Ryan La Sala

While recovering from an attack that leaves him without his memory, gay teenager Kane Montgomery stumbles into a world where dreams known as reveries take on a life of their own, and it is up to Kane and a few unlikely allies to stop them before they spillover into the waking world.

Reverie

Moxie Minion

** spoiler alert **
           3 Very confused, but highly entertained stars.

Drag Queen Witch who wants to take over a world? Or maybe build her own, yes pls?

A boy with knowledge that has seafoam green eyes? Big yes pls

A main character that when his powers appear from him, shoots rainbows out of him..... ? OMG YES, did we think I would say no to that one?

But here is my crux in our little situation here. We spend so much time in the characters worlds, and the reveries... which yes I get is the point of the whole book. But the Reveries have slipped over into the real world. Did we forget about the police investigation? The car accident, fire???? I am sorry my little over thinking brain wants to know how those officially were all covered up? Were minds wiped clean, was it ruled an accident, were there repercussions? I have questions.

I really enjoyed this book, but I find that the tone of the writing brings me out of the writing. It happens sometimes with fantasy. 

Evan Carter

fun, well written, immersive, gay !! but i wish there was just… more ? more development for relationships, more time spent exploring reveries, more backstory (although i understand that’s hard to do w kane’s limited pov). maybe it would’ve worked a bit better as a series..? idk, i still really enjoyed it

grace 

Rachel Kanyid

This was interesting but there was a lot of story that moved way too fast for me to follow as well as I would have liked. Overall I was just mostly confused about a lot of things, though the overall story was ok.

Sheena

This was a snoozefest and that's putting it mildly. If you weren't already able to tell by the rating, "Reverie" was a huge disappointment for me, which nearly breaks my heart because from the get-go (the cover, blurb and everything in between) left me enthusiastic to dive into this read and within a span of a few chapters, it almost pained me to say that this wasn't what I had expected. The plot was too confusing and overwhelming, the author's writing style that was featured was too dry, mediocre and lame for such a large concept in which failed to meet all expectations and didn't have that wow factor to win me over.

I will give kudos to the author for the originality, queer inspired tale that pulled me to this read at the beginning. Sadly it just didn't do much for me and it's better for me to drop this now before I get too deep. Let's just hope the next one is a keeper.

Naga

the idea is so, so, so interesting but alas, everything's so messy it was hard for me to connect with the characters (i find myself get super annoyed by Kane, i can understand his reasons but still) and the world around them. it's too fast and they don't stop much to discuss about where are we in this story and what's going on, which probably because it's crucial to the plot and Kane's character, but as the reader i felt it was too confusing. the story focused more on the place, not the people. it doesn't tell much about our characters.

stephanie archer 

Flavia Louise

Courtney 

I really enjoyed Reverie! I thought the pacing was strong and I was drawn in from the first chapter. I adored Kane and his friends and watching how those relationships played out with the effects of kane's memory loss. This only thing I wish there was more of would be the little moments between Kane and Dean. I so badly wanted to see more of them! Overall still a really great read.

Tiffany Robinson

Kane wakes up in the hospital and has no memories of how he got there. People keep telling him that he stole his parents car then crashed it into a building which proceeded to blow up. As he tries to return to normal life everything feels a little off so now he has to try to uncover the clues to see what actually happened with some strangers who claim that they were once really good friends. 
I thought the concept sounded very original and interesting and I think this story could have been great, but for me everything just seemed so flat and the story dragged on and on. The whole story just seemed all over the place and disjointed. The characters also had no depth and I felt like I never got to know them. Maybe of the characters spent more time in the real world instead of the dream world. Then the romance that the main character in seemed undeveloped and forced. The cover was beautiful which is all I can say I enjoyed about the book.

Micchi von Cross

W O W.

I am always here for books that have queer rep, but I did not expect....THIS. Not only was there an incredible quantity of queer rep, it was all done in precisely the way I want queer rep done. It doesn't drive the story, but it is important to the *characters*.

Also, a lack of Bury Your Gays goes a long way.

Overall, the plot and writing were amazingly and inventive. I've read a lot of fantasy, especially urban and contemporary fantasy...but this one was absolutely unique.

Jayarna La Bozzetta

This book felt too large for its own good. Everything was sprawling and confusing and despite me feeling like I didn't understand anything, I also understood everything?

I think this was written with a LOT of heart. La Sala writes really beautifully and packs in an amazing amount of emotion and I can basically feel his soul bleeding through the words. Yet there's a lack of structure and clear vision hear that leads this book into feeling like a big mess. It's beautiful and I loved the concepts but for me a lot of them didn't quite hit where I wanted them to. I think this needed like a year to marinate and another edit before it hit the shelves. 

This really feels like a debut, or even a final draft, so I'm excited for his next book because this has so much potential. I definitely won't forget this one, but I just wish it could've been a five star.

Paige Green

Disclaimer: I got an arc of this book AND got my copy from @yasofthemonth. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Reverie

Author: Ryan La Sala

Book Series: Standalone (so far… Ryan La Sala wanna change that?)

Rating: 5/5

Diversity: m/m relationship, side character f/f relationship (x2), drag queen villain, reversing gender norms

Publication Date: December 3, 2019

Genre: YA Fantasy

Recommended Age: 15+ (violence, some gore, language, sex mentions)

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Pages: 397

Amazon Link

Synopsis: Inception meets The Magicians in the most imaginative YA debut of the year!

All Kane Montgomery knows for certain is that the police found him half-dead in the river. He can’t remember how he got there, what happened after, and why his life seems so different now. And it’s not just Kane who’s different, the world feels off, reality itself seems different.

As Kane pieces together clues, three almost-strangers claim to be his friends and the only people who can truly tell him what’s going on. But as he and the others are dragged into unimaginable worlds that materialize out of nowhere—the gym warps into a subterranean temple, a historical home nearby blooms into a Victorian romance rife with scandal and sorcery—Kane realizes that nothing in his life is an accident. And when a sinister force threatens to alter reality for good, they will have to do everything they can to stop it before it unravels everything they know.

This wildly imaginative debut explores what happens when the secret worlds that people hide within themselves come to light.

Review: This book was a highly imaginative adventure! I loved every second of it! The beginning of the story was the perfect set up for this mystery and the way the story was told is interesting. You spend the whole tale piecing together the story with Kane. The characters are very soundly developed and the story was very well written. I absolutely loved all of the diversity in the book as well and I thought the book had a wonderfully well done twist. I also loved how the author used reveries to weave in a myriad of different stories his characters went into.

The only downside is that the book is a bit slow and it can be a little tedious if you’re an impatient reader. The book really requires concentration and the writing almost forces you to slow down. If you can keep with the pacing it’s an amazing read, but if you’re impatient it can be hard.

Verdict: An amazing and very diverse read! Definitely need book 2!

Deborah Kerr

Listen, this one just did not work for me and it was for two interconnected reasons:

1. The plot relied too heavily on an amnesiac MC who SUCKED at communicating, surrounded by secondary characters who SUCKED at communicating. I am not over-exaggerating when I say: this book would've been 150-200 pages shorter if Kane, Elliot, Adeline, and Ursula just would've sat down and had an honest conversation ONCE in this book. I get it; they're teenagers, they're lives are in danger, blah blah blah. But honestly, we're at the point where the engine to your plot is miscommunication--it's a bad plot.

This leads to reason 2: If you are going to have an MC with a missing memory and a cast of unreliable characters providing us information, you have to have harder magic system. The entire premise of reveries and the powers of our cast of characters was super wishy washy. Like no sense.

I LOVED THE IDEA OF THESE CHARACTERS. A drag queen sorceress? GOD, YES! A super queer cast? GIVE THEMALL TO ME. Unfortunately, I was unable to connect to a single character or their relationships with one another.

Honestly, it's a great idea with a lot of really great character ideas, but there just isn't enough meat to the plot or characters for me to get hooked.

Cody

This book is fantastic, Ryan is a gem, and you need to get into it, Mary.

Erin 

This book was fine. I found myself going up and down on whether I found it intriguing or just exhausting. The concept is cool, but ultimately I think the style it was written in wasn't to my taste. Certain times I couldn't put it down, while others I just raced through wanting to be done as quickly as possible - mainly near the end, because I just wanted to finish it. Which is a bit unfortunate, because the end should be exciting and draw you in and make you not want to look away. I found it to be the opposite. As far as characters go, I think the author did a good job at making them all different and not too similar to one another. That being said, I didn't find that we dove deeper than a surface level into what makes them who they are. I found myself nearing the end of the book and not feeling any closer or even any sympathy for anyone. I felt no more emotion towards them than I did at the beginning. The book was mediocre in my mind, but I did finish it! Which says quite a lot, honestly. It could be the right cup of tea for other people, but just wasn't for me.

Reverie

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