Mike Robinson

A yacht cruising the South Pacific is pulled through a strange corridor of fog. On the other side, the crew find themselves on the shores of an extraordinary island, a monstrous place of dinosaurs and terrifying creatures that should not exist in this world.Sierra Nevada Smith was always chasing monsters, whether through the pages of her favorite books or in the films of legendary stop-motion animator Russell Boylan. Now those monsters are all too real and to survive she will need that knowledge to learn the secrets of this mysterious Monster Island.

Monster Island

Dreamshores

Laura Kehoe

I received a copy of Dreamshores from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Dreamshores explores what happens when the real world and dream world collide. It's a fantastical tale about a young woman, aptly nicknamed"Monster Girl" who finds herself facing the very monsters she's spent most of her life obsessing over. 
I was really torn about the rating for this book. On the one hand, it's such a unique and fascinating idea for a book. And I did feel a connection with Sierra Navada, the main character. I loved her spirit and passion. I wish some of the other characters could have been fleshed out a little more, however, because I feel like she was the only one I truly got to know. 
My biggest problem with this book was a lack of a satisfying explanation for events that took place. I feel like Dreamshores could have benefited from at least a few more pages of world building and explaining exactly what was happening. The somewhat ambiguous quality of the story did make it feel more dream-like, which was likely the point. But as a reader, I found myself slightly frustrated at times because I wanted to know more about why things were happening. 
Overall, I enjoyed Dreamshores. Despite the issues I had, I would still recommend this book. It's definitely worth a read!

Paige Green

Rating: 3/5

Genre: New Adult Fantasy

Recommended Age: 15+ (technical words and monsters)

Pages: 233

Author Website Link

Amazon Link

I received a copy of this book for free courtesy of Black Chateau Enterprises and the author. Thank you so much! All opinions are my own.

What’s It About: Restless and fire-hearted, ten-year-old Sierra Nevada Smith was always chasing monsters, whether through the pages of her favorite books or in the woods behind the secluded California town where she grew up. Fantastic new worlds opened for her, however, when, after a near-tragedy, she discovered the films of legendary stop-motion animator Russell Boylan.

Ten years later, she finds herself working aboard a yacht, adrift at sea and in life, her peers nicknaming her the ‘Monster Girl’: a sad consolation for her own stunted career as a stop-motion animator in this era of computer-generated effects. When their boat is mysteriously pulled through a corridor of fog, the crew finds themselves deposited on the shores of an extraordinary island, a place where the stomping, roaring, clambering dinosaurs and creatures of Russell Boylan’s classic films have been relegated to live beyond script or screen, and to evolve.

And it is here that Sierra discovers not only an incredible power, but what may be her purpose.

The Pros: The book was really intriguing and unique. The plot had a lot of promise and I felt that the main character complimented the plot. In other words, I didn’t feel like there was just this random person that was dropped into this world, but that there was a person who was made for this world. I also felt that the pacing wasn’t wonky and that it felt very natural.

The Cons: Well… I don’t think there was enough world building in this book, which left me very confused in parts. I feel that the book needed to slow down (even if the pacing suffered from it) so the reader had a chance to catch up and look around in the world. I also feel that the characters needed to be developed a little further, but for the most part they were fine. The most developed character was the main and in my opinion that’s how it should be. I also didn’t like how the wording got a bit technical and scientific. I’m not a sciencey person and so the wording really took me out of the story.

Verdict: Overall, I thought the book was good and the story was beautiful, but some of the more technical portions of novel writing were overlooked in my opinion.

Dreamshores Monster Island

Reviews