Review: Dreams by Daniela Sacerdoti

Title: Dreams

Series: Sarah Midnight #1

Author: Daniela Sacerdoti

Publisher: Black & White Publishing

Publication date: April 18th 2012

Source: Received a copy for review from B&W Publishing (Many thanks)

From Goodreads: 

“You’d never think it could happen to you. You’d never think that one day you’ll stand in a graveyard, rain tapping on a sea of black umbrellas, watching your parents being lowered into the earth, never to come back. It’s happening to me. They said it was an accident. Only I know the truth. My parents were hunters, like their parents and grandparents before them, hundreds of years back, scores of ancestors behind me, fulfilling the same call. I must follow in their footsteps. I am the only one left to keep the promise. I can never give up the fight, this fight that has been handed down to me, thrust upon my unwilling shoulders. I’d rather be buried with my parents, my brave, fierce father and mother, who lived and died by the Midnight motto: Don’t Let Them Roam.”

Ever since her thirteenth birthday, seventeen-year-old Sarah Midnight’s dreams have been plagued by demons—but unlike most people’s nightmares, Sarah’s come true. Her dreams guide her parents’ hunt as Sarah remains in bed, terrified but safe, sheltered from the true horrors of the Midnight legacy. But all this is about to change. After the murder of her parents, she is cruelly thrust into a secret world of unimaginable danger as she is forced to take up their mission. Alone and unprepared for the fight that lies before her, Sarah must learn how to use the powers she’s inherited and decide whom to trust before it’s too late…

My Review

**WARNING: CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS**

This is quite a tough review to write because my head knows that this one is an easy three stars, but at the same time, it’s difficult to figure out why.

I mean, there were a lot of issues that ensured I struggled with the book for quite a while.

Like the POV’s used—the omni stalled me from connecting with the characters for a seriously big chunk of the book, and also gave me motion sickness with head hopping from one person to the next and back in a matter of sentences.

Or the multiple POV’s where it switched to 1^st person present—the fact this began happening so early in the book means the reader is introduced to a lot of characters in a short space of time and it was very hard to keep track of who was who as well as trying to figure out the importance/relevance of each character we were introduced to.

Or the pacing—because the first 50% of this book seemed incredibly slow.

But, I still somehow enjoyed the read—despite the fact I’d have preferred if the author had chosen 3^rd person limited, or the fact I didn’t click that quickly with the writing style and it had to gradually grow on me throughout the book, or the fact that the topic of fighting demons isn’t exactly original.

But then, in all fairness, the author did put an original spin on the demon hunting angle, and she did eventually get me to care about the characters, and she did get me to smile when Harry finally kissed Sarah, and she did get me to frown when he got outed and to feel his pain when Sarah rejected him, and to feel angered when Leaf wormed his way in, and to want to read on to discover what on earth’s going to happen next.

So, despite it taking a little while to get my attention—because it took me almost 3 days to read the 1^st half, and only hours for the final 50%—I suppose I have to concede that the author has won me over. So, when’s book 2 out then?

Have you read this title? What’d you think?