Paranormal mystery with a perfect setting in Salem during Halloween. I had to know the story; honestly, it kept me glued to the headphones all day. The flow of the storyline was good, twists turns and the details that the author gave us during the reading were in perfect dose, to keep us interested and to want more. The characters are well-developed, and we can feel how they evolve during the story. This was my first and hopefully, I will read other books by this author.

The narrator did an outstanding job, and I enjoyed the performance. I hope to listen to other audiobooks narrated by her.

I listened to the ALC of this book back in August and overall enjoyed it. The pacing of the book was fast, the characters were well written and the storyline kept up my interest till the end. Lily is a modern witch living in Salem with the power of dream walking in people's dreams and although the book has a couple of dream walking sequences, I felt there could have been more instances for Lily to utilise it. Karen Krause did a good job narrating the book. Her narration was smooth and easily kept up with the pacing of the book.

My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher BooksGoSocial Audio and the author Nancy Gardner for the ALC.

A new and interesting mystery!

The setting is Salem, MA which made it fun to read. The main character is a dream walking witch with lots of family issues. The story line got me interested right from the beginning and kept me guessing until the very end. This is a mystery that includes the successful mending of many relationships which will improve life in the future. My favorite relationship was the one between the main character and her dead grandmother.

The narrator did an outstanding job. I hope to listen to other audiobooks.

I enjoyed listening to this story, very well written, kept my attention and wanting to find out what hapopens.

I received this digital ARC free from NetGalley for an honest review. This paranormal mystery was well written, and I enjoyed reading it. I also felt the narrator Karen Krause did a wonderful job. If you enjoy mysteries that have engaging storylines and pull you in, then you’re going to want to dive into this book.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

This was interesting enough but didn't really seem to hold my attention. I don't think it was due to the narrator as some reviews have said- she did an alright job- I just didn't connect enough with the story.

Dream Stalker by Nancy Gardner is the story of a modern day witch in Salem, Lily Scott, who was managing a number of personal issues including the death of her husband and the estrangement of her sister and daughter. She has nearly died as a teen dream walking and had been determined that she would never do it again. But she was faced with her daughter in jail charged with murder and she uses her ancestral gift as a dream walker to delve the mystery.

This audiobook took me a while to invest. The narrator was a good choice for the story, She was able to do the New England and Scottish accents exceptionally well, but it took me a number of chapters to acclimate to the accent and the voice and to truly connect with the story. Once the actual mystery became clear, the story picked up and and I enthusiastically listened to the rest of the book. At that point, the narrator’s performance seemed to hit a groove that enhanced the story. It was a good mystery with a different type of crime solving. I could see a series being born from this book. I would recommend this book for mystery overs who love a paranormal twist. I am rating this book 3.5 stars due to my delayed connection to both the narration and the story. I am voluntarily submitting this honest review after listening to an advanced complementary copy of this audiobook thanks to Netgalley and BooksGoSocial Audio.

I hate when I simply cannot get past the narrator's voice to enjoy the story, and that is why I am choosing to rate this at 3 - but I just couldn't listen past about 15 minutes in with the narration grating on my very existence. I would love to review this title in print.

The perfect blend of fantasy and thriller, Dream Stalker follows the life of Lily Scott. Having been estranged from her daughter, Lily is trying to rebuild their relationship when the loss of a friend sends her on a journey of discovery to try and find the truth.

Involving a multiple murder investigation, the rekindling of relationships, adoption of a dog and an introduction to the world of Dream Walking, Dream Stalker allows us to see how different worlds can coexist, despite initial appearances.

If you are originally from Northern New England then you quite possibly have heard about a relative that was related to the Salem witches. I know I am. I've been to Salem. It's a lovely college town. And I absolutely believe in witches. I've often heard "You get that from your grandmother" when I would know what was going to happen before it did. I've never heard of a Dream Stalker so this was intense for me. I really enjoyed it.

This story has an interesting premise with a lot of complex characters. I have to admit I struggled with the narrator and I wasn’t sure I was going to finish the audiobook. However after maybe 2 chapters I got used to the narrator and I appreciated the different inflections and accents.
The story is set in Salem, Massachusetts and follows a witch that is scared to use her main talent and her non magical family. Lily Scott is estranged from her sister and her troubled daughter. Her daughter is accused of a murder and Lily uses her ability to dream walk to help prove her daughter innocent.
The story is good but with a lot of backstory that makes the pacing seem slow. Once Lily really starts her investigation the pace picks up. There were several chapters where I felt Lily was dense and kept on making the same mistakes. I felt like screaming don’t go anywhere by yourself. But overall this book is action packed! Lily puts herself in harms way to prove her daughter Sarah innocent. Also, Lily does her best to help her religious sister save their family home that she uses to aid women in need.
This is the first time I have read a book by this author and I definitely would recommend her and this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to review this audio book.

Book Title: Dream Stalker
Author: Nancy Gardner
Narrator: Karen Krause
Publisher: BooksGoSocial Audio
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Pub Date was: June 23, 2022 - Archive Date: August 27, 2023
My Rating: 2.3 due to disappointing audio 😥
Pages 257


“Dream Stalker” features modern day Salem, Massachusetts in October with all the crazy Halloween activities.
Our protagonist Lily Scott is a modern day dream-walking ‘Salem Witch’ who is also an amateur sleuth. She is able to walk into other people’s dreams with the purpose of fighting crime.
Her last adventure had her nearly killed so she had vowed never to dream-walk again.
When her daughter is wrongly accused of murder, Lily knows she has to save her,

I wanted to love this as it has many elements that I find soooo interesting.
I find The Salem Witch hunt of 1692 so bizarre yet has always fascinated me. I am also good with paranormal especially in a Halloween story!

When I saw that Author Nancy Gardner enjoys writing cozy mysteries with a paranormal twist, I knew I wanted to read this!

Story isn’t bad in fact if I read the book I probably would say it was good but I wasn’t pleased with the audiobook narrator’s performance of many of the characters.

I am a big audiobook fan but a narrator snob.
The narrator did a great job performing some of the characters however, there were a few that had me wanting to increase the speed or fast forward! This narrative was irritating and totally took away from my enjoyment of this story.

Want to thank NetGalley and BooksGoSocial Audio for this audiobook..
Publishing Release Date was June 23, 2022.

I only got about 15 minutes into this audiobook before I had to stop listening. I am not sure if the copy I received had poor audio quality but the narrator's voice sounded computer-generated and I very quickly become too irritated to continue, I will seek out a hard copy of this novel so that I can properly write a review of its content but I could not finish the audiobook version.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Paranormal mystery with a perfect setting in Salem during Halloween. I had to know the story; honestly, it kept me glued to the headphones all day. The flow of the storyline was good, twists turns and the details that the author gave us during the reading were in perfect dose, to keep us interested and to want more. The characters are well-developed, and we can feel how they evolve during the story. This was my first and hopefully, I will read other books by this author.

The narrator did an outstanding job, and I enjoyed the performance. I hope to listen to other audiobooks narrated by her.

I was not completely engaged in this book. This is mostly due to the narration. I did not enjoy the narrators voice. It was very monotone and I couldn’t feel the story.

This is is a cozy mystery, set in Salem, Ma with a dream-walking aspect and a witchy lead, so it has lots going for it. It’s dubbed ‘a paranormal mystery’, but I didn’t find any paranormal aspects, unless you’re counting the elements I already mentioned. It’s definitely a ‘whodunnit’, though easily predictable.

What I loved:
The setting—having grown up in the area the book was set in, I found it accurate and felt myself transported there … well, semi-transported there, as I listened to the audio and the accents were terrible.

I enjoyed the female lead and her trips back into the past to give the readers some background. The present-day mysteries and bodies she found herself sort of surrounded by got a little far-fetched before long, this could’ve been done better, IMO.

The writing had some showing, but also a lot of telling, so it wasn’t exactly gripping.

What I didn’t love:
It was slow-paced and a bit dull due to the prevalence of ‘telling’. Not bad by any means though, overall, I’d rate this 3 stars.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Audio:
The audio isn’t great … for the bulk of it, FMC’s narrative, voice, etc., it sounds like AI. (I WISH I enjoyed AI-narration, but I just struggle with it.) When other characters were depicted, despite this being set in Salem, Massachusetts, just a few miles north of Boston (and where I grew up) the accents are not Boston/Salem-genuine. While they did occasionally drop their Rs, they added lilts and other sounds from other areas of the U.S.

If not for the fact that a human is credited with this, I’d think it were in fact AI.

I recommend reading, rather than listening, if like me, you don’t like the sound of robotic reading. The production however, was decent. Not the best overall sound quality I’ve heard, but good.

Narration: 1 star. ⭐️
Production: 4 stars. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I felt like the dream stalking part wasn’t as important as it should have been. Instead, an entirely other story line played out and seemed like the dream stalking came in handy a few times. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator was very monotone. I feel like I would have liked this book better if there had been a different narrator and better story.

Dream Stalker by Nancy Gardner follows main character Lily Scott through her hometown in Salem, Massachusetts as she tries to solve a murder that her daughter is being charged with. Lily believes her daughter is innocent and will stop at nothing to prove the truth, including Dream Walking. Lily is a contemporary witch who descends from a long line of witches born with the power to walk into other people's dreams to reveal truth and find justice for those wronged. Lily's grandmother warns her of the dangers this power comes with when not performed correctly. Unfortunately Lily’s first attempt results in a near death experience that leads to her father cutting her off from her grandmother and all the knowledge she provides. When her grandmother dies suddenly, without passing on the information Lily requires, Lily then vows to never Dream Walk again. She must now break that vow to save her daughter, and herself.
I have mixed feelings about this one. It was a well written story but I would have liked to hear more “dream walking”, more encounters with the dangers of dream walking and maybe a little insight into who the dream stalker is.. Considering the book was named after this creature that we never truly get to know anything about. With that said, I enjoyed the story of Lily and what she went through to save her family. I enjoyed the re-connection with her sister and the friendships made and expanded upon. The narrator was a little hard to listen to at first but definitely got better throughout the book. It was very confusing at first because she kept melding her accents and it became difficult to follow until she finally found her groove about midway. It felt like a melting pot of different accents when there was not a character with dialogue. By this I mean, sometimes it was a Boston accent, sometimes British, occasionally an Irish brogue, then sometimes back to full on American. I'm all for separate voices for characters and narration but this was not that, not at first.
All in all I liked the story, so I gave this one a 3 star rating. Great for anyone looking for a light mystery with no spice and a decent story line. <!> An enormous Thank You to NetGalley, Nancy Gardner, and Bowker Books for allowing me the opportunity to read this title in exchange for my honest review. <!>

DNF. I found the narrator to be slow in telling the story and I couldn't connect so I was unable to finish the book.

Warning this book has references to suicide, abuse and addiction.

The story is interesting. It took me a minute to feel the narrator.

Our protagonist is a 50 something widow who is also a witch. Naturally she lives in Salem because witches live in places notorious for killing witches.
Her hobbies include invading folx dreams to make sure they aren't doing crimes.

I love books with older ladies still living and doing things.