2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Strange the Dreamer, the first book in the Strange the Dreamer series by Laini Taylor.

Pages: 544.

Length: 1 Month (February).

Participants: Ashleigh, Rebecca, Amanda.

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.


Happy Buddy Reading!

I think the participants should be Hanča, Ana, and myself, but no matter. :)

This will be my first readthrough of Strange the Dreamer, but not my first Laini Taylor. I really enjoyed her "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" trilogy, and so many people have told me this book is better. I have high hopes.

Hi Allie, excited to get to this one, I am finishing up a read from January fo will pick it up right after (hopefully this weekend already). I heard the series is a bit slow paced, I am just going through a slow paced chunker right now so hope I have not overestimated my strengths haha.

Good to hear you already liked Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I have that series as well and I heard a lot good about it. I know it's supposed to be set in Prague which is a city I am actually from, so I am a bit apprehensive about that haha.

Hi Allie, how's your reading so far?

I got a much later start than I intended, so I started it this week, and I’m currently 25% through.

I’m enjoying it, although I feel like it’s a somewhat slow starter and I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on. I appreciate the world building Taylor is doing.

How’s your reading going?

This has been a bit of a slow read for me. Part 1 was very stressful (view spoiler)[It was upsetting seeing Lazlo getting screwed over by that other guy (hide spoiler)], but I want to see how the story goes. (view spoiler)[Hopefully, they'll actually get to the city in the next chapter (hide spoiler)]

I am having a hard time with this book to be honest. I really had to force myself to read it so far and got through only a few chapters, it is sooo slow. Considering none of us finished yet, maybe I can ask the mods to extend the thread till March?

Well, I finished it. I liked it well enough. It’s a solid 3-star read for me: good, but not great, and certainly not a favorite. I feel…deflated, honestly. I loved the last trilogy I read by Taylor, and I had been assured Strange the Dreamer was better, so my fingers were crossed for a 5-star read.

For me, I didn’t feel it was really slow, though it didn’t truly capture my interest until the last third of the story. What hurt the book for me was that I felt there were too many underdeveloped side characters that I didn’t care much about, and the plot was highly predictable.

It’s a duology (view spoiler)[ and this book ends on a cliffhanger (hide spoiler)] so I probably will read book 2 at some point. Right now, I don’t feel any excitement about the idea.