STRANGE THE DREAMER // Review and Blog Tour

STRANGE THE DREAMER
by Laini Taylor 
Hardcover: 544 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

(March 28, 2017)Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Indiebound

A new epic fantasy by National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author Laini Taylor of the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy.

The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around— and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he's been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance to lose his dream forever.

What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving?

The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries—including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo's dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? and if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real?

In this sweeping and breathtaking new novel by National Book Award finalist Laini Taylor, author of the New York Timesbestselling Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy, the shadow of the past is as real as the ghosts who haunt the citadel of murdered gods. Fall into a mythical world of dread and wonder, moths and nightmares, love and carnage.

I can't even explain to you how excited I was to learn that Laini Taylor had written a new book. I absolutely adore her writing, and her ability to tell completely engrossing and complex stories. If you haven't read LIPS TOUCH THREE TIMES, or her DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE series, I highly recommend getting on that right now! 

I'll admit that it took me a bit to really get into STRANGE THE DREAMER, but that isn't unusual for me. That said, I loved the writing from the start. Laini's ability to craft beautiful sentences is unquestionable. But it's her genius at creating captivating worlds with complicated characters that truly captures me.

One of the things that Laini does that I absolutely love, is blurring the idea of good vs. evil. There is no right side or wrong side, or I should say, those things aren't exactly what you normally see in stories. Both sides have people who are good, and who are bad. Everyone has a history and valid reasons that have brought them to the place they are now. 

Lazlo and Sarai are fantastic and unique characters. Their stories begin so differently, but the way they come to know each other is out of their similar desire to look beyond what the people around them are saying and to find the truth. The history of Weep is tragic and horrifying. There are truly monstrous people on both sides of that tragedy. So many of the characters are both victim and perpetrator. But there is also beauty and hope in Weep, and the journey to that is the thing that binds Lazlo and Sarai. Oh, and the kissing :)  Laini gets an A++ in writing kissing scenes!

STRANGE THE DREAMER is a mystical, magical, stunning, and, yes . . . strange, adventure, full of imagination, romance and mystery. I can't wait to read more of this amazing world.

"It was impossible, of course. But when did that ever stop any dreamer from dreaming?"

ABOUT LAINI TAYLOR:

Laini Taylor is the New York Times bestselling author of the global sensation the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy: Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Days of Blood & Starlight, and Dreams of Gods & Monsters, and the companion e-novella, Night of Cake & Puppets. She is also the author of the Dreamdark books Blackbringer and Silksinger, and the highly acclaimed Lips Touch: Three Times, a National Book Award finalist. Her newest book, Strange the Dreamer, is the first in a stunning new epic duology. Laini lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, illustrator Jim Di Bartolo, and their daughter Clementine.

LINKS: Website | Twitter


Tour Schedule:
Week 1:

3/20: My Friends Are Fiction - Review
3/21: Alexa Loves Reading - Bookish Style Files
3/22: Mundie Moms - Review
3/23: What Sarah Read - Review
3/24: Reading Teen - Review

Week 2:

3/27: No BS Book Reviews - Makeup Collage
3/28: YA Bibliophile - Review
3/29: The Irish Banana Review - Review
3/30: Quite the Novel Idea - Review
3/31: Fiction Fare - Review

---