This book was not my jam and I am pretty sure that it's a me issue and not an author/writing issue. This was my 1st book by Richard Lambert but will certainly give him another read!

The Republic of Dreams is a sequel with a promising idea that, I'm afraid, fell through on the execution and led me to DNF it a bit under halfway through after attempting to listen to the audiobook for a month and restarting multiple times, struggling to latch onto the story each time.

Part of the reason for this was the writing. There are a lot of redundant phrases like "think a thought", "smile a smile", "gob filled with a big mouthful of air", "black leather cape made of black leather", and "thought to himself". I wondered if the copyeditor was rushed or if there wasn't one every time I encountered repetition. That didn't help me stay immersed.

The rest of my difficulty with this book lies with the character development. The characters' emotional backgrounds weren't clear to me. For instance, I didn't know why the main character struggled to be seen as a competent queen. The people in her court insulted her intelligence in such an unveiled way that it defied all suspension of disbelief. It was confusing and made it hard for me to engage with the story. A character can run around fantastical environments with a death threat looming over their head for a thousand pages - but until it's clear to me why exactly they're afraid of frustrated, I'll struggle to care.

The tone here suggests a middle grade audience, but middle graders need clear emotions in their books as much as any age group. I think a good editor could be improve this manuscript dramatically and fix a lot of the things that detracted from my enjoyment of the novel.

Toby, his cat, and his friends are in trouble. The evil, former regent of Balthasar, a man named Malladain, has somehow made his way to Earth and is hellbent on enacting revenge on every slight, both real and imagined, he has ever endured. With Princess Tamurlaine still recovering from her wounds on Balthasar and completely inaccessible to him, Toby is completely alone in his discovery of Malladain's arrival on Earth, On the flip side, Tamurlaine is a little less lonely, but she feels hopeless as the political climate in her homeland becomes more and more dire. She surrounded by advisors and ladies and servants alike, but somehow she still can't seem to get anyone to listen to her. In a world where dreams can become reality, Toby and his friends are determined to save both earth and Balthasar from Malladain.

This book includes:
- dream walking
- supernatural powers and humanoid animals
- kids against the world (or worlds)
- disney-esque villains
- missing persons mystery
- a fun omnipotent narration ala Good Omens

I really enjoyed "The Republic of Dreams." I didn't realize that it was a sequel when I picked it up, but the narration is set up in a way that I felt comfortable jumping in anyway. Each of the characters have depth and meaningful motivations, and I felt a real fondness for Amon especially. The world building is solid and the storyline was simple, yet engaging and enjoyable. I sheepishly loved the cat, Alfred too.

I recommend this book to fantasy loving middle schoolers and young high school students, and adults look for something light to read. I will be sending this one to my niece asap.

I received this audiobook as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Richard Lambert, and Bolinda Audio for the opportunity to review this book. This review has been posted to GoodReads.

Republic of Dreams is the second in the series, starting with the villain landing in our world and promptly wreaking havoc. It's an entertaining read, with extensive exposition that kids or fantasy newbies would appreciate, but that may be laying it on thick for more experienced readers.
The concepts around dreamers and their obligations and impact on society is intriguing in this literal sense, and of course the responsibilities for the price of magic.
A good find, can't wait to see where they go next!

Description from Amazon: "Sixteen-year-old Tamurlaine is approaching her coronation, the day when she will officially assume rule over the Kingdom of Balthasar, a magical land where teenagers have the power to turn dreams into reality. But an assassin is preparing to kill her at the ceremony, and no one can stop him because he is sneaking into Balthasar from another universe – ours.

Tamurlaine must get help from her only friend in our universe, Toby Porter, a 14-year-old boy living in a small town in England. The trouble for Toby is that the coronation is only a week away, and he has no idea where the killer is hiding."

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*Republic of Dreams is book 2 of the Shadow Town series by Richard Lambert.

What happens when the real world and dreams collide? Tamurlaine and her friend Toby are about to find out!

As a rule, I don't generally pick up a book mid series before reading through the books before. With this one, I really had no idea what I was getting into as I didn't realize that it was part of a series. In retrospect, I do believe that I would've benefited from starting from the beginning. I felt that there were a lot of characters and nods to book one that I missed or could have used some additional background on.

Overall, though, I did enjoy the book! It was a fun listen on audio, and the narration was fantastic! The narrator really got into it, and brought the story to life.

🧚🏻A big thanks to NetGalley, Bolinda audio, and author Richard Lambert for providing me with a free audio copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book is a bit confusing to me and I've had a hard time following the story. It's not my kind of fantasy, but that doesn't mean it's bad. It's a story of evil vs. good, and people who dreamed were punished by the evil people making them produce things like energy or bringing people back from the dead. Dreamers are isolated and sleep with a partner holding their hand, then do the same for them while they dream.

Well, what can I say? I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Pacey, intriguing, right amount of good vs evil and a steep maturity development from the young protagonist. Up there with Pullman, Ness etc al. As a 42 your old woman, who loves fantasy I'd recommend this to all age groups, it's certainly not just for kids. In fact, I've already borrowed the first book from the library! Reading to book 2 before book 1 didn't cause any issues, it's self contained and you can keep up with everything.

Fantastic narrator, too. I'm.not sure why more people aren't raving about this. Please get it on Goodreads so I can leave a 5 star review!

I love books with royalty so much!

the narrator was amazing! this was my first time listening to a book narrated by Laurence Boxhall and I really enjoyed his style!

the writings was really good! I loved the characters and the world building! it was also a very fast paced book which I will always appreciate!

the concept of being able to change reality with dreams is such an amazing concept and the author truly did a good job with the details.

great YA fantasy mystery!

**quick note** I am unable to locate the book on goodreads so I will not be able to submit a review there but I will be posting it on Storygraph!

thank you so much to Netgalley, Richard Lambert and Bolinda Audio for a copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review!!