Book 1:
Dreamlike State: Natalia and Bradley
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Summary:
From Amazon.com
Natalia spends her days in her dreamlike world fantasizing about love to escape from reality.
Bradley has it all except for the one thing he wants most, a soul mate to spend eternity with.
After tragically losing her parents, Natalia takes a vacation that leads her on a journey, which brings them together.
Together they face the challenges of a jealous ex-lover, an estranged father and a sadistic friend. They all have one thing in common, to keep Bradley and Natalia apart. And they’ll do anything to end their relationship, even murder.
Will Bradley and Natalia’s love be enough to defeat all who wish to destroy it?
Review:
From the moment the book starts we are thrown right into the mix, the beginning is tragic and immediately has your heart going out to Natalia our heroine for this tale. Natalia has basically just lost the most important things in her life and it causes her to reconsider what is important. She takes some needed time for herself and heads off to the forests of Pennsylvania. Before she even gets there she knows that this trip is going to change her life and she is going to find her destiny. You see our Heroine has some gifts of her own, which adds a fun paranormal twist to this tale. Natalia has some precog abilities and can sense a person’s intent, thoughts and memories upon touching them. Because of her abilities Natalia tends to be a bit of a loner and is shy. She may be a bit socially awkward but she tends to be sweet and loyal to those she lets in her inner circle. When Natalia arrives at her destination she immediately feels at home and starts meeting people that she feels like she has known her whole life, or was it a past life…
One of those people is Bradley, whom she suspects might be the man that she has only met in her dreams. Bradley has secrets, secrets that put Natalia in danger. It’s that secret that adds a bit of danger to this tale. It seems like every time we turn around someone from Brad’s life is threatening Natalia. This also leaves some unresolved issues that I assume will be addressed in the second book. Bradley as a character there isn’t much not to like, he’s sweet and attentive to our fair Natalia. He tends to be overprotective and self-sacrificing to the point that he is willing to turn his back on his soul mate to protect her. While it’s incredibly sweet, it’s been done excessively think Twilight book 2. We don’t know much about Bradley, he remains a bit enigmatic. We know a bit about his past, but not much, by the end of the book I still didn’t feel as if I truly knew his character as well as I should have, but this may be addressed further in the second book as well.
There were some issues with the book. There were some obvious editing issues, with incorrect grammar, poor sentence structure, etc.. It wasn’t so bad that it ruined the book but it was obvious enough I even caught it, which I am the first person to admit my grammar is not the best so I don’t usually notice much. We also have to suffer through another Bella and Edward like issue when it comes to intimacy. It was annoying in Twilight and it’s kinda annoying in this book as well, but at least these two try to work through it so it’s not as nauseating. I was also confused as to what genre this author was going for. At times this book seemed like it was reading like a YA book, the sensuality was so low that I would find it appropriate for an older teen. I have read YA that is more racy and used stronger language (I believe” Cheese and Crackers” was used instead of a swear word). Our heroine really didn’t act her age. She is supposed to be 25 but she giggles insentiently pretty much on every page. If she isn’t giggling she is crying. She exhibited some behaviors that seemed more typical of a 17-19 year old. So our characters are too old to be YA and there are some more mature themes but it doesn’t quite read mature enough to be “New Adult” or “Adult”. So for me this is an Adult book with a YA vibe, which created mixed signals.
That being said, I still enjoyed the book. Overall the story was engaging; I read it in all one sitting. I didn’t really get bored and I like the characters including our supporting cast including our talking dog. Yes, there is a talking dog, how or why Natalia’s dog can talk at least telepathically, I’m not really sure, I just went with it. I liked this book, but I didn’t love it. I would suggest this book for those who enjoy a more mild paranormal with little to no cussing, mild violence and NC-17 sensuality (heavy petting but not taking it to home base).
Review copy provided by author for an honest review. No other compensation was provided. This review was originally posted at Under the Covers Book Blog as a guest review by me. Click here to visit UTC: Under the Covers Book Blog
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