Dreams Bigger than Heartbreak

Unstoppable, Book 2

By: Charlie Jane Anders

Narrated by: Hynden Walch, Imani Jade Powers, Sena Bryer

Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

From the international best-selling author of All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders, comes Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak, the sequel to Victories Greater Than Death in the thrilling adventure Unstoppable series, set against an intergalactic war.

They'll do anything to be the people they were meant to be—even journey into the heart of evil.

Rachael Townsend is the first artist ever to leave Earth and journey out into the galaxy—but after an encounter with an alien artifact, she can't make art at all.

Elza Monteiro is determined to be the first human to venture inside the Palace of Scented Tears and compete for the chance to become a princess—except that inside the palace, she finds the last person she ever wanted to see again.

Tina Mains is studying at the Royal Space Academy with her friends, but she's not the badass space hero everyone was expecting.

Soon Rachael is journeying into a dark void, Elza is on a deadly spy mission, and Tina is facing an impossible choice that could change all her friends lives forever.

©2022 Charlie Jane Anders (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

A packed sequel full of love and growth

I loved how all the characters interact with each other. Everyone’s dealing with all their hangups and everything and it’s not always easy for them to talk with each other, but I love how they always try to manage to work through the issues as best they can. The characters and the worlds they inhabit are so beautifully realized. I had as much with this book as with the first one. Keep in mind, this is definitely a middle book—you better have read the first one if you’re reading this, and it’s certainly a setup for what comes next. But I really enjoyed seeing these characters grow after what they went through in the first book.

I also enjoyed how, despite being full of positivity and awareness of how to better engage with each other, the book didn’t shy away from the reality of people being ugly or misused—there’s definitely some of that for the characters to deal with in this book (and in whatever comes next).

Regarding the audiobook: the narrators were clear and excellent choices for each character. That said, I would not recommend experiencing this book as audio only. There’s a lot going on and a ton of places and characters and details, so personally I had to review what I listened to in my ebook version of the book. I’ll probably get the hardback later on to pair with my hardback version of the first book.

Oh, and thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for providing me with the ebook for review. I ended up reviewing this late, so, as an audiobook fan, I bought myself the audio version, too, before wrapping up my first read and review. Now I'm impatient for Book 3 of the Unstoppable.

Great Sequel

I'm always hesitant to pick up the 2nd in a series when I've enjoyed the 1st so much. Ms Anders did not disappoint with Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak. It was nice to be back with the found family of characters and to get to know them more & watch them develop.

I was a little perplexed by the changing narrators in this audiobook though. It wasn't particularly clear why new voice actors were needed when the 1st person changed. I initially got a little hung up wondering if I was missing something with the changes. I gave up trying to figure it out & finished the book just fine without knowing.

great follow up

this series grew on me a lot, the wait for the next installment is getting unbearable