Ya’ll.

I don’t know if I’ve ever been so obsessed with the idea of a story before. “Dreaming of Fire,” book 1 in the Dreamcatcher’s series by Alyssa Kelso, is the mystery and magic of dreams turned into real life in an incredibly well-written, interesting, and well-paced novel. So well-done, that I immediately abandoned my TBR list and jumped right into the second one, “Dreaming of Embers.”

Slight background, I found this series on Tiktok (I’m a booktok girlie, through and through). Alyssa Kelso is an indie author who promotes her work on her own social medias, but in a really fun way. I’ve truly enjoyed learning about who she is through following her while reading this book. I think a lot of indie authors get lost in the trap of “I just need to post my book over and over and over,” and forget to post about themselves.

Now for the actual book – “Dreaming of Fire” starts with Sienna Steel waking from a dream on her 18th birthday, only a part of her dream came back to reality with her. Dreams are special for Sienna – she can vividly remember and recall them at any time. She refers to herself as a “dreamcatcher.” Dreams are a place of solitude for Sienna because the reality of her life is tough. She was adopted at a young age because her parents disappeared right in front of her eyes with a mysterious orb they were fighting in their living room (of course, not a soul believe child-age Sienna about this). She has a sweet adoptive family, but her dad being a politician wants to thrust her into the spotlight (which she doesn’t want), and it’s put a lot of strain on her family. Her boyfriend doesn’t help matters in the slightest either – Jedd is the stereotypical high school predator – he wants her to look perfect and present the front that they have an amazing relationship, while being an absolute monster behind closed doors.

Sienna is graduating high school and trying to figure out what’s next for her. She discovers some new information about her parents that she didn’t know before – they’re from Neveah, a sister planet to earth where Dreams are navigated by guides to help humans of earth navigate life. (I told ya’ll this was good, right?) She feels in her heart, now more than ever, that her parents might still be out there somewhere, and is determined to find a way to Neveah to find them.

The character development Sienna goes through, from a timid girl trying to find her way, to a brave, strong young woman determined to begin to shape her own destiny is wonderfully written. Her new friends and her new flirtations are amazing supports to help her go through this transformation. The time spent world building versus the plot line development had a really delicate balance where I cranked through the novel in just a few days. (Also, I really want to visit Nevaeh and I wholeheartedly want to believe this is the way dreams are manifested).

Alyssa does an amazing job at representing the native culture. I think the way she created a whole new tribe, as opposed to copying another, was a beautiful way to tribute and respect her own roots. It’s even better that she’s a kind human being who genuinely seems to enjoy interacting with her readers (shout out to her for chatting with me on instagram while I raved about her book like she didn’t already know it was amazing).

TLDR: “Dreaming of Fire” by Alyssa Kelso is an incredibly interesting novel about Sienna Steel, an 18 year old girl, who learns she is a descendent of a powerful tribe from a sister planet to Earth call Nevaeh. As she learns more about her parents’ and their disappearance, she is determined to find them. Her new friends and new flirtations are a huge support in shaping the new young woman that Sienna sets out to become. The book beautifully balances world-building and plot development, and I can’t say enough good things about how well written this is, including being representative and respectful of native culture in such a big way. I LOVE reading, and will gobble up damn near anything that catches my interest – this series felt Harry Potter level obsession to me, and that’s not something I’ve found quite a passion for in a long time. I SAID WHAT I SAID. Read this book.

Keeping it WTH-worthy,
-Kells-