Since Muse of Nightmares is the sequel to Laini Taylor’s Strange the Dreamer, I will not be giving a MoN summary. If you want to learn more about Strange the Dreamer, check out my non-spoiler review here.

My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

**Warning: There will be spoilers for Strange the Dreamer below**

My Thoughts:

Laini Taylor’s Muse of Nightmares was one of my unicorns (advanced copies that can be hard to come by) of Book Expo 2018. I can now say that waiting in line for over two and a half hours for Muse of Nightmares was worth it—and so was getting to meet Laini, who is easily one of the sweetest authors I’ve ever met!

MoN picks up right where we left off in Strange the Dreamer, and the stakes are high from the get-go. And no worries, I was once again scared of Minya. However, I think MoN does make readers build more empathy for Minya, as we learn more about what really happened during the Carnage fifteen years ago. In my opinion, Sparrow and Ruby play a larger role in this installment, and honestly, our six main godspawn had so many fantastic one-liners! While I’d say that the focus is more on the citadel individuals, we do get interaction from Thyron and Calixte, the latter also had many humorous moments. I won’t share my favorite for now because of spoilers, but here’s one that made me run and grab my post-it tabs:

“Sarai shrugged and vanished it, feeling a little wicked. ‘Nothing special just sweet.’ She looked to Lazlo with a secret smile. ‘Like eating cake in dreams.’

He smiled back, and they all could see that there were memories shimmering between them. ‘What dreams?’ asked Feral.

‘What cake?’ demanded Ruby”. (85)

That moment when you realize that you love a series so much for all of its mentions of cake and sugar.

And no worries (for now) for my Lazlo and Sarai shippers, there are plenty of moments featuring the couple. As the title suggests, while Lazlo remains as one of our main characters, MoN is more Sarai’s story.

Once again, MoN is filled with Laini Taylor’s gorgeous writing style. I think one of the reasons why I quickly fell for this duology is because of Laini’s immersive style and plot. Like its predecessor, MoN has such an imaginative world and characters you just don’t want to let go (similar to how we don’t want a certain character to let go of a certain someone..).

One thing that I did have trouble with was following some of the past god/godspawn history. While I absolutely loved Kora and Nova’s story, I did get a confused about their history and who was who in the different stages of their lives. However, I did like how they came to play in the overall plot.

Overall, I really enjoyed Muse of Nightmares for its character development, and I’m really satisfied with the ending of this story (even though I could see some sort of spin off or novella). If you’re in need of an amazing high fantasy or beautiful writing in general, make sure to pick up this duology. Not to mention the fact that their covers own the fantasy cover game.

This review is based off an advanced reading copy. By no means did receiving this ARC affect my thoughts or opinions.

Have you read Strange the Dreamer? Share in the comments!