This was a very confusing, yet entertaining read. You give me magicians, unapologetic women who know their worth, some enemies to lovers and mystical writing and I’m 100% there. Not much was explained in terms of the mystery and again, I am still confused upon finishing the book, but with the promise of a sequel/finale, I’m not too upset and will be right in line for the next installment.

Where Dreams Descend is definitely the beginning of my new favorite series.
It was fast paced, full of magic and with an empowering feminism in action. I need to say that it definitely seems aimed to an upper YA audience, but there isn’t explicit content on it. It had the Phantom of the Opera/Moulin Rouge vibes. Lots of edgy performances, slow-burn romance, secrets and attempt to overthrow the patriarchy with grace and talent.

ilipino-American debut author Janella Angeles’ Where Dreams Descend is the tale of Kallia, a showgirl wanting to prove herself in the male-dominated world of stage magic. Joining a competition in the city of Glorian against all odds, she and her mentor, Demarco, soon are up against much more than either of them bargained for. Reminiscent of cult favourites such as The Night Circus and Caraval, Where Dreams Descend takes the reader into a world of illusion and glamour, both of the magical and the mundane kind. While this won’t be my new favourite book – it is too trope-heavy and reminiscent of mid-2010s YA for my personal taste and not gritty and philosophical enough, I see this being a summer hit and something much of YA fantasy fandom will love.

This book was decadent and delicious and I realize I risk sounding like I'm *actually* reviewing dark chocolate... but it's true. This was everything I wanted. It takes the best parts of some of my favorite stories and makes them something else entirely - really the best sort of book.

The story twists and turns with a magic competition and the question of what's real and what is illusion like Caraval. It captures the glitter of the stage and the frantic energy of Moulin Rouge, with a current of the mysterious and deadly darkness of Phantom of the Opera running underneath.

The setting is beautiful and mysterious and deadly. The haunted Dire Woods that cause madness in all who enter. The frenzy and illusion of the Hellfire Club. The pastel boringness of Glorian that masks deadly secrets.

I loved the characters. Kallia, with her brash confidence masking her loneliness and desperate desire to escape, and her determination to best the men trying to put her in her place. Demarco, running from his past and searching for his sister with equal frenzy. Aaros, with his mischievous thievery and uncomplicated loyalty. The Conquering Circus, where illusion and magic form true friendships. And, of course, dark, brooding, complicated, mysterious Jack.

As the story twists and turns, loyalties shift and the line between ally and enemy becomes less clear.

The book ends on a pretty big cliffhanger, and I eagerly await the sequel. I need to find out more about just what is haunting the city of Glorian, and where Jack's loyalties actually lie.

I'm a big fan of the ghost of opera and I enjoyed this book to the fullest, wow I wanted to read a book like this and my prayers were fulfilled. Thank you for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Thank you to Wednesday Book and Net Galley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I loved this book! It was intriguing from the very beginning, and I loved how strong Kallia is as a character. I'm a sucker for any books related to circuses or carnivals, and this one did not disappoint! The dark, moody setting, and the mystery of the town and the disappearances made this book a definite page turner from beginning to end. Can't wait for more!

There is a city hidden in the woods. People say the forest surrounding the city is cursed.
Kallia is a talented magician that has always dreamed of going there.
When she hears about a magical competition getting ready to be held there, she knows it's her time to shine.

This book had Phantom of the Opera vibes and I loved it. Kallia is a great MC, I loved Demarco, Aaros, and of course the ladies of the Conquering Circus. It's fast-paced and intriguing. I admit I was skeptical because most books I've read with any circus theme are usually flops for me, but this was great! There are so many unanswered questions that I cannot wait for the next one.

This book is perfect for fans of circus themed books. The author does a great job of featuring the magic of the competition without neglecting the plot. The pacing was well done. It doesn’t suffer like many books with an info dump at the beginning. When we first meet the MC she is living in what seems to be a sort of magical boarding house. When she tries to sneak away she learns her living arrangements aren’t as voluntary as she once believed. The magic system is slowly revealed throughout the competition as we also learn about the politics and complications of the outside world. I felt the romance was very well done. I was slightly worried about a love triangle but it didn’t end up as a focus in this book at least. The author paints a very compelling backstory for both the main characters. Overall I gave it 4/5 stars. Without spoiling, some parts of the mystery could have been flushed out a little better. Perhaps they will be in the second book but it seems towards the end a lot was happening all of a sudden which became a little distracting and unnecessary. I’m very interested to see how the characters back stories end up tying into the finale of the book.

First, let me admit that while I enjoy the (more than) occasional show-tune, I am not a huge circus fan... However, The Greatest Showman was amazing and I liked Moulin Rouge and Phantom of the Opera so I was excited to start this book!

There were some really great aspects of this book... and also some aspects that really didn't do it for me. Since this is an arc and the book isn't released yet, I'm going to just give a brief explanation of what I liked and didn't quite like below.

What I liked most about this about was the writing! I was blown away by how the writer accurately portrayed such a dark and moody world in a beautiful way! I also liked the main character Kalia and I appreciated her motivation to become more than a showgirl. Finally, I appreciated the themes of gender equality and feminism.

What didn't quite work for me was the lack of world-building and even the strength of plot line. I'm not really sure what going on in the world and cities names were just kind of thrown in there and I didn't get enough information as to their culture and diversity to really dream up the world. As for the plot, if you take it for a fun ride and don't think too much, it was enjoyable and definitely ends on a cliffhanger. But personally, I wanted a bit more.

Overall, I liked it. I will probably pick up the second so I can see if some of the issues I had with the story are resolved or explained more.

Thank you so much for this early copy!

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. I think it might’ve been too lush of a world for me. I like things that are simple without being too overly complicated. I wish I could’ve gotten into it, since I’ve heard amazing things.

A glorious debut! I loved the spectacle, the sumptuous world building, the dark and twisting turns! It made me ache to be a stage manger again!

Oh. My. God! This book is amazing!
I kid you not when I say that EVERY bit of this story is a mystery. Every character. Every location.
I'm completely torn because I don't know who to trust or what is real, and I'm dying to know!

Where Dreams Descend is a magical masterpiece!

Where Dreams Descend was one of my most anticipated books of the year: the combination of Moulin Rouge X Phantom of the Opera, two of my absolute favourite pieces of media, was so powerful. But ultimately, as lush as this was at times, I hate to admit I was a little bored. There doesn't seem to be much of a plot for a lot of the book, instead the majority of the book are just detailed descriptions of Kallia's show. Which was amazing the first time! And the second time! But by the end, I was just a bit underwhelmed because that's all there was.

Where Dreams Descend follows Kallia, a showgirl magician who is running away from a master, Jack, the owner of the house she performs at. She runs to Glorian, an odd city who seems to hate magic and have forgotten everything about their past. But Glorian is trying to put itself back on the map and so are holding a competition to find a magician to be the star of a circus. Kallia, the only woman in the competition, enters herself and vows to win at all costs. But Jack isn't keen on letting her go...

I love a good story about theatre, performance, dance, performing magicians! As a theatre nerd in my school days, the setting of this book was so perfect. Between Kallia's time as a showgirl with Jack, and then her experiences as a magician, I really enjoyed the lush and detailed prose around these (at least the first few times….) I also liked exploring Glorian, this old dead city with an intriguing layout and lots of old dusty buildings to explore. That is completely my jam. Did I wish we had more of it? Yes. The worldbuilding was limited - it almost felt like having the city forgetting everything about their past was kind of an easy way out to avoid actually having to world build?

When we get to the characters, we have three main players:
- Kallia: a powerful magician and performer who adores the spotlight. I did really appreciate the way Angeles made Kallia so ambitious, even to the detriment of others, as I think that's a trait we still don't see much of in female characters.
- Jack: the mysterious, brooding master. We don't get much time with Jack and that made me struggle to understand his goals: I still have no idea why he was so obsessed with Kallia because we spent so little time with him.
- Demarco: Demarco felt the most fleshed out to me of these three, and he felt like a much more complex figure. He's got a secret to hide, a missing sister he's trying to find, no one knows why he no longer uses magic, so he's this tense and stressed out figure who really makes sense to me. I also love how flustered Kallia made him, it was a very cute trait!

The side characters however were my favourites. I particularly liked the grouchy old seamstriss who helps out with Kallia's costumes; Aaros, Kallia's trusty sidekick, he's just such a loyal and caring character and I felt he really shone; and Lottie, a journalist and also apparently the only person who can actually get shit done.

However, the lack of a plot or any resolution to anything is something I really struggled with. For most of the book, it's just scene after scene of Kallia in her dressing room preparing for a show, Kallia performing in said show, Kallia passing out from magic. And repeat. There needs to have a plot or something that's driving the story onward. In Where Dreams Descend, odd things are happening with magicians from the competition disappearing and more, but no one cares? Instead everyone brushes it past it very quickly and we just have another three chapters focusing on yet another Kallia performance. There was just no point to anything? And so becuase of the repetitive nature, I just found it quite boring. And I am devastated that I felt this way because I thought I would adore this. We find out nothing about what's actually happening in the city ever? It just ends? I assume there will be a second book exploring the "villain"....but I just felt that almost 500 pages of almost nothing but Kallia dancing and performing magic could easily have been edited down and condensed and we could have had more interaction and mystery that engaged with the actual villains.

So ultimately this was a disappointment to me. I was so excited for this, it's pretty much my dream pairing of Moulin Rouge and Phantom of the Opera. And whilst I did initially enjoy the lush, unhurried nature of Kallia's magic and performance, the lack of a plot and repetitive nature of this book really impacted my enjoyment.

This super-fun novel reminded me of The Phantom of the Opera… not the original book, but the musical. Reading the author’s bio and seeing that she is likely to be “listening to musicals on repeat,” I wonder if it’s an inspiration. A mysterious and sexy man tutors a girl in magic. She runs away to become a star on her own and falls for a younger, nicer guy who is hiding a secret. There is a gorgeous theatre and magical performances and something shady is going on. All the characters are vivid and fleshed out, not just the main ones but also the very large supporting cast. The world-building is so vivid that it’s like being there, in a city of ashes and ice. You can almost feel the velvety theatre curtains, smell the flowers in Kallia’s greenhouse and taste the coffee in the Prima hotel. A word of warning, this is the first volume of a duology so we’re left with a big, huge cliffhanger. I can’t wait for the next book, I really like this story.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/St. Martin's Press!

I don't read many fantasy books, but the description of this book intrigued me. It took me a little bit to get into it (the pacing felt a little off), but it sucked me in after a few chapters. I loved Kaillia and thought she was a great main character and the plot of the competition was interesting. The problem with reading an ARC of a duology is having to wait to find out what happens. I can't wait to read the next book!

Books dealing with magic are usually a hit or miss for me. I'm so glad that this one was a hit !
First, of all, I'm really grateful that I even got to read Where dreams descend at all ! It's the first time one of my wishes has been granted on Netgalley !

Let's start with what caught my attention first : the ambience of the book.
I got drawn to the magical circus atmosphere that can be found throughout the book. You get it in Jack's place (that felt somewhat Moulin Rouge like !), you get it in Glorian, everywhere ! It kind of felt like was around Kallia, Jack, and Demarco, and they were all wrapping me in their magic. That was beautiful.

That being said, I was a little sad that during the magic shows, I didn't get as much magic as I wanted. Sure, there are spectacular acts, but I loved it so much I kept wanting more ! I want fire, ice, over-the-top magicians and gasps in the audience !
Now, it gets a little better, since magic is also happening outside of the stage. The way Jack interacts with Kallia through his magic, the way the Conquering Circus crew did casual magic on some night, and the way Demarco is doing magic made me quite happy ! I'm glad magic was not confined to a show stage.

Regarding the characters : OMG the chemistry is real ! It's real between every single character in that story ! Sure, we got the love sub-plot doing formidably, but everyone is interacting with anyone beautifully ! Kallia and Demarco wasn't even my favorite relationship ! I enjoyed seeing Kallia and Jack interacting, with all their history weighing on them as well as everything new...

As usual for me, I loved the side characters almost more than the main ones ! Aaros is absolutely fabulous as Kallia's friend. He's the friend we all want to have. My only regret is that he was rather a tool character more than an actual living character. He has his own thought on some matters, but most of the time, he's just here whenever Kallia needs him, and then he disappears until the next problem. I just wished he had some more things going on for himself.
Lottie is also a character I truly enjoyed, and I hope to see her more developped in the sequel. She could get REALLY interesting !

If you're looking for a book capable of sweeping you off your feet, search no more, you have found it. Magic, love, drama, secrets, tension : you got it all, and it's wonderful.

Where Dreams Descend put a spell on me and I'm not even mad!

In a world where only men can become stage magicians and women have to stay in the shadows, Kallia has lived a sheltered life in Hellfire House. She loves her magic and she wants to make a name for herself, to control her life.

Kallie joins the magical competition where one magician will become the headliner for the Conquering Circus. A competition that is taking place in the mysterious city of Glorian, that has kept itself from the outside world.

The strongest point to this book were the characters. There is so much complexity to Kallie as she wrestles with her dreams and her past. And the same can be said about Demarco, one of the judges, who is lost amongst the world. However, with a city so against a woman as a performance magician, Kallie shows perseverance and stubbornness to overcome the prejudices thrown at her. And I really adored her, she shone through the pages.

The overall mystery kept me on my toes as the competition went on, the small magical acts had me daydreaming and the ending shattered my heart. I'm left with numerous questions that need answering.

And I always appreciate a character that loves sweets as much as I do (Aaros snatching those bags of candy, CAN RELATE)!

Where Dreams Descend is a dreamy and courageous debut that promises the greatest of performances and advises to not trust anything as it appears to be.

Sigh. Another disappointing read. This book started out with so much promise! I was intrigued by the idea of a setting with a circus and magical elements, but this book fell flat for me. First of all, it was completely over-written. Half of the time the sentences (paragraphs) were so flowery that I got to the end and actually would ask myself "what just happened?" I had to re-read passages over and over to glean some meaning from all the adjectives and adverbs that had been piled on top of each other. This may not be the best example of what I'm trying to describe, but when I read it I laughed out loud because it felt so ridiculous...

<i> "She almost twisted her ankle in her intense yet graceless battle to reach the ground."</i> LOL I'M SORRY WUT? Since when can stepping off a horse be described as an "intense yet graceless battle to reach the ground?" I mean please, I can't be the only one laughing out loud at this, right?!

My other major quip with the book is the "relationship" between Daron/Demarco (pick a name and go with it! Gah!). I mean...talk about NO chemistry. The author tried to create this intense hate-love back and forth heated romance, but it was entirely unconvincing, and they flip-flopped back and forth more than a fish in its last throes of life. If their relationship was a ping-pong match, I would've had whiplash by the end of the game. It was meant to come across (I think??) as a tense and competitive chemistry complicated by each of their secret pasts but it was SO eye-roll worthy, and ultimately boring. It was not a slow burn, it was a fire that continued to be put out and artificially re-ignited.

The last main problem I'll address is the absolutely MIND-BOGGLING lack of care/attention anyone paid to all the disappearing/maimed magicians and circus performers. EVERY SINGLE affected person disappears or is found with a card in their place/next to them with creepy wording on it, and literally NOT ONE PERSON thinks ANYTHING of it until a journalist is called into town??? (Also, why was she brought in? That move made NO sense except to serve as an entirely obvious conduit to revealing more of Daron/Demarco's past). It's like this "giant mystery" except nobody seems to notice or care that all these people are being kidnapped(?)/harmed and clearly all the disappearances/injuries are related because of the cards, yet nobody pays them any mind. It makes absolutely no sense.

I wasn't interested in ANY of the circus characters because they all just blended together as this makeshift glorified marching band for the "all-powerful" Kallia, the main character, which felt like a real shame. Aaros was the best character (or seemed to be, until the end when he basically just served as an errand boy/unquestioning servant boy for Kallia).

I wanted to love this, but I didn't...at all. 2 stars because there's hope for the second book if the author can peel back her writing 2-3 layers so the beauty remains but we can actually figure out what the heck is going on :).

~ Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for inviting me to participate in the blog tour for this release and sending me an early copy in exchange for an honest review ~

DNF @ 74%

I'm so sad that I didn't love this one. I really, really wanted to. Since I heard the synopsis, I'd been dying to get my hands on a copy, and when I was approved for an ARC I was elated! And then, when it showed up in my OwlCrate in this gorgeous edition, I thought it was meant to be. Clearly, that was not the case.

This book didn't work for me for a lot of reasons, but it wasn't an entirely negative experience. While I realized that the positives weren't enough to get me to want to continue, they should still be recognized.

Pros
- Aaros is a KING and was legitimately the only character I liked and felt like could possibly be a real human being, which is funny considering he's a side character, but oh well
- one of the pros is the "prose" ha! but really, the writing in here when it came to description was solid (the dialogue on the other hand... we'll come back to that)
- the beginning setting of this book was so cool. I loved the greenhouse and the dance studio aspect, the mirrors breaking, and Jack in general. However, Kallia quickly leaves to a new location and set of events, which I found to be... lacking

Cons
- the dialogue. I feel kind of bad saying this, but the dialogue and the way in which characters interact in this book is so cringeworthy it really ruined any hopes of me enjoying most scenes. I could feel the author trying to appeal to a certain audience, and unfortunately I feel like that audience was Wattpad readers (no shade to Wattpad readers, but that's really not the vibe I'm trying to find in the books I read) [the one that literally made me decide to stop reading this book is when a judge suggestively asks what Daron and Kallia had been doing alone together and THIS is what happens in response: "Without a word, he neared Judge Bouquet, calmly and sure-footed, as though he were walking up to shake his hand. The judge barely had enough time to wipe his sneer off before Demarco's fist cracked against the old man's jaw, sending him to the floor." IM SORRY WHAT NOW? Is that not the most random Wattpad-y response you have ever seen?? Also, don't forget the scene just continues like that didn't just happen after that! So fun! So realistic and normal!]
- the pacing is so incredibly slow my god. The plot is very, very simple, which can work in some cases, but here... no. Nothing new started happening in the book until literally ¾ of the way through

And now, drumroll please............

The Worst Offense:
The Infuriating Repetition!

I cannot TELL you how many times I was told that Demarco (aka Daron- why does he have two names??) was struck by his past. Over half of this book is repetitive scenes used to get Demarco to have a negative reaction to magic because of the accident in the past. I got 74% of the way through this book and STILL have never been shown what that is. It's quite hard to literally care at all about his random magic aversion when it's shoved down our throats BUT ONLY THROUGH SHEER TELLING AND LITERALLY ZERO SHOWING. After like the fifth incident of this I no longer had any hope of ever being able to stand him.

The same kind of applies to Kallia sadly... but to a lesser extent. Of course being a female magician in this male dominated field is very hard and unfair and I genuinely like the idea of exploring that in this book. However, the way it was handled here... boy oh boy was it not what I was hoping for. Kallia takes it to an extent of assuming any and all males are constantly intimidated by and/or are attracted to her. There is not one moment where she doesn't think the world revolves around her. I truly do wish I could have resonated with her more, because I get the struggle she would feel in this world, but the way she handles it WOW I could not stand it.

Overall, I'm really disappointed with what happened here. If you want to read this story but without the insufferable nature that I personally found within it, definitely check out Caraval by Stephanie Garber.

I judge a book a lot on... the first chapter. The first chapter of "Where Dreams Descend" takes place in a magical nightclub. A chandelier comes down with a magical, sexy showgirl (the main character). I immediately thought of the opening with the chandelier in "The Phantom of the Opera." The entrance of the showgirl on the chandelier is reminiscent of Nicole Kidman in "Moulin Rouge"...and then I looked the book up again and realized.. oh, so that's what this is.THAT being said, if you like these two comparisons, you will love the introduction of "Where Dreams Descend."

I found the beginning of "Where Dreams Descend" to be slow. The main character, Kallia, is a magician that wants to be taken seriously but is stuck living with the Phantom, ahem, I mean Jack. He teaches her magic and tells her that the world outside the club is awful.

Kallia gets sick of being quarantined and leaves--- and then the book gets interesting. Although this is just the intro and doesn't give away spoilers (and I guess she isn't REALLY quarantined... that's just me pretending to be Kallia haha), it took me quite a bit of time to get through it. The world building was verbose and although it has a "magical" setting, it was also too much wordage at times.
As much as I loved parts of the book, I had a big problem with Jack (the teacher that is comparable to the "Phantom"). He is annoyingly mysterious and can't answer questions in a direct way. It may be that as an adult, I read his adult character and want him to act like an adult... and not a hormonal teenager.

My second issue was with the ending. I understand that there is a book two- but this was a very intense cliffhanger and I feel that is unfair to the readers. As the reader, I have been with Kallia and company for the whole book and deserve a better ending. I know I will tune in for book two, but still- I don't appreciate cliffhangers that define the whole book.

I don't mean for my book review to be too critical- there were parts of the book that were fun to read. There is a beautiful circus and a beautiful (I mean this literally) cast of characters. I can see many people enjoying the sexy, <i>enchanting</i> quality of this book.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.