Dream Keeper

TEST

Kristen Ashley’s Dream Keeper, the latest part of her Dream Team  series, will surely please anyone who enjoys her quick-to-read, easygoing romances. I had some issues with her storytelling style, which I felt to be somewhat juvenile, but it’s still an okay book.

Former soldier Augustus – Auggie – Hero (yes, really) has a huge thing for dancer Pepper Hannigan (and no, it’s not his Manly Part of Manliness). He also likes Pepper’s kid, eight-year-old Juno. There should be no reason why Auggie and Pepper shouldn’t get together – except Pepper is very cautious about that whole ‘forever’ thing now that she has a child to look after, mostly because her ex-husband will not settle down for a second and has been through more women than a person with seasonal allergies has Kleenex. Also, for Reasons From Her Past That Can’t Be Spoken About. Unfortunately for her, Juno is looking to match-make, and she wants Auggie and Pepper together.

When they do get together, everything seems to be peaches and cream –  that is, until a face from Pepper’s past abruptly rises back up to haunt her.  Looks like Auggie will have to spring to the rescue.

I liked a good chunk of what Dream Keeper had to say, but I couldn’t deny that it was pretty hard to read as a stand-alone.  I liked Elvira, an elderly southern woman who pops up in the book, but had no idea who she is and no grounding for her origin point.

Me, I had trouble with the way that tale was conveyed, for Ashley’s style of telling stories is annoying.

No, really, it is.

Her prose reads like this and is broken down in lines that read

This way.

Fortunately the characters make up for this over-reliance on the enter bar.  I liked Auggie, I liked Pepper, I liked Juno.  I wanted them to form a family, and for them to stay safe from the dangers inflicted by (mysterious plot spoiler goes here, but if you know anything about contemporary romance you can probably predict it). There’s little tension between Auggie and Pepper – a lot of the conflict comes from outside of the relationship after Juno brings them together, which is pretty disappointing.  There’s little doubt that Pepper will pick Auggie when her ex presents himself as a romantic candidate thanks to the stories we’ve heard about his roving eye.  But I could’ve made a drinking game of all of those line breaks, which just mount up and get very annoying after a while.

Fortunately, the characters do pull you through and make the entire book less of an ordeal over time.  But it is quite a journey to get there.  Dream Keeper is a perfectly alright contemporary romance, but newbies to the series should probably not start here.

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Reviewed by Lisa Fernandes

Grade: C+

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date: 12/12/21

Publication Date: 11/2021

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Recent Comments …

  1. excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.

Lisa Fernandes is a writer, reviewer and recapper who lives somewhere on the East Coast. Formerly employed by Firefox.org and Next Projection, she also currently contributes to Women Write About Comics. Read her blog at http://thatbouviergirl.blogspot.com/, follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thatbouviergirl or contribute to her Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/MissyvsEvilDead or her Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/missmelbouvier

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