Dreams Lie Beneath By Rebecca Ross

I received this complimentary ARC from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.

YES!!! YES!!! YES!!! I can't wait to read this!!! Thank you! Thank you! :D

Dreams Lie Beneath Court intrigue? The Cruel Prince kind of intrigue? I’M SO IN. Dreams Lie Beneath Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

4 stars

Dreams Lie Beneath is magical and captivating, the best kind of fairytale to become enraptured with. Rebecca Ross has crafted a promising debut with whimsical writing, an intricate storyline, and phenomenal world building, some so luscious and terrifying that it captures you from the moment you first set sight on the world of Azenor.

This book follows Clementine Madigan, the daughter of two talented magicians, as well as gifted herself, in the art of guarding humans from their own nightmares. She and her father guard their hometown of Hereswith, where on each new moon the villagers’ nightmares come to life. That is, until one new moon arrives, and along with it, two young magicians bent on challenging Clementine and her father for the role of dream warden of Hereswith. Blinded by rage and revenge, Clementine disguises herself and unites with one of the young magicians, Phelan, intent of reclaiming her home.

But what she does not account for is how Phelan may be different than she first believed him to be, and that the new moon nightmares may be hiding much more sinister beneath.

But sometimes things must break before they can be made whole again, so that they can be forged into something stronger.

It would be an injustice to this wondrous story to fail to mention the exquisite world building and magic system. While the premise of this novel is intriguing, it is nothing compared to what lies inside. Rebecca Ross is a master storyteller, so skilled with her words that I felt immediately enraptured from the first few chapters. The walls of my bedroom faded away, replaced by the nightmarish, yet dream-like surroundings of the world of Azenor.

The magic of this realm is unlike anything I have ever read or heard about—and I can say that without a single doubt in my mind. Ross’ story is truly unique, something entirely her own, and entirely magnificent.

And just as amazing, if not more so, is the plot and storyline of the book. Dreams Lie Beneath has too many twists to count, as it dances the line between a dream and a nightmare. The last quarter of this book eliminated any pre-conceived notions I held towards the story, with a twist I never could have imagined. Ross holds the same skill with her worldbuilding as with her ability to weave together words to form breathtaking lines.

What appears to be a straight-forward young adult fantasy novel is really anything but, as Ross subtly adds in details that seem to be simple at first but are apart of a much bigger plot than I had guessed. She is a genius at subtle storytelling, achieving an ending that is only that much more spectacular because of it.

One does not realize how powerful a dream is, in the sleeping world as well as the waking one, until it has been stolen from them.

And now, to touch upon the reason why this book was, unfortunately, not a full five stars for me.

While the storytelling, world, and magic was wondrous and captivating, it was not enough to make the story a favorite for me. Objectively, this book is fantastic—well-written, masterfully told, and meticulously organized. But subjectively, I simply could not connect to the characters.

This book would have a much lower rating for me if I had not been able to connect to the main character, Clementine, but luckily, she was the only character I truly liked. Clem is fierce and snarky, talented and ambitious. With similar traits to Jude from The Cruel Prince, she is an unapologetic heroine, and easily admirable to me. I don’t think she will become one of my all-time favorite female characters, but she was fantastic compared to the rest of the cast of the story.

While Clementine was wonderful, the rest of the characters in the story felt a bit…well, boring. I hate to say it because I enjoyed the rest of this story so much, but it’s true. It really dampened my enjoyment throughout some parts of the book. And yes, this group of characters includes Phelan, the love interest of this book.

I have a feeling that many people will absolutely love Phelan. He is a classic young adult fantasy protagonist—broody, mysterious, but adorable and sweet. As I mentioned before, I really wanted to love him, and the only reason I did not is because I felt disconnected from his character. He is objectively a very well-written character, but subjectively, he’s just not for me I suppose. Even so, I will not be surprised if he becomes very popular among readers when this book releases.

While most of the characters were a miss for me, I have a feeling they will receive more development as the series continued, and I am excited to hopefully fall in love with them.

You challenged me as if you were a nightmare on a new moon.

I truly cannot rave enough about Dreams Lie Beneath. Having been compared to books like The Night Circus and Sorcery of Thorns I would even go so far as to say it exceeds those stories. This book is a hidden gem, one that would be a crime to not give a chance. I promise you, you will not be disappointed.

Release Date: November 2, 2021
Page Count: 496 pages
Perfect for fans of: The Cruel Prince, The Night Circus, Sorcery of Thorns
Representation: a sapphic relationship between two side characters
Tropes: enemies to lovers, hidden identities, forced proximity, rival families (and much more) Dreams Lie Beneath This book was utterly divine. So original, with its unique twits and turns, I had zero clue where the plot was going and I loved that feeling. YA books lately seem to have about two plot options and the reader's only hope is that at least the characters might be original. But this was a cut above. So evocative, so lush, so potent and raw. Ross is definitely becoming an autobuy author for me. Dreams Lie Beneath Rating this so low was not something I wanted, the concept sounds amazing and the cover is beautiful. But it didn’t deliver what I expected and it left so many things underdeveloped.

There are spoilers in this review.

What I expected was badass magicians protecting their towns from nightmares manifesting throughout the night during full moons. But then we got to the first full moon and it was extremely anticlimactic. I thought there would be multiple nightmares, but apparently just a single one manifest and they defeated that one by lifting a rock.

They hardly even used magic to defeat the nightmares and because the magic was so underused, the magic system was underdeveloped. There are several kinds of magic, that influence different things. But for a book about magic, it really didn’t get to play its part and I still have several questions how it works.

Like, people with magic doesn’t cast shadows. Did we get an answer for why that is? I certainly don’t remember it, so at most it is described in passing.

I also don’t really understand the point of the wardens. They take a remedy so they don’t dream, and therefore they have no nightmares that can manifest during the full moon. So why not let everyone take these remedies? Then there would be no nightmares at all that could pop up. I think it was explained by the remedies being to expensive for everyone or something. But why are the wardens charging for them? Do they want to risk their life?

Also, when Clem and Phelan doesn’t succeed in defeating a nightmare, they simply lock themselves in their house until it passes. So you don’t even need to defeat them? Everyone can just lock themselves up for the night and it passes? So why don’t people just do that?

Because Clem is definitely not the best person to send out to battle nightmares. She hesitates why too much and gets too emotional. She knows the people in the nightmares aren’t real, but still can’t “kill” them, because they look like people she knows. Even when she supposedly gets half her heart turned to stone and as a result should be way colder.

And I was promised court intrigue, but there was nothing of the sort. Well, maybe the last 100 pages had some sort of subplot that could fall into that category. But definitely not enough. Clem was also supposed to take down the Vespers, but the wrote like 4 lines for an “exposé”, then she immediately gives up that plan. So that was also a huge let down. All because Phelan was better than she thought, but that romance did nothing for me and felt forced.

And in the end we’re left with so many questions, but mainly; what happens to all the wardens now? The one thing this book was supposed to be about and we don’t even resolve it?

I also can’t drop the names, Clementine and Phelan. Did Ross lose a dare or something? I can’t see any other reason for the name choice, there’re very unfortunate in my opinion.

Another book with promise unfulfilled, think I’m going to have to create a new shelf to that… Dreams Lie Beneath

Rebecca Ross ´ 5 Read

A story about magic and the captivating power of dreams.

A curse plagues the realm of Azenor—during each new moon, magic flows from the nearby mountain and brings nightmares to life. Only magicians, who serve as territory wardens, stand between people and their worst dreams.

Clementine Madigan is ready to take over as the warden of her small town, but when two magicians challenge her, she is unwittingly drawn into a century-old conflict. She seeks revenge, but as she secretly gets closer to Phelan, one of the handsome young magicians, secrets begin to rise. Clementine must unite with her rival to fight the realm’s curse, which seems to be haunting her every turn. Dreams Lie Beneath

Looking at the beautiful cover of the book, as promising as it seemed to me, I did not find anything enjoyable in it. On the contrary, from beginning to end, I was confused the whole time with this poorly written story. Even the main characters were shallowly portrayed here. I put it down and picked it up multiple times, but it just never improved. Dreams Lie Beneath the night circus meets the cruel prince? brb i’m gonna go scream now Dreams Lie Beneath Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss, mansplain, manipulate and malewife. All portrayed in this book. A masterpiece. Dreams Lie Beneath continuing my deep dive into RRs bibliography to determine if she belongs on my favourite authors list. and with this book... i think she might!

i really enjoyed the unique plot, atmospheric world-building, relatable characters, and pretty writing. theres honestly nothing to not like about this.

and can you believe this is a standalone?! i feel like the ability to create a single, self-contained YA fantasy story has been lost nowadays, so i will always praise when an author can do it well. 

all in all, this is another great book by RR and one i would easily recommend.

↠ 4.5 stars Dreams Lie Beneath 4.5 Stars



I’m not sure I know what all was going on, but who gives a rats arse, I enjoyed it 😉😏

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

Oh, and I’m pissed I got the Owlcrate box with this book in it. I’ve been skipping the boxes but I was interested in this book. I should have known they’d put a crappy cover. I’m going to slowly delete these book boxes that cost too much. Ok, rant over. I’m trading in this edition and getting the original cover.

The end …. Dreams Lie Beneath