I read a Kindle edition of Sleeping Together that I received for free from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review. Sleeping Together is the first novel in the Perfect Drug series.
Genre:Ā Science fiction, Romance, Contemporary
Publisher:Ā Brass Anvil Books
Originally published:Ā March 6th, 2019
Pages:Ā 310 (paperback)

Blurb by the publisher:
Vanessa Brown is having nightmares: about babies. Ever since her husband, Pete, mentioned he wanted to start a family, Ness has been trying to convince herself she’s stoked to spawn despite her inability to keep a cactus alive–and a decade-old secret she doesn’t like to remember. So when she catches her slacker-cool coworker, Altan Young, stealing sleeping medication from the pharmaceutical company they both work for, she decides to try the pilfered pills to finally find some rest.
But side effects of Morpheum include headaches, nausea, and possible mind melding–a fact Ness and Altan stumble upon when they share the same freaky sex dream. (Awkward.) Now these two colleagues are joined at the brain by night, experiencing dozens of fantastic sleep-staged adventures courtesy of a little imagination and a whole lot of drugs.
With the stress of being caught between the men of her literal and figurative dreams (not to mention her nightmare of a boss), Ness starts to enjoy snoozing more than being conscious–and the company of her work husband more than her real one. If she doesn’t wake up and smell the coffee soon, her dreamy escape could become a dirt nap in this feisty debut novel about the dark side of dreams’ coming true.

My thoughts:
What first caught my attention with this one was the beautiful cover. Yes, I am an absolute sucker for a pretty cover. Well done on the beautiful cover design! And then I read the synopsis of the book, and I was immediately intrigued. A story about a drug that makes it possible for two people to meet and connect in their dreams. Interesting premise!
The whole story starts off with Vanessaās baby/pregnancy nightmare, and I thought that was a good way to have that characterās anxiety and uncertainty come across to the reader. Vanessaās dilemma of being in a relationship where the love is strong, but they want different things is oh so relatable to many.
I loved the fact that Altan is an Asian character. Yay for diversity! And the relationship and dialogue between him and Vanessa were one of the key elements to this story that made it so enjoyable to me. There was humor that had me giggling, sex (not very graphic) that made it slightly steamy, a horrible boss that made I want to jump into the book and punch the guyās face, mental health issues that are important to address, romance that wasnāt too cheesy, and a pageturner of a plotline that had me up later than I should have been.
Kitty Cook has written the dream state of the characters so well that it all comes very easily to life as I was reading.
The characters are relatable and we do get to know both Vanessa and Altan quite well throughout this story. I didnāt find myself completely obsessed with them, but I was very invested in their story and with the mystery of how the Morpheum drug was actually working, and how it would impact the people using it.
Sleeping Together is an incredibly creative, intriguing and interesting story that touches on some sensitive subjects and has a slight element of science fiction to it that I really liked. I feel like I still have a lot of questions, and that these characters still have a lot more story to tell, so finding out that this is the first book in a series was definitely a pleasant surprise.
Highly recommend if you want to read a different kind of romance. And now, the waiting for book two begins.

Click on the Reedsy Discovery logo below to get to know more, maybe get your own copy, and let me know what you think of itš