Lovers of Phantom of the Opera, Caraval and The Night Circus will love Janella Angeles' Where Dreams Descend -- this first in a duology. Beautifully written, the narrative strikes the perfect balance between action and tenderness. Where Dreams Descend showcases characters with emotions so palpable every reader will find themselves soon pulled into the mystery that is Glorian and the fight that is Kallia's. Gripping until the very end, Dreams is a must read.

Kallia performs nightly in Hellfire House -- a performer. A magician. A force with which to be reckoned. Her teacher and master, Jack, has honed her into what she is -- exquisitely powerful; but rules, half-truths, secrecy and the need for freedom drives Kallia to flee to the forbidden city of Glorian. Hoping to make the world see that she deserves the spotlight -- and not just male magicians -- she enters the Magicians' Competition. When competitors start disappearing and Jack's warnings become more dire, it becomes clear the competition is the least of Kallia's troubles.

Decent word building, however, somewhat lacking overall.
Really fun premise, just not enough momentum.
Everything just seems to move a bit too slowly. There are build up moments that just don't quite make it.
All the mystery and intrigue has a nice foundation, but the execution and explanation fell flat for me.
Most of the characters needed more fleshing out. Too much was left to guesswork. The audience seems to be even less in the know than the characters.
Simply put, this magic act needs a little more razzle dazzle

Look: Do yourself a favor and go preorder this book. From the get-go this book is a delectable feast that very much lives up to its comps of The Night Circus, Phantom of the Opera, and Moulin Rouge. Kallia is a fun, breathtaking character with clearly defined goals the reader wants to follow from the start, and those goals lead her through a spectacular smorgasbord of magic, romance, and adventure that makes for a heady combination. I CANNOT WAIT for the next book, and I can’t wait to see this book on everyone’s shelves come August.

(Also: That cover, though. I can practically taste the swoon-worthy bookstagram photos, and I am READY.)

So proud to be a Wednesday author and get to bask alongside these wonderful stories!

Kallia is a strong and confident magician and the Conquering Circus could be her big chance, but someone or something is sabotaging the competition. Jack runs a popular magician’s club full of dazzling showgirls and dangerous secrets. Demarco is a powerful magician turned judge with more skeletons than top hats in his closet.

An enchanting circus competition tangled with secrets and a blossoming romance—sign me up! I was so exited to read Where Dreams Descend, but I had a difficult time with this book. I really liked what a strong character Kallia was and seeing her overcome so many obstacles. However, there were so many characters and a lot of moving parts that I often found myself lost in the shuffle. The way in which the point of view would switch from character to character made the story feel choppy and because of this the storyline was difficult to follow and I often felt confused. Overall, I just had a hard time feeling engaged in the story and keeping up with all the different plot points.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Wednesday Books for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Magical competitions, mysterious disappearances, lies, secrets, and a gorgeous cover - how could you not want to read this?  The strong Phantom of the Opera themes just made it that much more irresistible.  

Such an atmospheric novel - a cold, enigmatic city whose residents hide secrets of its past, long-neglected, decaying buildings within it, and a dark forest at its gates.  Powerful magicians exist in this world where some magic isn't completely understood.  Let's just say I'll never look at mirrors in quite the same way again.

Kallia, Jack, and Demarco are wonderfully flawed and scarred in various ways, and I'm so glad the author gave each of their POVs.  Kallia is a snarky, impulsive character who excels when the odds are against her, all while covering up the fear inside.  Demarco is a tough shell to crack initially, but his backstory is tragic.  Manipulative Jack still remains the biggest mystery, and I'm so anxious to learn more about him in the sequel.  I have to give a shout out to Aaros for his wit and undying loyalty to Kallia.  He's undoubtedly one of the best supporting characters I've come across.   

Imagery and creativity of the illusions are outstanding - a screenplay of this book would be a visual feast.  I could have done without some of the romantic drama (I'm in the minority on that aspect, I know), but this ends with a glorious cliffhanger.  The next book can't come soon enough.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Look at any review for Where Dreams Descend, and you'll see the reviewer excited to read this mix of The Phantom of the Opera and Moulin Rouge. The description sounds intriguing and dangerous, different than many other YA fantasies - not a fairy or vampire in sight, which is a nice relief. But that's kind of where my compliments end...I'm a huge Moulin Rouge fan. I've watched the movie more times than I can count, blasted the soundtrack in my car, and even seen the recent Broadway version in its test phase. I can confidently say that a woman being lowered from the ceiling while performing her showgirl act is the only commonality I could find with Moulin Rouge, unfortunately. If other reviewers found more I would love to know. I've never seen The Phantom of the Opera (don't @ me) so maybe that's why this book was so confusing to me. Because I basically had no idea what was going on for the entire book. And somehow I'm thinking it's not because I'm not familiar with the Phantom...

Where Dreams Descend suffers from too many ideas and not enough progression of the important ones. The book centers around Kallia, an orphaned showgirl who's a born magician in a world where you can either be born with magic or acquire it (this is all the info we get on this). She performs at the Hellfire House, a nightclub at the edge of a haunted(?) forest under The Master (no idea why he's called this), Jack. Her only dream (besides re-occurring nightmares, that is) is to escape Hellfire House to explore the rest of this magical world which we readers know little to nothing about. When she learns how deceitful Jack has been to her, she (quite easily, to me) escapes Hellfire House to go shoot her shot in Glorian - a mysterious city on the other side of the forest where they're holding a competition. The winner gets to headline The Conquering Circus and for Kallia this is everything she's ever wanted - freedom and a chance to prove her magical prowess.

So far, the description sounds pretty good, so you're probably wondering why I'm rating this so low. It's because this is pretty much the extent of the information you can extract from this book. Besides a couple of other side characters, one of whom is a love interest, everyone else is barely described. This is nice in terms of allowing readers to use their imagination for how the characters might appear, but hard when you're trying to keep track of who is who. All the other magicians in the competition are grouped together as a bunch of drunken idiots, making it hard to care when they start dropping like flies.

Similarly, it's hard to care about the mystery that is Glorian when we readers are given so few crumbs to gobble up. Glorian is a gated city that few have been to and even fewer can explain. This competition is the first time in memory they've invited outsiders through their door. Clearly, something funky is going on, but unfortunately we never really find out what. The book ends on a cliffhanger and there is a sequel planned so assumingly we'll find out, but the plot doesn't progress enough in this almost 500-page book for readers (at least me personally) to feel invested enough to continue on.

The world-building was incredibly inconsistent and the characters just way too lacking. Even the romance plot wasn't enough to intrigue me as the fire between the love interests went from 1 measly coal barely burning to a full-fledged fire within a chapter. I'm all for a slow burn, but that burn has to be consistent.

At the end of the day, this book was just confusing. Throughout the entire book, I felt like I had missed some key detail, and that's a feeling I hate having whether it comes from reading a book or watching a movie or TV show. There is little action throughout and the climax happens quickly and adds even more confusion. I finished the book even more befuddled than I started it. That confusion might lead me to pick up the next book in this series, but it won't come from a place of excitement, which is what a good cliffhanger ending will do. Hopefully others like this book more than I did, but it just feels like it should have gone through a few more rounds of edits.

Thank you for this arc! I enjoyed this book, but I would have liked a little more information regarding the backstory of Glorian, as well as certain aspects of the storyline pertaining to magic & the four families intermittently discussed. The plot itself was intriguing to me, but again would have been a little more understandable with a bit more backstory and information. What I enjoyed the most was Jack’s (Master) point of view, it was very mysterious & kept me wanting to know more of his story & what we are kept in the dark about regarding his character. I understand certain things were not told to the reader, since this is the first book in the series, but at times it felt a bit confusing without certain information & explanation. The ending was a cliffhanger & I personally look forward to reading the next book in the series to see what happens next!

A strong debut fantasy with a fascinating world and compelling characters.

This book begs comparisons to YA series such as Caraval, but I was surprised and pleased to see that it distinguished itself with strong feminist themes as well as unique rules for magic. It was also briskly plotted, with some nice twists along the way as well as a cliffhanger to keep readers waiting on baited breath for the sequel. The characters are also fascinating and complex.

One of the things I’m interested to see developed in the series is the relationships. There is some groundwork laid for the characters to learn to distinguish between healthy and toxic dynamics, which is a valuable lesson for readers of all ages.

Overall, an enjoyable and exciting first book in a new YA fantasy series.

Wow. Give me a minute..

This book was all I hoped for from a book that I saw advertised as a mash up between Phantom of the Opera, Caraval, and Moulin Rough... and maybe a little more.

Kallia is such a strong and awesome female lead character. I was thoroughly impressed by how much I actually enjoyed her. The author did an awesome job at slowly pulling away at her to get to the real grit of who she was.

I was thankful for the POV from all three of our leads. Stories told this way are so much more enticing, to me and I feel like they truly pull the readers in that much more.

This was a dark, broody, seductive, enigmatic read that caught my attention on levels that many YA books do not.
Definitely a must read!

I'm not going to lie, reading this book was a struggle to me, at first. It was so weird. I did not feel like I wanted to pick it up, It took me ten days to get to the 40% percent mark, but the next day, I had read the rest in one sitting. I honestly don't know how it happened. Everything was so slow, and I was confused over all that was going on. To summit up, I was bored. But then, something change, things started to happen, and I could NOT put it down.
I'm surprised I decided to rate this book 4-stars because circus themed books aren't my thing, but I thought it was pretty good. This book was different from everything I've read before, probably thanks to Kallia. She was such an interesting main character, likely because I wouldn't want to be friends with her. Her personality was annoying and too condescending at times, but I'm still not sure if that is really her, or the mask she wears for most of the story. Anyway, I liked her even when I couldn't stand her. Another character that I loved, but couldn't quite understand was Jack. Jack was, for me, THE mystery of the book. What does he want? What is his objective? Jack's relationship with Kallia was so mysterious I didn’t understand what it entailed. Lovers, friends, family...? This depiction was most certainly done on purpose. I have a love-hate relationship with not knowing what is going on.
Halfway through the book, I started enjoying the mysterious atmosphere, but the world-building was rather lacking. It enhanced the whole "I have no idea what is going on" at first, but then, you just followed the story. I hope the author goes more into detail about the world, magic, and politics in future books.
So basically, I have too many questions that still need to be answered.

I absolutely loved this book! If you are looking for an amazing fantastical book to sink your teeth into, then you NEED to read Where Dreams Descend. The ending left me wanting more, I cannot wait for the next book to come out! The characters were so well developed and enchanting, I especially appreciated that there was such a strong female lead, who does not give a crap about what anyone around her thinks.

I had some trouble getting into this one that I’m going to attribute to how much ya fantasy I read. It reminded me a lot of Caraval which I did not care and I ended up putting it down about 1/4 of the way in. I’m going to try again because people have raved about this book!

From the day Wednesday Books announced this book deal, I was dying to read this story. The Night Circus...Caraval...Moulin Rouge....they are all "performances" I wish I could experience again for the first time, so WHERE DREAMS DESCEND seemed perfect for me; I was more than ready to be spellbound.

However, I wasn't. The book's comp titles are spot-on, but I was not sucked into Angeles' world the way I was with Erin Morgenstern and Stephanie Garber, nor did I connect to the characters. I could picture everything, the descriptions and dialogue smart and sharp, but I didn't find myself fully immersed or invested. I felt like I was watching a performance rather than being a part of one.

And I think most of that falls on me, so take the above with a gigantic grain of salt. Whenever I start a book, I like to dedicate time to really get into the story--an hour or two--and unfortunately, I did the exact opposite here. I would read only a chapter at a time before bed. WHERE DREAMS DESCEND definitely deserves more dedication than that, because the concept truly is enchanting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is a nice mash-up of Phantom of the Opera and Moulin Rouge. I love the world we were brought into and how the magic was explained and the performances, but I didn't like how immature Kallia seemed to get sometimes, I know we all do act immature sometimes but it seemed like she was for most of the book. , I do wish we had a little more background for Jack and the others, but I'm hoping we will in book 2. I have a lot of questions and hope they are answered in the next book. That being said I do agree that it is annoying how there are a lot of almost happenings with things in the books. I like a good tease but i'm dying here. I do think this would make a great movie though!

Thank you to Negalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you're looking for something a bit dark with shadows that bite, something enchanting with magic that will set you back with awe, and something a bit mysterious with twists that pounce around corners then WHERE DREAMS DESCEND needs to be your next read. Darkly dazzling and written with a captivating prose, the first book in Kingdom of Cards is sure to whet your appetite and have you clamoring for more.

I requested this book from NetGalley because it was pitched as 'Moulin Rouge' meets 'Phantom of the Opera'. These are two of my all time favorite shows, and I've never come across a book inspired by Moulin Rouge, so I was all about it. After reading it I would say it is veeeeeeery loosely based on POTO and the only comparison to Moulin Rouge I could see was in the opening chapter when the main character descend from the ceiling on a chandelier.

The book follows the magician Kallia as she escapes from 'The House' where she's been performing for...forever? Not too clear on that. She manages to escape and enters the mysterious city of Glorian where she enters a magic competition. Since women are not allowed to practice magic on stage everyone is against her from the beginning and she needs to overcome these obstacles in order to perform and try to win. Strange things begin happening during the competition and magicians start to disappear, which has Kallia wondering if she really left her past behind her.

The beginning started off very confusing and nothing really made sense until I reached chapter 5. Although it was a confusing start I thought it might be promising, but it never really got any better. I would have DNFed at about 25% if I hadn't received the book through NetGalley. The main character enters a new city and has no problem at all fitting right in and meeting people even though she's never left the house before. During the competition it is so clear she is more powerful than all the other magicians and we only ever get to see her acts. The other competitors are simply side characters and are not fleshed out at all. We "hear" they are nowhere near as good as she is but we never "see" it. There is barely any world building at all. There might have been a paragraph about the background of the city of Glorian and the 4 families that used to rule it, but I forget immediately after I read it and it was barely ever mentioned again until it played a big part in the ending. The book felt like it was 200 pages too long and nothing happened until the last 20.

As for the main characters, Demarco is a flat love interest and really offers nothing to the story except apologizing over and over. Jack was the most interesting to me but he played the smallest part. For someone who is most likely based off the Phantom he was not that intimidating and also pretty absent. Kallia was annoying and overconfident, and I didn't really like her as a main character. I don't know how old these characters were supposed to be or what they looked liked due to lack of description. I kept going back and looking for descriptions because I thought I missed them, but I just think they weren't there. Apparently all the main characters are PoC/Southeast Asian, which is awesome, but I wouldn't know that if I hadn't read it in other reviews of the book.

Also, I know ARCs aren't the final version of the book but there were so many errors they actually interfered with my reading in a couple places. At one point one of the characters states "Ah, answering a question with a question" and I searched for 5 minutes for the question that was apparently asked but it was nowhere to be found.

There are so many positive reviews of this book so I know it will appeal to a lot of readers. It just wasn't the book for me.

Did I just discover a new favorite book? Potentially! Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for granting my an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book and was hooked on it from the first page. I really loved Kallia as a character and even the antagonist was super interesting to me. I'm hoping to read more about him in the next book! I felt immersed in this world, the setting felt alive and was nicely described without being too flowery. The pacing of the book was good also, as I didn't feel there were many parts that lagged. Overall, I found this to be a super entertaining read and a great introduction to this author for me. I'm really excited to pick up the second book.

This book was like taking The Night Circus, The Phantom of the Opera, the movie Now You See Me with a little sprinkle of Caraval on top.

A lushly detailed fantasy romance that is sure to appeal to fans of Furyborn and Caraval.

Janella Angeles takes great care to set scenes and relishes in descriptive language, but the book is a bit light on characterization for me. Kallia is so clearly competent and powerful that there isn't much tension - the stakes in the competition didn't feel real, and the other competitors aren't fleshed out enough to really invest in them.

I would definitely recommend if you're looking for a fun escape or if you love a good fantasy romance. It's not the densest of books, but some times it's fun to just skip dinner and eat the dessert!

This book is absolutely one of my favorite reads of the year.

Phantom meets Moulin Rouge is 100 percent up my alley and I loved all the angst and feelings that came with the story.

Kallia is a great protagonist. She learns and grows and is fair to the situations around her. I enjoy that she wants independence but also gets a bit in over her head. It feels authentic.

Jack is obviously the phantom type character, he has taught Kallia how to use her ability but at some cost to her autonomy. I'm intrigued to find out what happens next on this front as we know what happens with phantom and I wonder if itll play out that way.

Daron is also a great character and full of his own drama. I feel for him so much throughout the story and also cant wait to see how his tale will end, tragic ala moulin rouge or not? We shall see.

I recommend this for fans of Stephanie Garber's books and for anyone who enjoys some proper angst. Cannot wait for the sequel!!!

Dark, sexy, alluring, and mysterious. This book encompasses these words and so does it's characters. It's a book so reminiscent of Carival and I loved it. The allure is as much the magic it contains but also the duality of it's characters because it's not everyone is completely good or bad. Kallia is a bird with so much fire to live and want to be free. She's a woman of agency and she's excellent. This book really acted almost like a mystery and it gave me murder mystery vibes minus the murder. The cliffhanger at the end is great and it just solidified that this book is a great book one to what I feel will be a a fun and enchanting series.