On a brighter note, DeMarco and Aaros were both saving graces for me. I think it is fairly clear how I feel about Kallia. Not only was she, in her estimation, eons above any of the other contestants, she was also more skilled than anyone else in the world. I understand she was ambitious and needed to be portrayed as strong, but it's hard to have an arc showing growth when the character already claims to know it all. Kallia was one of the most arrogant characters I have ever read. It was nothing I cared about or felt compelled to know more about. I know that makes no sense, but it was like the dramatic plot points didn't really matter. It felt disjointed and like nothing was really happening, even though on page, plenty was. While this Dark Magical Fantasy has a lot of elements that should have worked for me, it just didn't. DeMarco watches anxiously from the sidelines as she continually tries to one-up her competition. In spite of the chaos, the show must go on and Kallia is determined to win. Other competitors go missing, or are severely injured and Kallia begins to be haunted in her rooms by a menacing presence. Once the magical competition begins, it becomes clear, something is off in the city of Glorian.

There are other competitors as well, but of course, Kallia far exceeds them all for no apparent reason whatsoever both in performance power and overall everything else. Enter romantic interest, Daron DeMarco, a retired stage magician himself, who becomes enchanted with Kallia and her powers. He also became, in my opinion, the best character in the book.Īs with any competition, there must be judges. Making her way through the cursed woods alone, Kallia makes it to the city and promptly meets a young man, Aaros, who immediately becomes her best friend, confidant and stage assistant. In order to enter, something a woman wouldn't normally do, she must first break free of Jack and the Hellfire House. She has larger plans for herself, however, and sets her sights on a magical competition being held in the nearby city of Glorian. The story begins with our protagonist, Kallia, working as a performer in a club, The Hellfire House, owned by a mysterious man named, Jack. I had high hopes for this, but unfortunately it just didn't work for me. Unlike S&D however, I don't plan to pick up the sequel to this when it releases.

By that I mean, a book everyone else seems to be loving and I'm over here like.Īs with Serpent & Dove, I really didn't start to enjoy this until around the 80% point.

Where Dreams Descend is my Serpent & Dove of 2020.

Where dreams descend a novel