Where Dreams Fall by R.L. Caulder

 Where Dreams Fall

by R.L. Caulder 

My Rating: 🟊🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🌶 (To be fair there might 

be more that this I just don't remember)

Blurb:

In a world in which dreams are guarded and nightmares are unsanctioned, one woman's unraveling mind may hold the key to everything the empire fears.

Elysia has spent her life thus far beneath the white clouds of the Dromin elves, protected from nightmares and the Nithrin elves that feed on them—until now. Her dreams have begun to twist into haunting scenes of ancient creatures, death . . . and a mysterious figure cloaked in light and shadow. Elysia suspects he's a Dromin elf breaking multiple laws to appear to her, and his whispered words and lingering touch ignite a spark between them that the gods themselves will soon fear.

When the queen dies and a brutal selection process to replace her begins, Elysia quickly realizes the waking world is fracturing alongside her sleeping one. Women across the empire are offered to the elven high priestess, put forward as potential heads for a crown drenched in blood and lies. Elysia finds herself at the center of the trials, and if she's to survive them, she'll have to decide what she's willing to fight for—and if she can live with the choices she's forced to make. Because only one will be chosen as queen, but all will be broken in the process.

Elysia eventually ascends into the elven world to find the one who stirred her heart is waiting there, but his true identity is far more dangerous than she ever imagined. Choosing each other will mean forsaking the world they're trying to save . . .

Sweeping, perilous, and aching with forbidden passion, Where Dreams Fall is the first book of a dark romantasy series in which love is the most dangerous rebellion of all.

Narrated in duet style.

My Review:

I have a habit of letting books sit for a while before I come back to write my review. I do this on purpose because I believe a book needs time to digest, and more importantly, I rate my books by how well I can remember them once the dust has settled. A truly good book will stick with you. You might not be able to recall every single detail, but it lives in you in a way that makes you want to revisit it before the next installment comes out. That feeling of wanting to reread something is, to me, one of the highest compliments a book can earn.

With that said, I did genuinely enjoy Where Dreams Fall. At first, I will be honest, I could not remember much about it at all. But the more I sat with it, the more it came back to me, slowly and then all at once, the way memories from a good story tend to do.

I am giving this a solid four stars. The reason it did not quite reach five for me comes down to one main thing: this book is extremely short, and because of that, everything important feels rushed. The world, the characters, the relationships, all of it gets packed in at a pace that does not leave much room to breathe. The love story in particular feels instant, almost like a whirlwind romance that did not have enough pages to fully earn itself. Now, I know there are absolutely readers out there who will love exactly that. Some people live for a fast and breathless love story, and there is nothing wrong with that. For me personally, I just kept feeling like there was so much more room to explore, so much potential left on the table.

Even so, I liked it, and I will absolutely be picking up the next book. If you enjoy elves, a world that is not particularly kind or forgiving, a trial for queen, and the hand of a king on the line, then this book will be right up your alley.