Review: A Market of Dreams and Destiny by Trip Galey

A Market of Dreams and Destiny
by Trip Galey
narrated by Will Watt

My Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Historical Fantasy Romance
Age Category: Young Adult
Type of romance: m/m

Blurb:
Enter the bazaar of the bizarre where fate and fortunes are for sale in this high-stakes magical adventure across a London not quite like our own, perfect for fans of Neverwhere and The Night Circus.

Below Covent Garden lies the Under Market, where anything and everything has a price: a lover’s first blush, a month of honesty, five minutes of strength, a wisp of luck and fortune. As a child, Deri was sold to one of the most powerful merchants of the Under Market as a human apprentice. Now, after seventeen years of servitude and stealing his master’s secrets, Deri spots a chance to buy not only his freedom but his place amongst the Under Market’s elite.

A runaway princess escapes to the market, looking to sell her destiny. Deri knows an opportunity when he sees it and makes the bargain of the century. If Deri can sell it on, he’ll be made for life, but if he’s caught with the goods, it will cost him his freedom forever. Now that Deri has met a charming and distractingly handsome young man, and persuaded him that three dates are a suitable price for his advice and guidance, Deri realises he has more to lose than ever.

News of the princess spreads quickly and with the royal enforcers closing in, Deri finds himself the centre of his master’s unwanted attention. He’ll have to pull out all the stops to outmanoeuvre the Master Merchant, save the man he loves, make a name for himself, and possibly change the destiny of London forever.

My Review

I saw this book on the blog by my friend Kit and it just sounded so interesting and good, so I decided to buy it. Not long after that I started listening. I am really glad I gave this one a try, the world building is so vibrant and interesting. And I liked listening to the story and seeing the plot play out.

A Market of Dreams and Destiny is about Deri, an indentured servant of a goblin merchant, who one days meets Owian whose an indentured servant in a human workhouse. The two strike a bargain and spend some evenings together and fall in love. Their love makes them want to fight for their freedom and break their contracts, but to do they have to outsmart the people who hold their contracts.

The book is told from multiple points of view, we get Deri and Owian, but also that of other characters related to the plot. I enjoyed the story, although I wish at times there had been a bit more insight in the characters and their emotions, but the story was good enough that I didn’t mind too much. There are bargains, tricks and characters with contradicting goals. I was curious to see how it all would play out and I liked the smart plans the characters came up with and seeing them play out.

The romance develops really quickly. And I had a bit of trouble feeling their romance at first, but they are very sweet together and I liked reading about them. I would’ve liked a bit more build up before they got together, but as their romance is so integral to the plot and their motivation to be free, so I understood why it progressed so quickly. I also would’ve liked more of those sweet connecting scenes together, but the ones that were there were great.

The book could get a bit dark and sad at times with both boys being indentured servants and it’s clear this is really normal in this world. Both their situations are not good and I really felt for them. There are also some other things that happen that were quite severe, but I liked seeing how they dealt with a lot of it and found ways to improve their situations thanks to bargains and magic. The ending was exciting to see play out, although I had predicted a small part of it. I had wished to see a bit more of a resolution and how things would play out for all the characters involved in the story.

My favorite part of the book was definitely the world building. The goblin market or Untermarket setting really comes alive and I just really liked reading about the merchants and the bargains they made. There are merchants who sell everything from destinies to dreams, memories, feelings, sensations, prosperity, secrets, powers and more. There are bells with their own language when they ring and the language of gold that consist and shines and glimmers. It really was so fascinating to read about it all. The world building when it comes to world above is a bit more limited and I couldn’t help but want more as it was just such an interesting setting.

This was a new to me narrator. I enjoyed listening to this book. I liked how he did the different voices for the characters and the way he added to the story and characters with how he narrated things.

To summarize: This was such an interesting read. The world building is very interesting and vibrant, it really comes alive with the goblin market setting. The rest of the world building is more limited. I would’ve liked even more world building as it was so fascinating to read about. I liked reading about Owian and Deri and seeing how they tried to secure their freedom from the indentured servant contracts that bind them. Their romance developed a bit too quickly for my taste, but it was very sweet and I liked them together. I would’ve liked a few more of the fun and sweet scenes, but the focus is mostly on the plot. Luckily the plot was very engaging and kept my attention. It could get a bit dark or sad in places, but a lot of those things got resolved or improved with magic which was great to see. All in all I had a great time reading this book and it felt very fresh and exciting as I haven’t read a book about a goblin market before.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– Audible
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.