Vault of Dreams by Luke Taylor

Vault of Dreams by Luke Taylor

Published: July 31st 2016 – Self published

Albanland. Emerald hills and ice blue lochs, bordered by Nørds raiders and the haughty monarchs of South Angle, each dynasty eager to seize lands weakened by a civil war in which a usurper has risen to seize the cloven throne.
Morgance, Faer Princess of the Night.
And by her side, the fearsome Ultan Skölhammer, sworn Guardian of the Crown.
But Rhoswen, rightful heir to the throne, princess in exile, leads a final uprising from the depths of the forest, an uprising that twists together the lives of the most unlikely companions.
A notorious thief accused of a crime she did not commit.
A baird apprentice searching for the meaning of life.
A pair of brothers who can’t seem to stay out of trouble.
And a gypsy bound to the ancient artifact known only as the Vault of Dreams.

Note: I received a signed ARC copy of this book from the author. This on no way influences my opinion.

For all you regular readers out there, you guys know how excited I was about this book. I think I have been raving about it for weeks now! To say I loved this book would be an understatement!! I need more from this authors works – especially because this book was a standalone and left me reeling! I am going to do this in more of a list style so that this review stays as coherent as possible!

Likes:

– The POV’s. I think every readers worry is that when a book is told from multiple POV’s, they begin to blur and they don’t have voice of their own. This is not the case with this book. Every character is so different, it was easy to remember where I had left off and with which character because they were all so unique. I loved all of the characters for different reasons – even though they were all so different! (well, maybe except Morgance… She needs a kick).

• Each and every character grew and changed in some way throughout this entire book. Whether they changed for better or for worse, they did and it was interesting to watch. I think the character who made the biggest change in my mind was Morgance – she went from being this meek, mild girl, to crazy and scary usurper and I didn’t like her one bit. All she needed was to turn green and she could have been the wicked witch – like Once Upon a Time!!
• This book is pretty fast paced. There was always something going on, so it never got boring. I never felt once like there was an info dump like with many books! I feel like the information flowed and fit well into the story and it all came at the right time!
• Can I adopt Niles and Nevan? Seriously? They are so adorable and amazing and funny and … I just adore them, ok? So, adoption?
• The writing itself was amazing. It was almost lyrical and it just drew me in from the very beginning! Everything was so well described, I felt like I could have been standing there with the characters and experiencing everything that they were. It was easy to fall in love with this book based on that fact alone!
• Aerlyn. She was easily, from the get go, my favourite character in this book. She went through a lot herself, but she overcame that throughout the book and I loved watching her grow. I felt really sorry for her at the end of the book (without giving too much away) and I spoke to Luke about it  – because I can. I feel like Aerlyn deserves her own Novel or novella!
• Quill was also another favourite of mine! I don’t want to say too much, or give too much away, but I think anyone who reads this book and gets to know Quill, will love him from the first time you see him!!

I had two issues with this book, and no more:

• There were very basic grammatical errors. Words written wrong, spelt wrong etc. Very basic, but sometimes it distracts from the story itself. it didn’t happen often within the book, but it did happen.
• I wanted more about the Vault of Dreams itself. I loved following the story, don’t get me wrong, but I feel like it needed more about the VoD – especially because thats the title!!

All in all I absolutely adored this book and I am so glad to say that the author became a friend along the way! I absolutely loved the writing within this book and I am looking forward to reading more from this author!! I gave this book 4/5 stars.