Of Dreams and Shadows

She is forced to dream while awake.
He must face his nightmare—her.

Princess Aroreh Rosen is stuck in a beautiful dream.

Except . . . she hasn’t slept since she was a small child. And to do so now may end her life.

Except . . . she hasn’t slept since she was a small child. And to do so now may end her life.

For years, Aroreh has lived under a spell to see sunny illusions of beauty and contentment. A programmed glamour to blind her from seeing how her mother’s cruelty and magic are amplified only when Aroreh is awake.

But when Félip MacKinley, a shadow walker and surviving heir of faerie, helps a rebel sect of fae kidnap her, Aroreh’s true magic is set free—an ability to weave new realities while dreaming. A powerful magic that could stop her mother’s vowed revenge to annihilate Félip’s throne and destroy the Kingdom of Ealdspell.

Quickly, the world around Aroreh unspools into fraying threads of danger and deception. A position that forces her to trust only herself. Not the faeries who are using her as a pawn in their war against her mother. Not the handsome prince who also fears her, the young woman connected to his every nightmare.

And she knows what she must do to save her people—sleep.

Even if it kills her.

OF DREAMS AND SHADOWS is a young adult fae fantasy spin on the romantic tale of Sleeping Beauty, blending faerie magic and pagan ritual with an Industrial Revolution meets medieval elven faerie tale inspired setting and sprinkled with high-tech dystopian touches.


CAN BE READ AS A STANDALONE

©2019 Jesikah Sundin (P)2026 Jesikah Sundin

Great story!

This story was a little confusing at first because it’s so far from what I expected it to be but I loved it! The narrator was excellent and I loved the accent she used ❤️

Fairytale Retelling + Folk Tales + Cyberpunk

The magic, tech, writing & narration in this book raised my review to ⭐⭐⭐⭐.
Meanwhile, the plot and characters brought it down to ⭐⭐⭐⭐.

I was expecting steampunk, but this was more technology-focused. The story is one we all know (Sleeping Beauty) with a slightly different interpretation, more of a dream state than actually sleeping.

Complete story–No cliffhanger. Thank you!

THE GOODS
Worldbuilding: pagan inspiration
The use of nanotech
Narration: adored the Scots accent for Philip
Writing: some amazing turns of phrase
Male MC: Much deeper than Æroreh. Nice backstory and arc.

COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER
Plot (classic Sleeping Beauty plot with dreams in place of full sleep)
Female MC. I must say… I really did NOT like Æroreh. Sniveling nitwit comes to mind. I know, it’s hard to have a strong FMC who falls victim to the female villain from such a young age. And Sundin used that to her advantage in the story by making her representative of the idea that women have been belittled, told to sit down and look pretty for a long, long time. However, it just doesn’t endear me to the character.

Ehh

Good concept but never actually drew me in enough to care about the characters or outcome.
Olivia King's performance was excellent!

Fairy tale with a twist + great narration

I combined listening to chapters of the audiobook in the evening and reading the paperback during the day.

It's nice to see how elements of a classic fairytale (of the original version, not the disney one) are intertwined with modern elements, like the existence of an AI and runic technology. The same goes for all Ealdspell books. For the characters, I really liked Félip, Ærorah a little bit less because I like the MC to be a bit more sassy, but she was still a lovely character (the personal growth she experiences throughout the book was amazing). Having read Eirwen already, I was soooo happy to see some familiar faces return in this book too (it's nice to see how they help in connecting all the books together). A small downside in my opinion is that you barely get to know why the villain (won't call them by name here to avoid spoilers) does what they do, what the bigger plan is. But this becomes much more apparent in Eirwen, so I'd just suggest you pick up that one as soon as possible so you can dive even deeper into the world of Ealdspell, because there is so much more yet to be discovered.

Both the writing style and the narration were very pleasant to read and listen to. As English isn't my maternal language, it took some time for me to adjust to Félips accent in the audiobook, but it made me hear his voice in the same way while reading the paperback, so in fact it was a really nice touch once I got used to it.

The historical notes at the end of the paperback were also very informative and a big upside to this book.

So if you like amazing fantasy worlds, with characters that will just steal you heart, lots of bantering, the innovative combination of both fairy tales and modern stuff, I'd really suggest you check out the Ealdspell Cycle.

PRINCESS OF DREAMS. PRINCE OF SHADOWS

WOW! THIS STORY REALLY JUST BLEW ME AWAY, IT WAS SUCH A UNIQUE RETELLING OF SLEEPING BEAUTY IN A TWISTED WAY, BUT REALLY GOOD. THE STORY IS CLEAN, AND THE NARRATOR HAS A SCOTTISH BROGUE, THAT
MAKES YOU WANT TO MELT. A WONDERFUL STORY, AND I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST STORY TO COME TO AUDIBLE!