Too long, too complicated and really didn’t progress the overall story much. The rebellion section was good - didn’t see the betrayal coming but then we needed to read long dream trail descriptions. Hope next in series is better! ( )

The Keeping Place is the fourth book in The Obernewtyn Chronicles series by Isobelle Carmody, originally published in 1999. This one was a bit of a disappointment to me. All the books in the series so far have had ups and downs in the pacing, but this one was slow most of the time. The Dreamtrails parts of the story were not very exciting, even felt a little silly to me. Dragon, the wild little girl, was kept out of all the real action in the book, which I think was a mistake as she's a great character and I missed her. I've noticed that the books were published four-five years apart, so I expect more from the stories. I still like the series, and I'm hoping for better in the next installment. ( )

Not my favorite book in the series so far. I don't really feel that the jump in number of pages were an indication of superior content, rather that there seemed to be a lot of filler. Having said that, I enjoyed it sufficiently to both finish it and to intend continuing with the story. There are enough plots and ideas for a really good story here, it just seems to lack some of the direction in telling that story. I'm hoping the author finds her footing again in the next in the series. ( )

Elspeth in on another adventure. Ruston, her love, went on a mission to sutrium and never returned. After declining to work with the rebels, they are forced to, to find where rushton is. Dragon is in a coma and is tormenting people in their dreams and so sleep is not safe for elspeth. The rebels run the council and the herders off half of the land. while they are at war they find a herder facility. Rushton is inside but he was mentally torture and now hates elspeth. She saves him from going insane by entering his mind and saves dragon in the meantime. The both end up loathing her even more.

All the book are very intense. Each book has a lot of feeling. I really like the series but this book was increadably slow. It took her half the book to relise that rushton was missing. The first half was all about her dreams, and was just increadably boring. This book was needed in the series because it ties up loose ends, but it was a pain to get through.

Elspeth is faced with leading the Misfits when Rushton disappears. There are multiple concerns to juggle, along with her fears for Rushton and Dragon and Matthew. Along with the unfolding rebellion in the Land, there is also her quest for the various signs. There was a feeling of urgency about most of the book and I was left wanting to know "what happens next!" when I finished. ( )