Review: Exit Light by Megan Hart

Description:
Tovah Connelly would rather be asleep than awake. Since her accident, she’s become a shaper in the dream world, the Ephemeros, where she can manipulate places and people with just a thought. Tovah’s friends there, Ben and Spider, encourage Tovah to develop her skills, but the one ability she doesn’t want is to control the dreams of others— it’s a power she’s wary of, and a responsibility she’s not ready for.

Nobody can sleep all the time, though— not if they want a waking life that bears a semblance of normalcy. And Tovah’s waking life is vastly different from her dream life: she’s rebuilding and regaining her sanity after nearly losing it in the accident’s aftermath.

But when nightmares begin rocking the Ephemeros, Tovah’s two worlds begin to collide. As those she cares about are threatened, Tovah may discover that the one responsibility she doesn’t want is the only defense she has.

I received this book from netgalley.

Review:
Megan Hart did it again- she wrote a book I just can't stop thinking about. I finished it a few days ago and still my thoughts about it are all consuming and never seem to stop. Be happy that you aren't my BF cuz he has to live with the fact that every few hours I mention this book in some way. That makes reviewing this book even harder because each time I think I know what to write something else pops up in my head. I will start to sort my thoughts for you and I hope I will be able to show you why I adore this book.

Exit Light is a Paranormal Fiction Novel. Most of the last Megan Hart books I read were contemporary and I like this genre because of her. BUT my first big love is the Paranormal world, so that made this book even more special to me. The world we are thrown into is not so much different from the one we live in. To be exact the waking world is exactly like ours but we have the Ephemeros, the world of dreams, too. In this world we meet Tovah, a young woman in her prime walking and shaping this world of dreams. And yes with shaping I mean she can do what she wants in that world, if she would just practice enough. She can change her apperance and her surroundings with her own will and she isn't shy to use this gift. She enjoys herself here and does what she likes most- nothing holds her back, so she lives her life 100%. This part of her life is her anchor for the real world. It gives her hope and something to look forward to. She needs this badly cuz a few years ago she had a car accident which changed her life drastically. She nearly lost her life and mind, has to live with the physical consequences on her own now too because she lost the love of her ex-husband on her way of finding a sense for life again, too.. My heart bled for Tovah.She really has her own cross to carry in this world. She is strong and knows what she wants. She won't back down but that makes the whole situation not less hard to live with.

This book had a extraordinary charm in my eyes. I loved that we learned everything about the world and the characters bit by bit. I am usually annoyed by this but Mrs. Hart has a way of doing this which just enthralled me more. I needed to know more and it just made me lose all urges to put the book down. Her sidecharacters are mysterious at first and with each chapter we get more information and the huge puzzle begins to take shape. I loved Spider. He is a friend in the Ephemeros and the real world. His chosen appearance in the dream world is a spider and I found it highly fascinating how the other characters interacted with that "animal form". He was still able to speak and interact and that gave the story a nice fantasy twist.

I also love the mystery of discovering who everyone from the Ephemeros is in the real world. The ability to change your appearance there made me suspect everyone and I was wrong more than ones. The pacing of the story was perfect and the world building was cleverly done. It reminded me a bit of Sergei Lukyanenko's novels not because of a similar story but more of the writing style, pace and character development general. Oh I should mention that  love Lukyanenko.

And nearly forget the romance. Special twist here too. We are confronted with the big question: is love in the Ephemeros real or not? And if you have someone in the dream world is it betraying someone you have in the real world. How would you handle these 2 different worlds? It is after all the normal dream world we all visit every night only that Tovah knows how to form it with her will and can connect to other "dreamers" there. She was a bit torn with this question and I was too. She has some potential "lovers" in this book and I couldn't decide which one I like most for a long time.

I would recommend this book to every one who likes a good paranormal with an emotional twist and not only a focus on the action. Exit Light is heartbreakingly good like all of Mrs. Hart's novels.
  
To learn more about Megan Hart and her books please visit her website here.


You can read other review of Exit Light @goodreads and purchase the book @CarinaPress.