Blog Tour Review With Giveaway: The Keep of Ages (The Vault of Dreamers Trilogy #3) by Caragh M. O'Brien

Book info:

Title:  The Keep of Ages
Author:  Caragh M. O'Brien
Series:  The Vault of Dreamers Trilogy #3
Genre:  YA Science Fiction
Release Date:  August 29th, 2017
Publisher:  Roaring Brook Press
Source:  E-galley from Edelweiss for honest review
My rating:  4 stars

Synopsis:
In the fast-paced, high-stakes conclusion to Caragh M. O'Brien's Vault of Dreamers trilogy, Rosie travels to a derelict theme park to shut down dream mining once and for all.

Driven by fear when Dean Berg kidnaps her family, Rosie Sinclair strikes out across the country to rescue them. When an elusive trail leads her to Grisly Valley, the contaminated ruin of a horror theme park, Rosie has to consider that Berg may once again be manipulating her every move to make her fearful, priming her for a final, lethal dream mining procedure. As Rosie struggles to outmaneuver Berg, she unearths the ultimate vault of dreamers and the hint of a consciousness more powerful and dangerous than any she's imagined before. Faced with unspeakable suffering and otherworldly beauty, Rosie must discover how to trust her mind, her friends, and reality itself.

Propulsive and deeply speculative, The Keep of Ages concludes the Vault of Dreamers trilogy with stirring possibilities for what it means to be alive.

My Review:
This final book in the series definitely closed the story out satisfactorily.  All three books in the series have earned 4 star ratings from me.  You can read my reviews of the first two books here, The Vault of Dreamers and The Rule of Mirrors.    Obviously if you haven't read the first two, I can't promise no spoilers for them in my review. Sorry.  You should stop reading this and skip on down to the giveaway below or click on the links earlier in this paragraph for my reviews of the first two books.

If you remember, Linus and Rosie had the issue of there being a camera put in Linus's eye by Berg.  Rosie's family is gone, and Berg says he has them.  She is trying to get them back as well as to find a way to live safely, and not let Berg capture her and mine her dreams anymore. Berg needs her dreams, as he thinks it may be the way to save himself from the disease he is dying from.  

Rosie is afraid to go to Linus, knowing that just about anything she does could lead Berg right to her.  So she turns to Burnham, meaning that she ends up having to tell him about Thea, and who Thea really is.  Thea's parents want to seed her again, since her headaches are coming back.  Rosie is led to the idea that her family might be held captive in a vault in California that she has heard of.  Her sister Dubbs left her a clue, a place to go find them, and there she finds a woman who is from the past of the whole project.  A woman who has her own reasons for wanting the vault of dreamers to be found, and hopefully that will make her help something Rosie can depend on. This vault of dreamers is located underneath an amusement park, which you'll find is where the title of this book comes from.  

There's a lot of suspense and on the edge of your seat moments in this one.  It ends satisfactorily as I said, although I could totally read more of the story if there was more.

Praise for THE VAULT OF DREAMERS Series

“A sharp novel about the ways in which everyone can be manipulated, either through editing or one's own desire to go the easiest path.” ―BCCB

“Like O'Briens Birthmarked trilogy, this dystopian, sci-fi, psychological-thriller hybrid raises ethical and moral questions about science. This might have been a difficult story to pull off, given the environment, but with a likable narrator who is thoroughly unimpressed with herself, it works . . . this should have wide appeal.” ―Booklist

“Fans looking for a science fiction novel that is not heavy on the science fiction or who want something vaguely dystopian will enjoy this title.” ―VOYA

“A mixture of science fiction and contemporary fiction, this novel is an interesting addition to both genres.” ―School Library Journal

“A fast, satisfying psychological thriller . . . The sudden cliffhanger will polarize readers.” ―Kirkus Reviews

“Like viewers of The Forge Show, readers will want to keep watching Rosie.” ―Publishers Weekly 

About the Author:

Caragh M. O’Brien is the author of the BIRTHMARKED trilogy and THE VAULT OF DREAMERS series, both from Macmillan/Roaring Brook Press. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Ms. O’Brien was educated at Williams College and earned her MA in the Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University. Her young adult science fiction has been honored by the YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults, the Amelia Bloomer Award, the Junior Library Guild, and numerous state reading lists. A former high school English teacher, she now writes young adult novels full time from her home in rural Connecticut.

Photo Credit: Tomy O’Brien 2014

WEBSITE: http://www.caraghobrien.com/
TWITTER: @CaraghMOBrien
GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3036304.Caragh_M_O_Brien
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Caragh-M-OBrien-Writer/311588922533

FACEBOOK: https://www.instagram.com/caraghmobrien/

Giveaway:

- 10 Winners will receive a Copy of THE KEEP OF AGES by Caragh M. O'Brien

   
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Check out the rest of the tour HERE.

Review: The Rule of Mirrors (The Vault of Dreamers #2) by Caragh M. O'Brien

First, thanks to Roaring Brook Press and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this book.  I was lucky enough to get an ARC  of the first book, The Vault of Dreamers, and meet the author when I went to BEA in 2014.  So unfortunately I won't have matching ARCs since I only had an egalley of this, but hey, that's life!  I had skimmed a few reviews before I got around to reading this myself, and one or two of them made me a little concerned I wouldn't enjoy this one.  But actually, there were several things in this that I did like even a little better than the first book.  Now, obviously if you haven't read the first book, you need to stop reading my review now, because I can't keep from any spoilers for that book.  Go click the link above and read the review of the first book if you think you might be interested in this series.

We pick up with Rosie, but Rosie in two different places.  One of those places is back in a dream vault, like where we left off in the last book.  In the place where she still sleeps most of the time, there is a creepy guy who works there.  And this guy seems to be in love with her.  So she chooses to use this obsession of his to get him to help her get awake more often. To learn things about where she is and what is going on.  And eventually, hopefully, she can get him to help her escape. 

The "other" Rosie is waking up in another girl's body, a pregnant girl's body.  Thea has been in a coma, and her parents have used the dream seeds suggested by the doctor to bring their daughter back, really they've wanted to keep her alive even with no hope, just to save the baby.  But when Thea wakes up, she's not Thea, she's Rosie.  The doctor has told the family that this happens sometimes, and that she will need to keep her in the hospital until it stops.  But Thea/Rosie is able to convince her parents that she will do better at home.  Before she leaves though, she is able to get back into the lab, and find lots of her dream seeds in jars.  And she meets someone else, someone she recognizes from her past, that now lends a whole other aspect to the story.  When she goes home with her family, to Texas, she meets the father of Thea's baby, and there is just an instant connection, seemingly out of nowhere.  Many other relatives are there as well, including her grandparents.  But Rosie wants to know about Linus, the boy she was in love with before, who also betrayed her.  She calls to try to talk to him, but of course she doesn't have Rosie's voice, it is Thea's voice, making him not believe it is her, even with the things she tells him that only the two of them would know.  She tries calling her mom and stepdad and little sister, but same issue, they don't believe her.

The "real" Rosie is able to escape when some things do happen that lead her to be able to sneak out.  At first she is able to get away with it, and the creepy guy doesn't find her.  She jumps into the back of a truck with two young women, and they promise to keep her at their home in secret for awhile, with the promise that she will let them claim the reward when she is ready to come out.  She also tries to contact Linus and others, and they do believe her.  But then Berg, the head of the school, contacts her.  And now she feels like she is no longer safe.  This is about the time she realizes that the creepy guy is out in his truck outside the house where she is hiding.  So she leaves, and goes with the creepy guy to try to get back to her family.  She finds that he has been stealing the sleep vials from the vault, and she steals some herself, to save to use for when they might be able to help her out.  Of course she must escape from him, but she doesn't trust Linus, not after his betrayal.  So she goes to another of her friends from the Forge school, Burnham.  Burnham lives in a very nice house, his parents being the ones who own the company that makes the drugs the Forge school was using.  Burnham wants to find out what exactly is being done, for his parents' company's sake at least.  So Rosie uses Burnham's computer hacking skills to try to figure more out as well as get help to get back to take her revenge on Berg. 

I won't tell you anymore.  Just that Rosie will have to meet up with Linus, she will need him to do what she wants to do, plus, she still loves him, and can't resist going to him.  But will all of it be worked out?  Even if she can get in and get the proof, does Rosie now exist in two places?  Or will Thea ever be able to come back out and take her life back?  All I can tell you is that this isn't the end, there is going to be one more book.  And I need to know more!  I need to know how everything can be wrapped up.  It gets close in this book, but not all the details are wrapped up, and there is so much more to happen.