Welcome friend! I am excited to share about a phenomenal dark fantasy that I devoured as fast as I could. What made me pick up Nightstrider was the cover. I love the image of what appears to be a woman ready to attack with blades. She is flying with dark wings against the backdrop of a castle. The blue and purple hues of the cover called to me so I jumped right in.
Sophia Slade | Goodreads | Nightstrider #1
To stop a vicious demon’s conquest, nightmares and humans will band together in book one of a heart-stopping new dark fantasy series.
Wren is a a deadly manifestation of the frightening dreams of humans. She is forever bound to the insidious Para Warwick, the only night creature who can cross the boundary between the dream and waking realms. When she fails to retrieve information on a weapon that could finally end Warwick’s reign and is severely punished, she makes a snap decision to aid the growing rebellion in finding it. Here, she meets Alaric, another nightmare hell-bent on atoning for his sins. Though wildly suspicious of one another, they form a tentative pact to take down Warwick once and for all.
The waking world is no better off. Prince Caine Fallon, Warwick’s ignorant human son, prepares to wed Ila Enevoldson, the young queen from a neighboring kingdom. But Ila is more than she She is a weaver, a protector of the ancient Boundary that separates the realms, and she has lost a precious weapon entrusted to her. She will do anything to retrieve it, including agreeing to an engagement with the son of her sworn enemy.
When Caine catches Ila opening a portal to the dream realm and follows her through, he finds himself in a universe stranger than he could have imagined, where his father is more monstrous than he could have fathomed. Their destinies collide with those of the two lethal nightmares, and they are forced to band together to stop the vicious dictator—and prevent the very fabric of reality from unravelling.
From TikTok sensation Sophia Slade (@theneonvulture), a stunning new voice in epic fantasy, comes this dark, romantic tale about a world split in two and the four misguided souls who must come together save it, for fans of Holly Black and Hannah Whitten.
Nightstrider – Review
An epic fantasy presents a new world with new creatures, places of importance and potentially new cultures and customs to be aware of. Layered on top of that is history – how the characters came to be where they are and the reason for the conflict which is at the heart of the plot. I appreciated the content notes, character list, terms and locations before the story begins. It got me acclimatized to the world at a fast speed and soon I did not need to turn back to remember who was who.
Nightstrider has a setting that I have always wanted to read about. There is a Wake world where humans live and the dream world called the Reverie where beings from human’s dreams manifest.The worlds are separated from one another through the Boundary. I loved that there are places that exist in both worlds.
The story has many unique creature types – nightmares, vexes, luminae, and dreambreakers, as well as others like dragons and manticores. Amongst humans, there are women called weavers who have magic and can cross the Boundary at will. For the first time, the Wake and Reverie are being ruled by the same power hungry king. An organized rebellion exists in the Reverie with the hope to defeat him. King Warwick is looking for a dreambreaker child that Queen Ila, a weaver, is hiding. Nightstrider is the King’s servant. She is a nightmare created by him to do his bidding but incidents in the past have disillusioned her and she wants revenge. Apart from Nightstrider and Queen Ila, two other points of view in this story are Alaric, the nightmare who used to be the King’s right hand before Nightstrider. He was able to desert the King and now works for the Rebellion. Prince Caine is the King’s human son in the Wake. He is tasked with marrying Queen Ila and manipulating her, in the guise of offering peace to her kingdom.
I enjoyed every single POV in this book! Caine is the underdog who is underestimated by his father. When he accidentally arrives in the Wake, he has to fight for his survival like never before. He is a good person and understands the tough situation that Queen Ila is in for the sake of her kingdom. She encourages him to be braver and his story arc is about heeding that call.
Queen Ila loves the dreambreaker child that she has under her protection but when she is ambushed by the King’s guard in the Wake, she is forced to send her to the Reverie, in the hope that she would make it in time to set the girl free from her box prison. Later, when she finally breaches the Boundary, she finds herself and Caine in another part of the world. Between squabbles and fighting, they make their way to an inn where Caine finally gets some background on what this world is and what he has landed into.
In the time between the dreambreaker’s box and Queen Ila arriving in the Reverie, the rebels are taxed with finding the box. They are curious about this weapon that has the potential to destroy the King and would like to use it to their advantage. Alaric is one of the people looking for the box. The other is a luminae, Mica. Alaric’s character arc delved into his choice to leave the King, how much effort he has had to put into changing his nightmare instincts and once he meets Nightstrider, helping her see that she is more than the crimes she has committed on the King’s orders and to forgive herself. I enjoyed all his moods.
The protagonist of Nightstrider is indeed Nightstrider. She is the most feared nightmare in the Reverie and that is made obvious by how people talk about her throughout the book. She is ruthless and brutal but she is also kind. Her name is Wren and once upon a time, there was someone she loved and called home. But that was taken away from her and in the years following, she has been unable to forgive herself and the King. When she sees an opportunity to take revenge, she takes it. She knows that the King holds leverage over her and can kill her from afar anytime. With nothing to lose, she does it anyway. She meets Alaric and their journey to save the dreambreaker is full of gaining new understanding of themselves as nightmares as well as who they have become.
Through its characters, plot twists and storyline, Nightstrider challenges the notion of stereotypes. Each creature, whether they are vex or nightmare or luminae, are assumed to be a certain way. For example, nightmares are bloodthirsty while luminae are pure and vex are just annoying and abundant. What if we could rise above the roles we were assigned? What if we could be more? What if we could be something else? Would anyone even notice?
I am excited to see what happens in the next volume of this series! Veilweaver is scheduled to be released in July 2025. Nightstrider was originally self-published by the author in 2022 and later picked up by Orbit. Many thanks to Orbit for a digital review copy of this phonmal page-turner book.
Nightstrider makes one of my favorite books of all time and I highly recommend it! Add it to Goodreads.
Great stories remind me of other great stories! This one made me think of another favorite from 2024, The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Wells. Check out that book while you are on the blog and on Goodreads.
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