#Monday Review - A Darkly Beating Heart by Lindsay Smith #YALit #Fantasy

Series: Standalone
Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Release Date: October 25, 2016
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Source: Publisher
Genre: YA, Fantasy

A time-travel story that alternates between modern day and 19th century Japan as one girl confronts the darkness lurking in her soul.

No one knows what to do with Reiko. She is full of hatred. All she can think about is how to best hurt herself and the people closest to her. After a failed suicide attempt, Reiko’s parents send her from their Seattle home to spend the summer with family in Japan to learn to control her emotions. But while visiting Kuramagi, a historic village preserved to reflect the nineteenth-century Edo period, Reiko finds herself slipping back in time into the life of Miyu, a young woman even more bent on revenge than Reiko herself. Reiko loves being Miyu, until she discovers the secret of Kuramagi village, and must face down Miyu’s demons as well as her own.

A Darkly Beating Heart is a young adult, science fiction novel by author Lindsay Smith. Smith is also the author of the Skandal duology which I loved. A Darkly Beating Heart is about a troubled American born girl of Japanese ancestry named Reiko Azumi. Reiko is sent to Japan by her parents to sort out her issues, while also waiting for word on whether or not she gets into the school of her choice. 

After being discharged from school, and sent to a psych ward, Reiko sets herself on a path towards destruction and revenge. She feels betrayed by her ex, let down by her parents and brother, and plans on making one helluva exit when she gets her revenge.  

"I am mastering the path of hatred. I am in control. I will make them pay." 

In the three months she's been in Japan, Reiko has been working for her uncle's company as a photographer. Since she speaks barely any Japanese, the language barrier is often an issue for Reiko. Surprising or not, Reiko has little understanding of her own parents culture and heritage. Her cousin Akiko is all about me, me, me, and more me. When Akiko takes Reiko, Kenji, and Mariko to the Kuramagi village for a cultural fair, Reiko is swept away to the Edo era of Japan.

There she becomes a girl named Miyo who is hated by the entire village, and loathed even by her own father. Reiko believes that she can permanently leave the present behind and all her grievances, and become Miyo who has her own revenge plots just waiting to be revealed. Miyo, not unlike Reiko, has made mistakes that have ostracized them. Both of them, in a way, have embarrassed their families to the point where they both now want revenge on those who they feel stabbed them in the back.

Both girls are about violence, upheaval, and renewal. Both girls find comfort in a Samurai warrior named Jiro, but Reiko may also like a girl who works at the Bed & Breakfast she's staying at. One could say that this story is a multi-diverse story. Reiko is not only Asian-American, but she is also bisexual. Reiko is a character who takes a whole lot to like, but eventually you get the whole story of what made her turn towards revenge. The time travel part of the story is definitely the highlight of this book. There are some minor cultural issues that I had problems with, but nothing so drastic that I would throw a hissy fit over.

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#Saturday Review - Dreamstrider by Lindsay Smith (Young Adult, Fantasy)

Series: Unknown
Format: Hardcover, 400 pages
Release Date: October 6, 2015
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy

A high-concept, fantastical espionage novel set in a world where dreams are the ultimate form of political intelligence.

Livia is a dreamstrider. She can inhabit a subject's body while they are sleeping and, for a short time, move around in their skin. She uses her talent to work as a spy for the Barstadt Empire. But her partner, Brandt, has lately become distant, and when Marez comes to join their team from a neighboring kingdom, he offers Livia the option of a life she had never dared to imagine. Livia knows of no other dreamstriders who have survived the pull of Nightmare. So only she understands the stakes when a plot against the Empire emerges that threatens to consume both the dreaming world and the waking one with misery and rage.

A richly conceived world full of political intrigue and fantastical dream sequences, at its heart Dreamstrider is about a girl who is struggling to live up to the potential before her. 

Welcome to yet another entertaining story by Lindsay Smith, the author of the duology known as Sekret. The Sekret duology focused on teenagers who have amazing psychic abilities and are used to spy on their enemies during the cold war. Now, let's step away from the real world for a moment, and enter the fantasy world of the Barstadt Empire. 

It is a place where there is a dreamland known as Oneiros. It is a place where people truly believe that the evil Nightmare has been thwarted and will never return again. It is also a place where two kingdoms are on the brink of a major war. It is also where 19-year old Livia is a different kind of heroine. She's a Dreamslider who grew up as a tunneler, one of the more insidious jobs a person can have in the Kingdom. 

As a Dreamslider, she can inhabit a subject's body while they are sleeping and, for a short time, move around in their skin. It makes her the perfect spy because nobody knows she's there. She uses her talent to work as a spy for the Barstadt Empire. Livia isn't a master at being a spy. In fact, thanks to "The Incident," more than a few people don't trust her.

But, Livia never waves the white flag of surrender whenever something bad happens, or the fact that certain people don't like her. In fact, thanks to her being the only known Dreamslider in the entire kingdom, she would be hard pressed to find herself back in the tunnels any time soon. 

Livia was discovered as a child by her mentor Professor Albrecht Hesse, and put to work as Brandt Strassbourg's partner at the Ministry. The two have a different sort of relationship. She may or may not love him, and he's a future lord who has family responsibilities that trump any ideal romance between the two.

There is also a third part, Marez, from another kingdom who shows up and throws his challenge into the ring. Marez who is supposed to be in Barstadt to help find possible traitors to the kingdom and who just happens to be assigned to work with Livia. I wouldn't call it a triangle folks. In fact, I would dare you to read the book and see what happens for yourself. 

Although this isn't labeled as a standalone or part of a series, I would be shocked if Smith didn't continue the series, at least for one more book. There are, after all, a few unresolved issues that need to be wrapped up. I would have liked to understand the Incident a bit sooner in the book. I would have like to seen Vera and Edina put the past behind them, and help Livia out. Women are the worst offenders of making another person feel like they are 6 inches tall.  

Dreamstrider is a book that combines espionage, with romance, with dreams, and a whole lot of mystery, and a thrill ride from the first page to the ending.

**I received this book for free from (Publisher) in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.**

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