Janella Angeles brings us a new world of magic and mystery in the first book in her Kingdom of Cards duology. From the description it was clear I would like this based on previous reads like The Night Circus and Caraval.

The Conquering Circus is different than either of those worlds but just as compelling and vibrant. Where Dreams Descend takes place in a ruined city where magicans compete to be the headliner. Our three main magicans are:
The Star: Kallia, The Master: Jack, The Magician: Demarco. This book has everything you want in a good fantasy: action, mystery, magic, romance, and wit.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and think fans of Caraval and The Night Circus will definitely enjoy, but also fans of the Darker Shade of Magic and The Gilded Wolves series.

ARC was provided by NetGalley & Wednesday Books in exchanged for an honest review.

This review is being published before the release date (August 25th, 2020)

Content/Trigger Warnings: Alcohol and drinking, mind manipulation, controlling/possessive behavior, trauma, misogyny, mentions of blood and injury, missing persons, grief/loss, death of a parent

“For in the world of magic, a woman’s place lies in the quiet shadows of labor magic, the encouraged path. The safer one. Because the ones who dare most often disappear.”

Dearest friends, with this being one of my anticipated release for 2020, I wanted nothing more than to love this book with every fiber of my soul. The question is, did I fall in love with this book? Yes, yes I did! It captivated my attention from the very first page and left me craving more. It’s no surprise that Where Dreams Descend has made it onto my top books of 2020! I am in love with this book, Janella’s writing, and I can’t wait for all of you to pick this book up!

Kallia has been a showgirl at Hellfire House for most of her life. With a deep bond with the head of the club, Jack, and everything at her finger tips, how could she possibly want anything more? Until a flyer lands in her possession about a competition happening in Glorian where magicians compete to be the next headliner for the Conquering Circus. With an everlasting dream, powerful magic, and an ambitious desire, Kallia will start to uncover all the lies and manipulation keeping her caged at Hellfire House. When she finally flees Jack, she’ll learn just how dangerous Glorian really is for a magician especially as her fellow competitors start to disappear and everything she’s longed for is threatened.

♠️ Kallia – The Star, our main heroine, a powerful showgirl out to prove she’s the best no matter the cost. Truly proud of her powers, how hard she’s worked, with a dream to one day preform in Glorian. A cinnamon roll in every way, trying to break free from the chains and cage Hellfire House placed upon her.

♠️ Jack – The Master, controlling and mysterious, the enigmatic keeper of Hellfire House, and more than one lie told to keep the show going. Using manipulation and deception to keep Kallia caged at Hellfire House, protecting her from the dangers of the the outside world.

♠️ Demarco – The Magician, a mysterious man, the brooding judge with a past that won’t stop haunting him. He is a broken, soulful boy who used to be a powerful magician and now he’s the strictest one to prevent others from making the mistakes he made. Also, he’s unable to resist the pull of Kallia’s energy and her fiery passion.

I say this all the time, give me a book with morally grey characters and it’s a sure guarantee that I will fall in love with your book. Where Dreams Descends delivers just that, characters who are morally grey. No matter if they were a main character or a side character, I fell in love with so many of them and I truly can’t wait to see more of them. And while I’m talking about our lovely characters, we have to talk about Aros! Aros was a fiercely loyal character to Kallia. Despite their original interaction, I truly believe Kallia saw the true potential and all the best qualities in Aros. I never mattered if Kallia told him her secrets, he was always right by her side especially in the times where she needed him the most. He was a witty, charming, and such a soft character who delivered so much for me, as a reader.

Phantom of the Opera meets Moulin Rouge with Cinderella and Repunzel elements? Yes please! The writing style is lush with vivid descriptions, mysterious wonder, with an atmosphere so captivating, so familiar that it will hook you from the very beginning! I was in a complete trance of tension and anticipation as I submerged myself into this story line. Angeles has the kind of writing style that I love. One that catches you from the first page and makes you want to power read the whole book in one sitting. She laces her book with a story and plot laced with hints, clues, and truths that reveal just enough, but doesn’t show our author’s full hand. Leaving us, the readers, to theorize, wonder, and visualize what’s in store for us next. With so many questions unanswered and a cliffhanger of an ending, book two is bound to deliver a good time.

“It was wrong to justify what sort of hurt mattered and what didn’t. Anything that left scars came from hurt. Only now was she realizing the scars she bore and had trained herself not to see.”

I also want to talk about a lot of the content warnings in this book. Of course, please make sure you practice self-care and self-love when reading anything with content warnings. Even though there are clear elements of fantasy in this book, I want to say how accurate the representation is for being in a relationship or having a connection to someone who uses mind manipulation or essentially brainwashing as a tool to aid with their control and possessive behavior. I don’t want to go into too many details, but as someone who has lived with someone who has that kind of behavior, it’s an accurate representation. Ever emotion, every feeling Kallia feels due to the things Jack subjects her to, this is what it feels like to have that kind of presence in your life and to have them coming back after only short amounts of time from the last you saw them.

And of course, there’s the romance that blooms! This was the factor that surprised me the most. Even though it’s right in the description, it still took me by surprise and I still fell madly in love with it. I do wish we had more of it though. The romance was there, but there truly wasn’t enough for this to be labeled as a romance. So I’m hoping in the second book we’ll be seeing more of the romance elements that we’re all dying for!

Overall, I’m honestly shocked. It feels like an eternity since I read a ya fantasy that really reminded me of why I love the fantasy genre so much. Even after finishing this book, I’m still asking myself why I’m so surprised when it has so many elements that I love. This book is bound to be on so many readers’ top books for 2020. With this being one of my anticipated releases for 2020, I’m happy to say this was everything I wanted and more. If you’re looking for a darkly dramatic book that’s own voices then I can’t recommend this book enough to you!


The quotes above were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

#netgalley #wheredreamsdescend
This book took me awhile to get into, I actually had to set it aside for a few weeks and then I came back to it. I am so glad that I did!! This was such an engaging storyline, full of adventure and romance. I loved it!

WDD is dark, stunning, magical, romantic, and overall simply AMAZING.. You do not want to miss this gorgeous book that is reminiscent of Moulin Rouge and Phantom of the Opera, but is a completely original story all on its own. Very unique and honestly one of the most beautiful books I've read all year.

Lovers of Phantom of the Opera, Caraval and The Night Circus will love Janella Angeles' Where Dreams Descend -- this first in a duology. Beautifully written, the narrative strikes the perfect balance between action and tenderness. Where Dreams Descend showcases characters with emotions so palpable every reader will find themselves soon pulled into the mystery that is Glorian and the fight that is Kallia's. Gripping until the very end, Dreams is a must read.

Kallia performs nightly in Hellfire House -- a performer. A magician. A force with which to be reckoned. Her teacher and master, Jack, has honed her into what she is -- exquisitely powerful; but rules, half-truths, secrecy and the need for freedom drives Kallia to flee to the forbidden city of Glorian. Hoping to make the world see that she deserves the spotlight -- and not just male magicians -- she enters the Magicians' Competition. When competitors start disappearing and Jack's warnings become more dire, it becomes clear the competition is the least of Kallia's troubles.

Decent word building, however, somewhat lacking overall.
Really fun premise, just not enough momentum.
Everything just seems to move a bit too slowly. There are build up moments that just don't quite make it.
All the mystery and intrigue has a nice foundation, but the execution and explanation fell flat for me.
Most of the characters needed more fleshing out. Too much was left to guesswork. The audience seems to be even less in the know than the characters.
Simply put, this magic act needs a little more razzle dazzle

Look: Do yourself a favor and go preorder this book. From the get-go this book is a delectable feast that very much lives up to its comps of The Night Circus, Phantom of the Opera, and Moulin Rouge. Kallia is a fun, breathtaking character with clearly defined goals the reader wants to follow from the start, and those goals lead her through a spectacular smorgasbord of magic, romance, and adventure that makes for a heady combination. I CANNOT WAIT for the next book, and I can’t wait to see this book on everyone’s shelves come August.

(Also: That cover, though. I can practically taste the swoon-worthy bookstagram photos, and I am READY.)

So proud to be a Wednesday author and get to bask alongside these wonderful stories!

Kallia is a strong and confident magician and the Conquering Circus could be her big chance, but someone or something is sabotaging the competition. Jack runs a popular magician’s club full of dazzling showgirls and dangerous secrets. Demarco is a powerful magician turned judge with more skeletons than top hats in his closet.

An enchanting circus competition tangled with secrets and a blossoming romance—sign me up! I was so exited to read Where Dreams Descend, but I had a difficult time with this book. I really liked what a strong character Kallia was and seeing her overcome so many obstacles. However, there were so many characters and a lot of moving parts that I often found myself lost in the shuffle. The way in which the point of view would switch from character to character made the story feel choppy and because of this the storyline was difficult to follow and I often felt confused. Overall, I just had a hard time feeling engaged in the story and keeping up with all the different plot points.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Wednesday Books for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Magical competitions, mysterious disappearances, lies, secrets, and a gorgeous cover - how could you not want to read this?  The strong Phantom of the Opera themes just made it that much more irresistible.  

Such an atmospheric novel - a cold, enigmatic city whose residents hide secrets of its past, long-neglected, decaying buildings within it, and a dark forest at its gates.  Powerful magicians exist in this world where some magic isn't completely understood.  Let's just say I'll never look at mirrors in quite the same way again.

Kallia, Jack, and Demarco are wonderfully flawed and scarred in various ways, and I'm so glad the author gave each of their POVs.  Kallia is a snarky, impulsive character who excels when the odds are against her, all while covering up the fear inside.  Demarco is a tough shell to crack initially, but his backstory is tragic.  Manipulative Jack still remains the biggest mystery, and I'm so anxious to learn more about him in the sequel.  I have to give a shout out to Aaros for his wit and undying loyalty to Kallia.  He's undoubtedly one of the best supporting characters I've come across.   

Imagery and creativity of the illusions are outstanding - a screenplay of this book would be a visual feast.  I could have done without some of the romantic drama (I'm in the minority on that aspect, I know), but this ends with a glorious cliffhanger.  The next book can't come soon enough.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Look at any review for Where Dreams Descend, and you'll see the reviewer excited to read this mix of The Phantom of the Opera and Moulin Rouge. The description sounds intriguing and dangerous, different than many other YA fantasies - not a fairy or vampire in sight, which is a nice relief. But that's kind of where my compliments end...I'm a huge Moulin Rouge fan. I've watched the movie more times than I can count, blasted the soundtrack in my car, and even seen the recent Broadway version in its test phase. I can confidently say that a woman being lowered from the ceiling while performing her showgirl act is the only commonality I could find with Moulin Rouge, unfortunately. If other reviewers found more I would love to know. I've never seen The Phantom of the Opera (don't @ me) so maybe that's why this book was so confusing to me. Because I basically had no idea what was going on for the entire book. And somehow I'm thinking it's not because I'm not familiar with the Phantom...

Where Dreams Descend suffers from too many ideas and not enough progression of the important ones. The book centers around Kallia, an orphaned showgirl who's a born magician in a world where you can either be born with magic or acquire it (this is all the info we get on this). She performs at the Hellfire House, a nightclub at the edge of a haunted(?) forest under The Master (no idea why he's called this), Jack. Her only dream (besides re-occurring nightmares, that is) is to escape Hellfire House to explore the rest of this magical world which we readers know little to nothing about. When she learns how deceitful Jack has been to her, she (quite easily, to me) escapes Hellfire House to go shoot her shot in Glorian - a mysterious city on the other side of the forest where they're holding a competition. The winner gets to headline The Conquering Circus and for Kallia this is everything she's ever wanted - freedom and a chance to prove her magical prowess.

So far, the description sounds pretty good, so you're probably wondering why I'm rating this so low. It's because this is pretty much the extent of the information you can extract from this book. Besides a couple of other side characters, one of whom is a love interest, everyone else is barely described. This is nice in terms of allowing readers to use their imagination for how the characters might appear, but hard when you're trying to keep track of who is who. All the other magicians in the competition are grouped together as a bunch of drunken idiots, making it hard to care when they start dropping like flies.

Similarly, it's hard to care about the mystery that is Glorian when we readers are given so few crumbs to gobble up. Glorian is a gated city that few have been to and even fewer can explain. This competition is the first time in memory they've invited outsiders through their door. Clearly, something funky is going on, but unfortunately we never really find out what. The book ends on a cliffhanger and there is a sequel planned so assumingly we'll find out, but the plot doesn't progress enough in this almost 500-page book for readers (at least me personally) to feel invested enough to continue on.

The world-building was incredibly inconsistent and the characters just way too lacking. Even the romance plot wasn't enough to intrigue me as the fire between the love interests went from 1 measly coal barely burning to a full-fledged fire within a chapter. I'm all for a slow burn, but that burn has to be consistent.

At the end of the day, this book was just confusing. Throughout the entire book, I felt like I had missed some key detail, and that's a feeling I hate having whether it comes from reading a book or watching a movie or TV show. There is little action throughout and the climax happens quickly and adds even more confusion. I finished the book even more befuddled than I started it. That confusion might lead me to pick up the next book in this series, but it won't come from a place of excitement, which is what a good cliffhanger ending will do. Hopefully others like this book more than I did, but it just feels like it should have gone through a few more rounds of edits.

Thank you for this arc! I enjoyed this book, but I would have liked a little more information regarding the backstory of Glorian, as well as certain aspects of the storyline pertaining to magic & the four families intermittently discussed. The plot itself was intriguing to me, but again would have been a little more understandable with a bit more backstory and information. What I enjoyed the most was Jack’s (Master) point of view, it was very mysterious & kept me wanting to know more of his story & what we are kept in the dark about regarding his character. I understand certain things were not told to the reader, since this is the first book in the series, but at times it felt a bit confusing without certain information & explanation. The ending was a cliffhanger & I personally look forward to reading the next book in the series to see what happens next!

A strong debut fantasy with a fascinating world and compelling characters.

This book begs comparisons to YA series such as Caraval, but I was surprised and pleased to see that it distinguished itself with strong feminist themes as well as unique rules for magic. It was also briskly plotted, with some nice twists along the way as well as a cliffhanger to keep readers waiting on baited breath for the sequel. The characters are also fascinating and complex.

One of the things I’m interested to see developed in the series is the relationships. There is some groundwork laid for the characters to learn to distinguish between healthy and toxic dynamics, which is a valuable lesson for readers of all ages.

Overall, an enjoyable and exciting first book in a new YA fantasy series.

Wow. Give me a minute..

This book was all I hoped for from a book that I saw advertised as a mash up between Phantom of the Opera, Caraval, and Moulin Rough... and maybe a little more.

Kallia is such a strong and awesome female lead character. I was thoroughly impressed by how much I actually enjoyed her. The author did an awesome job at slowly pulling away at her to get to the real grit of who she was.

I was thankful for the POV from all three of our leads. Stories told this way are so much more enticing, to me and I feel like they truly pull the readers in that much more.

This was a dark, broody, seductive, enigmatic read that caught my attention on levels that many YA books do not.
Definitely a must read!

I'm not going to lie, reading this book was a struggle to me, at first. It was so weird. I did not feel like I wanted to pick it up, It took me ten days to get to the 40% percent mark, but the next day, I had read the rest in one sitting. I honestly don't know how it happened. Everything was so slow, and I was confused over all that was going on. To summit up, I was bored. But then, something change, things started to happen, and I could NOT put it down.
I'm surprised I decided to rate this book 4-stars because circus themed books aren't my thing, but I thought it was pretty good. This book was different from everything I've read before, probably thanks to Kallia. She was such an interesting main character, likely because I wouldn't want to be friends with her. Her personality was annoying and too condescending at times, but I'm still not sure if that is really her, or the mask she wears for most of the story. Anyway, I liked her even when I couldn't stand her. Another character that I loved, but couldn't quite understand was Jack. Jack was, for me, THE mystery of the book. What does he want? What is his objective? Jack's relationship with Kallia was so mysterious I didn’t understand what it entailed. Lovers, friends, family...? This depiction was most certainly done on purpose. I have a love-hate relationship with not knowing what is going on.
Halfway through the book, I started enjoying the mysterious atmosphere, but the world-building was rather lacking. It enhanced the whole "I have no idea what is going on" at first, but then, you just followed the story. I hope the author goes more into detail about the world, magic, and politics in future books.
So basically, I have too many questions that still need to be answered.

I absolutely loved this book! If you are looking for an amazing fantastical book to sink your teeth into, then you NEED to read Where Dreams Descend. The ending left me wanting more, I cannot wait for the next book to come out! The characters were so well developed and enchanting, I especially appreciated that there was such a strong female lead, who does not give a crap about what anyone around her thinks.

i will read any circus book ever in the entire world ever created. this book was fantastic and full of fantasy and love and all good things. i love the cirucs and circus type books.

I had some trouble getting into this one that I’m going to attribute to how much ya fantasy I read. It reminded me a lot of Caraval which I did not care and I ended up putting it down about 1/4 of the way in. I’m going to try again because people have raved about this book!

From the day Wednesday Books announced this book deal, I was dying to read this story. The Night Circus...Caraval...Moulin Rouge....they are all "performances" I wish I could experience again for the first time, so WHERE DREAMS DESCEND seemed perfect for me; I was more than ready to be spellbound.

However, I wasn't. The book's comp titles are spot-on, but I was not sucked into Angeles' world the way I was with Erin Morgenstern and Stephanie Garber, nor did I connect to the characters. I could picture everything, the descriptions and dialogue smart and sharp, but I didn't find myself fully immersed or invested. I felt like I was watching a performance rather than being a part of one.

And I think most of that falls on me, so take the above with a gigantic grain of salt. Whenever I start a book, I like to dedicate time to really get into the story--an hour or two--and unfortunately, I did the exact opposite here. I would read only a chapter at a time before bed. WHERE DREAMS DESCEND definitely deserves more dedication than that, because the concept truly is enchanting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is a nice mash-up of Phantom of the Opera and Moulin Rouge. I love the world we were brought into and how the magic was explained and the performances, but I didn't like how immature Kallia seemed to get sometimes, I know we all do act immature sometimes but it seemed like she was for most of the book. , I do wish we had a little more background for Jack and the others, but I'm hoping we will in book 2. I have a lot of questions and hope they are answered in the next book. That being said I do agree that it is annoying how there are a lot of almost happenings with things in the books. I like a good tease but i'm dying here. I do think this would make a great movie though!

Thank you to Negalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you're looking for something a bit dark with shadows that bite, something enchanting with magic that will set you back with awe, and something a bit mysterious with twists that pounce around corners then WHERE DREAMS DESCEND needs to be your next read. Darkly dazzling and written with a captivating prose, the first book in Kingdom of Cards is sure to whet your appetite and have you clamoring for more.