I enjoyed the freshness and personality given to this story and feel like it is perfect for needs of mere entertainment rather than looking for a story that has some deeper philosophical umph.

Where Dreams Descend is an un-put-down-able adventure. Angeles beautifully develops a lush, magical world that immediately draws the reader in. I truly would read this book just for the setting but the most intriguing part for me was the way the story combined magic and mystery. The plot kept grabbing me in and I couldn't let go until I finished. I took away one star because I didn't find the protagonist to be different than many other fantasies I've read before.

DNF
Unfortunately thisbook just couldn;t keep my interest, which is such a shame I thought I'd truely enjoy this book.

I am a sucker for any and all things Phantom of the Opera, so I knew I had to have this. The setting and the magic system were solid. Some of this book was really here just to set up the sequel, so I'm hoping that one is more action packed and offers more character development. I wanted to feel the romance more than I did. It looks like there could be a potential of more romantic interests and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I'm not typically into love triangles because one of the love interests is usually far superior, so if they choose to go that route I want to be torn. I want angst and seduction, as much as young adult gives me that is.

This one is a slow burn, but if you want women magicians, a circus, and mystery this is a good bet.

This was extremely enjoyable, but it was all a bit bland to me? The story was 'just' okay, as were the characters and their development. I really did enjoy the ending, it had me positively reeling!

The writing is beautiful. The characters are interesting. It was a little slow to start but I truly enjoyed it & am looking forward to the second installment.

This was a delight from beginning to end. Kallia is a young woman with magical talents where a woman with magic is not accepted. Choosing to escape the mysterious master, Jack, she travels to a magic competition to show the world what she can do. Demarco lost his magic in a tragic accident, yet no one knows, so when he is tasked to judge the magical competition, he reluctantly agrees, but quickly finding himself intrigued by the alluring Kallia. When her competitors begin to disappear, those around her look to Kallia for blame. Demarco and Kallia, although distrustful of one another, and yet drawn to one another begin to work together to find out what is going on with the competition, however things become even more complicated and the danger is closer than Kallia could ever imagine.

I love the combination of mystery and intrigue. For me it was such a perfect balance - the magical element added to the overall effect. I look forward to the second book in the series.

I wanted so badly to love this book, but I just didn't. I was extremely bored and couldn't connect to any of the characters. The writing style just didn't jive with me. It's such a bummer, because that cover is gorgeous and the synopsis sounded so intriguing! I definitely think lots of people will love this book, though, and that it will appeal to fans of Ace of Shades.

This book had wonderful Greatest Showman vibes, and the cast of characters were really well developed. It was great to read a circus based book.

I greatly enjoyed this! The beginning felt a little slow to me but I ended up enjoying the pace and the plot of this story! Looking forward to book 2

I had to DNF this book. I was so confused and just not feeling it. It seemed to have so much potential, but I was so lost. I hate to be that person, but I do usually struggle with carnival/circus performer type stories. Please don't let my opinion weigh too heavily on if you decide to read this book, but maybe at least try out the sample to see if this book is for you.

Even so, I may try this book again someday in the future once the series is complete.

I finished this book in one day and for good reason!

It was so pretty and well done!

Think magical competition of the night circus meets phantom of the opera and that’s it. That’s the book and it’s beautiful for it.

The setting and the magic was wonderful

The fact that even after the end we still don’t know a lot of about Jack makes me love it more.

I don’t know who I was Kallia with, Jack seems to love her but he loves her as a thing or does he. It’s not clear. But Demarco seems to love her and he’s hiding something.

Love triangles don’t die as a trope and that’s fine. Bring it on.

This book is confusing. It leaves you with more questions than answers. Only vague feelings about most of the characters because they're not really fleshed out or have too much mystery surrounding them. And am I the only one who doesn't see the comparison to The Phantom of the Opera?

I'm not really sure how I feel about this book hence the 3 stars. There were some parts I liked, others I didn't. For one thing, I think there's just way too much mystery in it. There's mystery about where our main character first lives, then there's mystery about the town she journeys to. There's mystery about the mentor she had for her magic practice then mystery in the next magician she makes a connection with. There's mystery in the entire competition when things keep going wrong for our main character. It does add to the mystical uncertainty vibe I think the author was going for but it didn't make for a very pleasant reading experience since I was constantly trying to puzzle out what was going on the entire 400+ pages. There's very few things that have any kind of concrete element to anchor the book.

The pacing was quite slow for me and ultimately I felt it had too much detail in the wrong areas. We're given detailed paragraphs of every single place our main character visits so the reader can picture the setting but then the worldbuilding is weak. After 400+ pages, I still have no idea how the magic system works in the world. Why some magicians are born and some use acquired magic and how the latter even acquire said magic. It took me until about 75% in to understand what a "labor magician" was since it was only associated with women magicians and so I assumed they were midwives of a sort but they're in fact just magicians who are basically maids I believe? I have literally so many questions about the characters and world which I assume will be answered in the second book but I'm also fearful will be glommed over for the sake of the storyline such as why the Patrons, some sort of researching and enforcing group for magicians, have never looked into Glorian, where the competition takes place, when it's surrounded by rumors and intrigue and widely known to be so.

I did enjoy the romance which boosted the story for me. And it was interesting to be able to see things from different points of view with the way the story is written in third person. The main character is pretty likeable and it's admirable how she is determined not to let misogynism stop her or intimidate her. Some of the side characters are pretty bland and flat, especially the other competitors. But I really enjoyed Daron's character, one of the competition's judges, and am intrigued to see the truth behind the mystery of him. Some portions of the book are predictable but since so much of the story has yet to be resolved, the mystery continues into the second book.

Overall, if you're a big fan of mystery and "the big picture" books, then you'll probably enjoy this. But you may want to wait to pick it up until closer to the second book's release so you'll remember all of the mysteries still yet to be solved and won't have to wait for answers like the rest of us.

This one was a bit too slow-paced for me. I struggled to get into it. But the language was beautiful and the cover was gorgeous!

I struggled greatly to get into this book. There were parts that were too descriptive and many of the characters felt way too young for a YA read. I will not be posting a review on my blog of this one.

Admittedly, it took me a little while to truly get into Where Dreams Descend, but after I did, I enjoyed it quite a lot.
I had a hard time at first, visualizing some of the characters and memorizing names; not something I usually struggle with; but I felt like some of the character introductions were a little short (yet, there where many of them at the same time / in very prompt intervalls) and that resulted in said troubles, most likely.

I also needed time to grasp how the society in the world of Where Dreams Descend works, because it seemed almost opposite to what I would have expected from it. That might have been intentional to get a message across though and I'd like to possibly get some more background info in the follow up novel.

I already bought a copy for the library! It reminds me of "Night Circus". It has a similar vibe but for YA audience. That is the best review I could give it!

I honestly have no earthly idea how to rate this book. It's somewhere in the 3-star range, but I have no idea how to pinpoint it. There were parts that I liked and parts that I didn't. I think the writing was nice and descriptive and there were some plot aspects I liked. The last 100 pages were my favorite part and I liked the aspects of the mirrors. The characters in this book felt a little bit juvenile for a YA book that seemed at a cursory glance to be a darker, grimmer story. They felt very young to me which just isn't really my vibe. The plot was okay. I liked aspects of it, but other things I just felt ambivalent about. The world was interesting enough to keep my attention. Overall, this was fun, I guess, but still, I don't know how to quantify or articulate my opinions, so I'm sorry this review was all over the place.

Edit: Okay, I think I've settled on a 3.75. I'll probably read the sequel too but I still have no idea lol.

This was a little bit heavier of a fantasy read than I was expecting. There are things I liked and things I disliked, although the things I disliked outweigh the more positive things. However, I don’t think that will stop me from reading the sequel, so here is why.

I enjoyed the side characters, especially Aaros and Canary. They were Kallia’s found family, and she couldn’t have asked for better. The tension between her and Demarco was well done throughout, and the slow reveal of Jack as maybe not THE villain to fear.

But this book is too long. There are a lot of unnecessary descriptions that just added pages, and in the end, the payoff wasn’t there. The tension had been building and building, but there wasn’t a satisfactory outlet for it. Even in a series, one book should still be a complete story, and point us in the direction of where the next book is going. But this book did not feel like a complete story; it not only left us hanging, but also didn’t answer hardly ANY questions it had posed. That really frustrated me, because we should’ve gotten some answers instead of being forced to wait who knows how long for the next book. It wasn’t just a cliffhanger; it just wasn’t a complete story by itself. If you’re relying completely on a sequel to tie things up, then you haven’t told enough of a story in the first one. Which goes back to the time spent on unnecessary details and not on what really mattered.

I like the characters enough to read the next one, but I wish I felt like I knew what was going on.

DNFed this book. There was a lot of lush imagery which I love but I found that I wasn't able to connect to the characters and eventually, I just lost interest in the book.