The Last Dreamwalker by Rita Woods

August 29, 2022

The Last Dreamwalker by Rita Woods

Layla Hurley and her mother Elinor never got along. From childhood, Layla was plagued by strange and destructive dreams that her mother choses to ignore. After a final argument, Layla and her mother hadn't spoken for' a long time. Then Elinor died suddenly, and Layla regretted never having resolved their conflict. Her mother's two sister (who Elinor was also estranged from) show up at the funeral, bringing Layla an unexpected inheritance, an old rice plantation called Ainsli Green, on an island off the coast of South Carolina. The envelope also contains information about the family "gift," the ability to invade other people's dreams. As Layla looks through the information, she recognized a picture of a woman who is the same one who haunts her dreams. She resists accepting the truth, until one of her brothers also begins experiencing the same type of destructive dreams.

Meh. Needed a good editor (one of my favorite criticisms) since there are a lot of scenes that don't advance the plot or the characters, and the book could have been at least 50 pages shorter. Scenes are repeated sometimes more than once. The narrative flips back and forth between two time periods and two narrators. Layla spends a lot of time wandering around in a fog and vomiting. Too many dreams, too much drama. Might appeal to YA readers.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC.