Kallia is a talented and powerful magician who performs at an elite club outside of the city of Glorian. When she finds out her benefactor, Jack, has been keeping secrets from her--secrets about who she is and where she came from--Kallia decides to leave and take her chances performing in the Spectaculore, an extravagant and complex magical competition. A woman has never entered, but Kallia knows she can win.

Daron Demarco used to be a great magician, but an accident caused him to never do magic again. As one of the judges of the Spectaculore, Daron observes the elite magicians, but none are as enigmatic or as skilled as Kallia. But when mysterious events begin taking place, Daron isn’t sure who to trust, including the magical council his family has ties to. . .

Dangerous events continue to plague the city, often during performances or to the people involved with the Spectaculore. There seems to be only one connection: Kallia. But as more secrets are revealed, no one is sure what is reality and what is simply magic. . .

WHERE DREAMS DESCEND by debut author Janella Angeles is a dramatic and complex YA fantasy novel. With a vast cast of intriguing characters, Kallia shines as the heroine--she’s vivacious and confident, but has insecurities and a dark side, too. She has been performing for most of her life, and she feels she finally deserves a chance to truly shine because of her own magical skills, and not what the show Jack ran made her out to be. Jack was quite enigmatic and an important character, but there’s still much to learn about him. Daron also has secrets and demons in his past, and it’s interesting to see how these things continue to haunt him throughout the novel.

Both a debut novel and the first book in a planned duology, at times WHERE DREAMS DESCEND is bogged down both by copious explanatory details as well as not enough explanation to fully understand what is happening. That being said, the descriptions of the city of Glorian, the extravagant magical performances, a fabulously eccentric traveling circus, and the intriguing goings-on behind the scenes will keep readers hooked, waiting for the next book to find out what happens to Kallia.

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