they get farther and farther off track. The constant pop-culture references assume that the reader will be familiar and if not, oh well, turn a few pages and try to make sense at that point.

Bottom line – a car wreck, two sisters are the victims. Do they live? Do they share the same dream? Do they come out of the medically induced comas?

I loved the dreamscape where Ashlyn keeps getting knocked on her rear and bounces back to do battle again and again. She is not lucky enough to have dreams about fun things. This is pretty much the beginning, the middle and the end of the book. I enjoyed some of the goofy characters – a large black rabbit with a kind cultured mid-Atlantic accented voice, the guardians, the kindly and caring neurologist, a great set of parents.

Three stars for effort. Thank you NetGalley, Curtis Edmonds and Scary Hippopotamus Books for a copy.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Curtis Edmonds for providing me with an ARC of this book

Before I begin, let me say that just because I have given this book a 3 stars that doesn't mean that I hated it, I liked it but it did not stick with me and it is not a book I will be coming back to, but overall I did enjoy my time reading it.

This was a good book.

Curtis Edmonds writing style is a good one, it is descriptive and it continuous and I liked reading what he wrote, I do have my issues though, and maybe it was because of the way it got formatted on my Kindle but there were a few formatting issues, which was really annoying.

The plot was weird but in a good way.

After the accident Ashlyn is in a coma and she knows what is wrong with her and she is in this weird fantasy dreamscape and the rules are hazy-of course it's a dreamscape-but still it is kinda weird and I have questions. A lot of things were unbelievable.

This is not a spoiler, but her parents were damn calm about the idea of their daughter dying and I know everyone deals with grief differently but still their attitude to the idea was very calm and it was really unbelievable and another thing that hindered my reading was that somethings were happening too fast and there was not much substance in the plot.

Now to talk about what I liked, I loved the talk about psychology and over here the author spoke about how negative emotions and anger are not necessarily bad and that you can use them to your advantage and this book also showed you how to see the good in the bad and the importance of fighting on for something that you believed in, that was a great message to share.

Characters

Ashlyn - she is a strong girl who is a big nerd and I love that and she is a Dresden Fan and that was definitely a highlight. I admired how much she fought for what she believed in and she made people believe in her and she is damn strong mage.

Penny - She was a brat, in the beginning and I hated her but she grew over the series and by the end I liked her enough to not fume when she was in a scene.

There were some other characters too but I will not be talking about them as it might be a spoiler so yeah...sorry about that.

Overall, this book was good and I had enjoyed my time reading it, I would recommend it to anyone who likes to read about dreamscapes and is looking for a cross between a fantasy and contemporary book.

There is an easy flow to the dream state fantasy Curtis Edmonds has created. The characters are fleshed out nicely, and the shifts between reality and fantasy are not jarring or off-putting. The emotions and the relationship between the sisters is enduring. This is a well-done, easy to read book.

Thank you, NetGalley & publisher for the ebook ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The book was well-written, and I enjoyed running into a handful of words that expanded my vocabulary. The story is unique; I can honestly say I've never before read a book like this. It's an intriguing idea, that a coma patient can continue to consciously fight for their lives even while unconscious. This book has an optimistic ending, which I appreciated. It was left a little open, but there was hope.

I had trouble tracking what was happening at a few points, because the story occasionally bounces between reality and the dream world. When it bounced back to reality and switched characters within a chapter, it would take a few sentences before I could place the perspective. This did help establish the "fever dream" vibe, though -- nothing feels real - even reality. We're bouncing between perspectives and worlds, and one doesn't feel any more real than the other.

It was wonderful to see the sisters' relationship evolve throughout the story, and I love the tenacity of our main character.

I received an advance copy of this story in exchange for an honest review. All views expressed are my own.

DNF. This novel seems to be more a way to showcase the author's geek knowledge than an actual story. The plot is barely there, the main character is flat out boring due to being severely underdeveloped. The prose is the only interesting aspect of this book.

I liked that this book had two female main characters (sisters) and their relationship throughout the book. I'd have liked a little more energy at the exciting parts, but all in all, a great read!

I absolutely loved this book! I have always been very intrigued by the notion of events that happen within your mind and whether that makes them real or less real, and this is a theme greatly explored in this book. I loved the way that it transitioned back and forth between Ashlyn's experiences while in a coma, and what was going on outside of her body during that time as well. The author did a wonderful job making me care for all the characters, even the minor ones.

I think that Curtis Edmonds has promise and will make an excellent writer as time goes on. I really liked the premise of the book, and parts of it were very well written. Edmond's writing style is easy to read and the dialogue drew me in.

My biggest problem with the book is that the tone remained the same throughout the book. Books that I LOVE tend to have a different energy depending on what type of scene is happening, and this book lacked that. During suspense and action scenes the writing seemed very matter of fact.

I enjoyed the transition of the sister's relationship throughout the course of the book.

This is an interesting story, basically a girl goes into a coma after a car crash and we experience her dreams or subconscious while she struggles to survive the accident. She is very much obsessed with high fantasy novels and you see that obsession reflected in some really bad troupes. This book is very self aware that its using bad troupes, but its still using them. The author also uses a lot of modern culture references, which will cause this book to lose its relevance very quickly. Some examples are: iPhone instead of "phone" and references to Beyonce and Justin Timberlake. Many things mentioned could have been far more generalized and wont be relevant or understood by the targeted age group in just a few years.

I mostly enjoyed this book but the over use of bad troupes and the over use of current pop culture were a major turn off for me. If you're a fan of reading high fantasy and the things I mentioned don't bother you then I think you might like this book.

After reading the description of the novel, I was intrigued. Unfortunately, the description is basically the entire story, which is based on a simple plot. The novel is told in the first person, which makes sense as virtually the entire story takes place in Ashlyn's mind. The use of the present tense, however, was not a great choice. It feels awkward and clunky, making it difficult to become immersed in the story. The entire premise of the novel - that Ashlyn must deal with her own emotions to deal with her own life - is one that is not often done, as noted by the author in the afterword. Unfortunately, this novel has little world-building, leaving the world Ashlyn enters extremely two dimensional. The relationship between the two sisters is underdeveloped, with each of the sisters seeming to resent each other for various reasons (as is normal/predictable) but there is no breakthrough' or true bonding moment to enhance the two characters. Overall, there is not a lot of action in the novel, little to draw us into the world and awkward minor characters who are supposed to be funny but add little to the story. The heavy borrowing from many, many other works is probably supposed to relate to Ashlyn's own love of the fantasy genre but is not woven into her as a character very well at all, so comes across as simply appropriation. The novel has a lot of potential that unfortunately, it does not fulfill.

This is one Netgalley read I don't regret requesting.

A beautiful, thought-provoking story about the bonds of family that transcend time and space, life and death.

I need more weird black rabbits in my dreams now …

20% is the cut-off point for me - if a book hasn't won me over by the time it hits that mark on my Kindle, it's not going to, and unfortunately, despite a fantastic premise, Circle of Firelight didn't make the cut. To be honest, even making it that far into the book was reminiscent of wading through a swamp - an exhausting struggle through the mud, slipping and sliding and occasionally being smacked in the face by a branch.

First-person narration rarely works for me - unless there's something special about the character, being inside their head is usually just irritating, and despite making it to a land of magic where she must save her sister, Ashlyn isn't a unique or interesting enough person for me to want to be privy to her every thought. Worse was the choice to write the story in the present tense, which might have been intended to make the story more immersive, but instead just made it feel clunky and synthetic, ringing false even when events should have drawn the reader in (such as the car accident Ashlyn is caught in early in the story).

There was a *lot* of info-dumping, information shoved at the reader instead of being revealed in a more natural way. I feel especially unwilling to forgive this given that this story is about a character from our world discovering magic - meaning that the main character is discovering the fantastical elements of the story alongside the reader. Done right, this can help the reader identify more closely with the main character - a kind of bonding through the shared experience of being hit with all things magical - but here it was a trainwreck. Despite including the cliche of an overly mysterious mentor/guardian type character - in rabbit form, which was probably meant to be funny, but couldn't overcome how annoying the character himself was - we still learn the most vital information by Ashlyn relating it to us in huge chunks, rather than in exposition from said mentor.

Also, while I really like seeing characters who read fantasy being familiar with the genre tropes, that doesn't actually win you points when you still insist on using very old, tired tropes. Ashlyn's sort-of-mockery of there being a Dark Lord for her to defeat doesn't change the fact that there still *is* a Dark Lord. Hopefully more about him would have been explained later - further on than I read - but the announcement of his existence was abrupt, and the explanation really needed to happen *then*, not later. Why is there a Dark Lord? He's the manifestation of the negative parts of her personality or something, but why did that manifestation take the shape of a Dark Lord instead of something else? Where is this fantasy realm Ashlyn's come to? Why does she take it all so calmly? The pond is a gateway to Death, or something? And then there's the honest-to-god *training montage*, where the knight - whose existence and appearance is also unexplained - is going to teach Ashlyn to be a swordmaster? Even allowing for time to run differently between wherever Ashlyn has gone and the normal world where she's unconscious, it was painfully cringe-inducing.

And the dialogue is genuinely terrible. I highlighted some of the particularly bad lines - "This is an immaterial realm, or so you have said." Ashlyn says that as she's figuring out her fantasy-land, but I can't imagine a modern English speaker *ever* using that phrasing. "You said this isn't a physical place," maybe, or even "or so you say". It's not an issue of using big or rare words - Ashlyn doesn't speak like she's college-educated; she talks like a Martian who's learned English from a computer.

It feels like this book has a good core idea, but needs to be torn apart and reworked. For example: if it's so important that Ashlyn be able to use a sword, why couldn't she have learned in her dreams? She's faced the 'guardian of the bridge' thousands of times in her dreams - why couldn't that process have included her figuring out her sword? It would have been so much more interesting if she discovered she'd already been prepared for this quest. Similarly, we barely get to meet her and her sister before the car accident, but that only makes it more important that Edmond give us some reason to care about them both - particularly Penny, whose head we're not in. I wasn't scared or anxious about her because Edmond gave me no reason to care about her. Ashlyn lecturing us about her sister's cystic fibrosis isn't enough, especially when all we see of Penny is, basically, an annoying little sister who jeopardises Ashlyn's hard-won job interview by sneaking out (however understandably). There needed to be some kind of bonding moment. Instead, we had that moment with Ashlyn's dad, as Edmond revealed Ashlyn and her father's shared love of genre fiction. But we don't need to bond to the dad. We need to bond to Penny, and there's nothing there to bond to.

Deeply disappointed.