Christina Farley

The Dream Heist is a science fiction YA novel where traveling in other people's dreams is possible thanks to a recent scientific discovery. The goal of the dream travelers ? Restore patients memories and hopefully find a cure to memory loss.

Eighteen-year-old Aria Hale is the daughter of the inventor of the process. She loves her job and is very good at it. So all hopes rest on her to find the cure. But one night the lab is ransacked and her dad is kidnapped, leaving her no other option than traveling in her ennemis’ dreams to find what happened to him.

The Dream Heist is a dangerous adventure full of mystery. If you loved the movie Inception, you will love this novel. I was greatly impressed by the world created by Christina Farley. Aria is a strong female character that has to deal with a lot of unexpected events to try to save her family's life. If you love thrillers with a little bit of science fiction and romance, you will definitely enjoy it.… (mehr)

"Heists. Murderers. Kidnapping. Bombs."
Eighteen year old Aria loves her job at her father's dream therapy company where she enters dementia patients' dreams to save their memories. But when their lab is ransacked, two technicians are murdered, and her father is kidnapped, everything changes for her. Determined to find her father, Aria and her friends embark on a harrowing hunt across continents using the dreams of their enemies to guide them. But this dangerous journey plunges her into a world she never bargained for: deception, intrigue, even love. As she races to save her father and hunt down her enemies, she soon realizes she's in fact the one being hunted. And her dreams are the greatest danger of all.
I really liked the idea of this book! I mean being able to enter into people's dreams and try to save memories seems pretty cool. I honestly got some Inception vibes with them entering into the Dreamscape as Dream Walkers. The whole point was to guide the dreamer without interfering too much. It was really cool that they started this as a way to try and save the memories of Aria's grandmother who was diagnosed with dementia. The whole concept was just super cool and I liked that it wasn't really heavy on the science aspect. It was more a focus on the dreams and interpreting them.
Aria's dad created the Dreamscape concept off her brain and she becomes important to the ability of the group of Dream Walkers to stay within a dream for more than a few seconds. Aria and her group are on the search for something called the Vault of Memories, and when they get a new client it feels like they may be close to finding the missing piece to connecting memories. Of course everything goes horribly wrong when her dad is kidnapped and the book shifts to a quest to locate her dad with a group of unqualified friends. Which is why I felt some of the journey to be a little unbelievable considering the main characters were only 18 years old.
I was glad that the book had a resolution but I felt like the robbery and kidnapping together caused elements of each story to be overlooked sometimes. A few times the author had some typos with character names that kind of took you out of the moment, but overall these were minimal and seemed to be reserved for the end of the book. The problem of course is this is where all the action was. While I enjoyed that the book didn't end on a massive cliffhanger and I could feel mostly complete with the story, some stuff was left unresolved for sure. My biggest complaint with this book is that we didn't get more of the Dream Walking stuff. Overall, the story was nice, fun, and a really interesting concept.… (mehr)

Farley's Gilded series follows Jae Hwa Lee, a young Korean-American girl recently moved to Korea, despite warnings from her strict, traditional grandfather. Jae's father doesn't listen. He isn't interested in the rantings of an old man, spouting fantastical tales. But there's more truth to Grandfather's warnings than Jae could ever imagine.

Brazen finds Jae dealing with those consequences. Her friends have turned against her, and she's forced to carry out work she dislikes. She still hopes to set things to rights, and protect the land she's come to cherish. Jae must also come to terms with the ramifications of defeating Haemosu, both because the Otherworldly lands he ruled are falling to ruin, and because her repeated forays into the spirit realms is affecting her ability to exist in the physical realm.

Go figure, but one of my favourite characters was recurring antagonist Kud. I'm a sucker for darker deities, and through the series you really get to know Kud and his motivations. Sometimes it's easy to see why villains do the things they do. I'd love to see a story of his past, from his perspective! Highly recommended, especially if you enjoy stories inspired by myth, or set in Korea.… (mehr)