Liz MacWhirter’s debut Young Adult historical novel, Black Snow Falling, will entrance you as soon as you open the beautiful embossed cover and begin Ruth’s incredible story.

With only a trinket around her neck to remind her of her father as he travels far and wide, Ruth is left in the company of her malevolent step mother and her insistence she marry the ‘right stock’. However, Ruth is determined to marry for love not for riches and land, she knows Silas is the one who has her heart.

Her dreams begin to take her on a dark journey, one that her mind assures. in the cold light of day, that she has been on before. Time and time again as she wakes from her slumber, Ruth becomes convinced there are more to her dreams than subconscious thoughts. They fill her head with a morose sadness that makes her shiver and cry out in fear with every night that passes. Torn between her love for Silas and the need to escape her stepmother’s hold on her, Ruth finds herself alone in a house full of scorn and retribution.

Crowbury is covered in snow. The storm howls at the windows, frightening everyone and terrifying the animals that seek shelter from his cold touch. The air is changing in their sleepy town, evil clutches at them as they sleep, they are unaware that the Dream Thief has come in the night. The menacing creature is ready to steal their dreams, leaving each victim virtually comatose and a mere shadow of their former selves from that moment on.

Desperate to understand what is happening to those around her, Ruth becomes entrapped in the Dream Thief’s world, dangerously close to finding out what it really is. The story reaches it’s climatic end amid a turbulent and fast-paced story filled with love, the desire for truth and Ruth’s unwillingness to give herself over to the evil that threatens her very soul.

I found myself urging Ruth on as I turned each page, following her every move as she went from one life-threatening scenario to another. LJ MacWhirter’s fantastic prose takes you on a journey into the blackness we all fear from that moment we close our eyes, to the deep dreams we fall into as we finally succumb to sleep.

Black Snow Falling is a wonderfully creepy book that will have you guessing right to the end. It’s story will have you checking the windows and doors before you rest your head each night… beware of the dream thieves, they may be coming for you next!

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