Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: eSpec Books
Published: 2017
Reviewer Rating: 
Reviewer: David L. Felts
Have you read this book?
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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In Yesterday’s Dreams, by Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Kara O’Keefe, overwhelmed by the expenses of her father’s cancer treatments, finds herself forced to give up the violin passed down to her by her grandfather, which she has named Quicksilver. It’s at a New York pawn shop, Yesterday’s Dreams, that she begins the journey that will reveal her true destiny.
Wheels are set in motion and soon Kara learns that the myths and fables are real; there’s an unseen world of magic and creatures, and, in this unseen world, a malevolent force who has targeted her.
This one took me a while to get into. It’s as though the story took a while for the author to get into as well, as I noticed a definite improvement in the writing and flow about two-thirds of the way through.
The characters seemed thin when compared to other characters I’ve read about by Ackely-McPahil. Kara, to me, lacked some depth, coming across as too perfect, too much the martyr. I didn’t get a feel for the internal conflict I’d expect someone in her situation to have. She’s presented as strong, yet at the same time comes across as someone who’s not. Maybe that’s the conflict?
In contract, the other character, Maggie McCormick, seemed more the main character than Kara. Shel eft me wanting to know more about her background with the Sidhe.
And the big, bad evil guy Lucien might be evil, but he didn’t come across as all that big or bad. He definitely could have been more… committed and willing to do whatever it took in his pursuit of Kara. Note: I’m not a fan of accents represented in writing, so that didn’t work for me.
In the end, I felt the story overall lacked vitality. There was an abundance of memory and explanation and introspection. The main character felt more pulled by the story as opposed to driving it. The bad guy wasn’t as bad as he should have been in in pursuit of his goals.
While a book doesn’t need to be wall to wall action, but some energetic happenings would have been nice.
That said, fans of Celtic mythology would probably like this, and there are some interesting things going on related to teat mythology.
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