In Your Dreams (The Aldaya Series, #1)

by John Swan

[Sarah Says]

‘‘In a time before ours, when the universe was much younger, a great civilization lived upon the surface of an infant world not much different than our own. It was tucked away on our same distant arm of the galaxy, with its twin moons shining unblemished in the night sky, and its surface full of spirits both great and small.’’

John Swan has created an intense and intriguing world that I was immediately drawn into. He builds the world of Aldaya with such detail that you feel as if you are really there, but most important of all he gives us leading characters that we can love, that have soul, that feel real and whose journey we want to be apart of – and some gnarly bad guys as well.

When I was only up to page 91, I did a status update on Goodreads that read, “Loving this book so far. Nothing better than a young girl going on an adventure to find herself with her pet cat (ok it’s more complex than that lol) but I’m loving Mim as a main character.” – And yes it developed into much MUCH more than that.

So here, we have a young adult fantasy novel written for ages 13 and up. It is so refreshingly, there is no pointless horror or vulgarity of a sexual nature, so totally safe to let your Teens read as well as yourself.

A bit about the story: Aldaya, a once grand and peaceful planet that is now succumbing to a dark all-consuming evil.

Enter High Lord Éolan (male), Steward of the City of Nausica, council member and spouse to the Premier-elect (who is also male) – Give yourself a pat on the back Mr Swan for being oh so brave to have a Gay man as one of the leading characters. I am going to stop there and tell you to CALM DOWN remember what I said about “no vulgarity and totally safe to let your Teens read’’ Yeah exactly! It is all PG13. Anyway back to the oh so fine Eolan; The story really kicks into gear with us experiencing Eolan having a recurring dream of a beautiful pale blonde teenage girl with vibrant purple eyes.

Enter Mim; Mim is the Girl in the dreams and her simple life is about to become a whole lot less so. She is fifteen and lives in the rotting town of Slaidburn. Min is an orphan who works her fingers to the bone just to get enough to pay her board at a half-way house and feed herself and her cat.

Enter the gnarly bad guys; Morra Losis, the demon woman and her two right hand men/demons raise all sorts of hell the night they come into Slaidburn. Morra is a creature of pure evil and after coming across Mim will stop at nothing to have her.

This then sends Mim on a dangerous journey that spirals out of control, but leads her to Eolan.

Mim goes on the run trying to make her way to the Charis Vale, where she hopes she will be safe and able to get the help she needs to figure out the strange power that grows inside of her. Lord Éolan is at the same time on his way there and a series of events force them together. The story then races off and you will not be able to put it down.

I won’t go into any more detail as I don’t want to ruin it and I want you to experience it yourself – But I will say it leaves us with a Major Cliff-hanger and you’ll be longing for the next instalment to be released as I am.

Five out of Five starts for the first time Author Mr John Swan.