Sluts and Whores by C E Hoffman 📚 BOOK REVIEW

My review of Sluts and Whores by C E Hoffman 📚

I read a digital edition of Sluts and Whores that I received for free from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review.

Genre: Urban fantasy, erotica

Publisher: Thurston Howl Publications

Originally published: January 27th, 2021

Pages: 208 (paperback)

Synopsis by the publisher:

A jealous girlfriend trips on acid; a traumatized mother attempts to masturbate; a spa worker is challenged to take control of her fate.
A haunted jeep parks in front of student housing; a sex worker grows wings; and a hitchhiker is picked up by someone she’d never expect.
SLUTS AND WHORES is a #OwnVoices short story collection. In C E Hoffman’s debut, one will find a pile of Pandora’s Boxes waiting to be opened.
Exploring the humanity of sex workers (“whores”) and people who are proudly sexual (“sluts”), this collection questions stereotypes that are long out of date, merging horror with heartache, and magic with the mundane.
Welcome to a world where anything can happen- and often does.

My thoughts:

I want to start with an important note; this short story collection is not for everyone. It’s filled with sex, drugs, heartache, love, loss, and darkness. The title should already give you somewhat of an idea of that already. It’s not for the fainthearted, but for the readers who enjoy the theme of sex and darkness, I would highly recommend diving into Sluts and Whores!

I love steamy reads, and especially the writers that dare to push some boundaries with their stories. Hoffman does exactly that! I don’t often come across stories about sexuality with this kind of depth, fantasy, and mystery. And not only that, it is written in such a raw and beautiful way that I couldn’t help but being sucked into these stories and poems. I highlighted so many parts of this book and even though I don’t usually reread books that often, I will be reading this again in the not-so-distant future.

Sluts and Whores is a solid short story collection that surprised me in more ways than one! It’s filled with good representation and diversity which made it an even more enjoyable reading experience. I think every reader will take something different with them from each story. It’s high on emotions and even though some of these stories are surreal and incredibly dark, I think most readers would find a lot to relate to throughout this collection. 

I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting when I picked this one up, but I was blown away by the strong voice and brilliant storytelling that Hoffman offers through these pages. 

I’m so happy that I picked this book up! It took me on an adventure that was dark and different. It stirred up a lot of feelings and it made me reflect and wonder. I can’t wait to read more of Hoffman’s writing!

I dare you to give it a try!

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 it💛

A Forever Story by Cathleen Lynn Boyle 📚 BOOK REVIEW

My review of A Forever Story by Cathleen Lynn Boyle 📚

I read a digital edition of A Forever Story that I received for free from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review.

Genre: Contemporary fiction

Publisher: BenSky Publishing, LLC

Originally published: April 4th, 2020

Pages: 400 (Kindle edition)

Synopsis by the publisher:

A Forever Story has been a story dying to be told. It is based on real events that were recorded in journals and memoirs. The actual names of the people involved have been changed to protect identities, and situations have been fictionalized.

Fifteen years ago on Easter Sunday, I learned from a stranger’s voice at a hospital emergency room on the west coast where my daughter was attending college, she was dead-on-arrival from GHB poisoning. The men, a local hip-hop rapper, and his band, who brought my daughter to the hospital, admitted in sworn statements to the police she had been at their music studio forty to fifty minutes when she fell to the floor convulsing before entering a coma. The men, despite attempting CPR, quit the effort, and failed to call 911. They waited nine hours before seeking medical attention. To date, my daughter’s case remains a San Francisco cold case of suspected homicide.

Cathleen Boyle lives in Colorado with her son, and can be found blogging on women’s issue at https://daterapeawareness.wordpress.com/about/

My thoughts:

A Forever Story starts with Sofia sharing her life, work, and love interests in San Fransisco. We get to know this young woman trying to make a name for herself in a big city while also trying to figure out what she wants in life. We dive into her life and get to know her before everything changes when Sofia and her friend Bella are drugged at a party, and Sofia never wakes up again.
The second part of the book tells the story of the people that Sofia left behind, mainly her mother and younger brother, as they search for truth and justice 15 years after it all happened.

It is an interesting and heartbreaking story and knowing that real events inspired it makes it even more impactful. And even though the party that Sofia was drugged at was set in 1999, it is still such a relevant subject to this day. It is a scary reminder of how quickly things can go wrong, how easily it can happen without one knowing, and how difficult it can be to seek justice.
A Forever Story gives an insight into the legal procedures of a case like this, and a lot of the story is set in the courtroom. For me, some of those parts felt a bit like I was reading a movie script because of all the back and forth dialogue in the courtroom. At times, this could feel slightly repetitive, although I do understand Boyle’s desire to stay true to how the procedure would go down in real life.

A Forever Story is quite dark and sad, but with some rays of hope and sunshine finding its way through. And although I enjoyed this story, I don’t think it’s a book for everyone. There are quite a few elements throughout that I can picture being triggering for some readers, so that’s something to be aware of.
Other than that, I found this book to be entertaining, interesting, thought-provoking, and heartbreaking. A disturbing but enjoyable read!

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 it💛

The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island by Scott Semegran 📚 BOOK REVIEW

My review of The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island by Scott Semegran 📚

I read a Kindle edition of The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island that I received for free from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review.

Genre: Thriller, Suspense

Publisher: Mutt Press

Publication date:  October 1st, 2020

Pages: 316 (Kindle edition)

Synopsis by the publisher:

The summer of 1986. Central Texas. William and his friends should be having a blast. Instead, they are hounded by the Thousand Oaks Gang and their merciless leader, Bloody Billy. William found Billy’s backpack. And because of what it contains, Billy desperately wants it back, and he’ll do anything to get it. William hatches a plan for his friends to sneak away and hide in an abandoned lake house, except they become stranded on the lake’s desolate island without food or water. Will their time on the island devolve into chaos? Will the friends survive and be rescued?

The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island is Lord of the Flies meets The Body by Stephen King, the inspiration for the classic movie Stand By Me.

A gripping suspense story with adventure and danger, tinged with humorous banter between the four friends, the middle schoolers face certain death without adults to protect them from the unrelenting natural elements, as well as the wild creatures that lurk in the wilderness around the lake. With a backpack filled with money and marijuana they stole from the merciless gang leader, it’s only a matter of time before the high schoolers come looking for them, too.

My thoughts:

I think I went into this story thinking it would lean more towards the horror side because of the mention of Lord of the Flies and Stephen King, but this story focuses more on friendships, adventure, suspense, and characters.
I think if I had gone into this story with slightly different expectations I think I would have had a very different reading experience. I would’ve probably enjoyed the story even more instead of waiting for something that didn’t happen.
But that is not the author’s fault, that’s entirely on me for making assumptions and reading more into the synopsis than what was probably meant to be there.

That being said, The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island is a really well-written novel about an adventure gone wrong. I really enjoyed getting to know the four boys, their friendship, and to tag along on their adventure gone wrong.
The way these boys love and care for each other was what made this story interesting, and you could see how that strong bond and they as characters grew as they went through some tough times together.
It’s also sort of nostalgic to read about friendships during the time before smartphones and internet access everywhere was a thing. It definitely had its pros and cons which we got to witness throughout this story.

I liked Scott Semegran’s writing style. He writes about the boys’ adventures in a way that makes it very easy for the reader to picture it all playing out, without going overboard on the details. I would’ve loved to have gotten to know even more of what was going through the minds of the boys while they were on the island though. But never the less, the challenges and fears they go through there were very well executed and interesting to read about.

All in all, I really enjoyed The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island. It’s a story that I wish I had gone more blindly into, but it still ended up being a very entertaining and interesting read. I would love to pick up more of Semegran’s writing in the future.

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Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts by Luke Christodoulou 📚 BOOK REVIEW

My review of Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts by Luke Christodoulou📚

I read a digital edition of Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts that I received for free from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review.

Genre: Horror

Publisher: Self published

Originally published: June 13th, 2020

Pages: 247 (Kindle edition)

Synopsis by the publisher:

After the death of her two-year-old son, Susan lost her will to continue. Unable to move on, she agrees to her Greek husband’s plan on a summer in Greece for the sake of her three living children. His family’s mansion waits for them. A house with a dark past and a bleak future.
Travel with them to Greece and explore the mystery surrounding the ancient lands. join Susan as she crosses the thin line between sanity and the supernatural. Nothing is as it seems.
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts!

My thoughts:

I don’t often read books that give me the creeps, but this one definitely did just that!

This book follows the perspectives of several of the family members while they are trying to navigate their ways through this family vacation, while also going through the struggle of having lost a family member. In the midst of all this, we quickly find out that what seemed like would be the nice summer break that the family needed, nothing is as it seems.
The characters each have a depth to them, and we get to unravel that together with them as they experience the horror of their own pasts, their own minds, and the supernatural and horrific events they experience while living in the house.

I want to add the trigger warning for child abuse and violence to this story. You will encounter both in this story, and I know that this is not everyone’s cup of tea.
In my opinion, even though the events in the story are hard to read and absolutely horrible, I thought it added to the depth of the story and the characters.

There were a few minor writing mistakes in this, and it felt like it could’ve needed another round of proofreading, but it wasn’t so much that it bothered me or took away from the quality of the story.

I would’ve loved for this story to have been just a little bit longer, just because I felt like I was still left with some questions unanswered at the end. But then again, it might have been the author’s intent to leave the reader with a little bit of mystery after everything was wrapped up.

All in all, I thought Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts was a well-written horror novel that played out like a creepy and utterly terrifying horror movie in my head as I was reading it. It was easy to picture all of the scenarios and they definitely got under my skin and made me shiver.

Highly recommend if you are a fan of horror!

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 it💛

The Slug Queen Chronicles by S.O. Thomas 📚 BOOK REVIEW

My review of The Slug Queen Chronicles by S.O. Thomas📚

S.O. Thomas

I read a digital edition of The Slug Queen Chronicles that I received for free from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review.

Genre: Children’s literature, fantasy.

Publisher: Ichigo Black Books

Originally published: March 28th, 2020.

Pages: 318 (Kindle edition)

Synopsis by the publisher:

Twelve-year-old Cricket Kane never believed in fairies, until one set its sights on her little brother. To get him back, she travels to a magical world full of cursed boogie men, female Santas, and living nightmares. She’ll stop at nothing to save her brother, especially after learning the sinister motives behind his kidnapping, but doing so might cost her life.

Can she find him and the other children before it’s too late?

My thoughts:

I love discovering children’s books as an adult that I just instantly know would’ve been a favorite if I’d read it as a child! The Slug Queen is one of those rare finds.

I picked this book because I wanted something light and easy to read, but little did I know that it would take me on a whirlwind of an adventure where I would meet so many magical and wonderful (some even slightly terrifying) characters.

Cricket Kane is the kind of adventurous girl that you can’t help but love instantly. She takes the reader by its hand and in a flash, you are whisked away to a land of magical beings and a female Santa. What’s not to love?

The dynamic between the characters is as magical and wonderful as they are, and the whole world that S. Thomas has created comes to life so easy and it makes for a story that’s really hard to put down. She’s built a world that’s filled with darkness, hope, love, terrifying creatures, magic, and quirkiness. I found myself sitting up at night, just needing to need another chapter, and one more, and one more.

Not only is this a magical, wonderful and fast-paced story, it also comes with gorgeous illustrations.

I have nothing but praise and love for this wonderful story. It’s one that I instantly fell in love with, and one that I will add to my library, reread, and read to my children.

I would highly recommend The Slug Queen to any reader who loves magical worlds and beings. Let Cricket take you on an adventure you won’t forget!

Thank you, S. Thomas, for sharing this magical story with the world.

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 it💛

Dreadmyre by J.A. Raikes 📚 BOOK REVIEW

My review of Dreadmyre by J.A. Raikes.

I read a digital edition of Dreadmyre that I received for free from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review.

Dreadmyre is the first book in the Emberwall series.

Genre: Science fiction, Cyberpunk, Steampunk

Publisher: J.A. Raikes

Originally published: November 25th, 2019

Pages: 351 (paperback)

Synopsis by the publisher:

My name is Finnegan Benjamin Riley.

I don’t know how I got here or what ‘here’ even is. I nearly died when I got here, I don’t know anyone, the world doesn’t look quite right, and a cloud of black smoke covers everything. I’ve been chased by actual nightmarish creatures ever since I got here, and I’m freaking out. This is my only outlet while I process what the heck is going on. All I want to do is figure out how to get back home and hopefully not die in the process…

When Finn Riley takes a week off work and sets off on a camping trip, he wanted a relaxing time to clear his head and refocus on his life goals. When his outdoor adventure turns into a fight for his very life, he stumbles upon a contraption that seems legitimately out of this world. But when he’s plunged into a strange new world, Finn must figure out a way to survive when demonic creatures threaten to kill him at every turn and nothing he knows makes sense.

With all eyes on him, can Finn prevail or will his sudden arrival seal the fate of this new land with darkness forever?

My thoughts:

I’ve always thought that the cyberpunk genre has been an interesting part of science fiction, but for some reason, I haven’t really committed to a cyberpunk novel before now.

But when I first made the plunge into the cyberpunk world, I’m really glad that I did it with Dreadmyre.

The story is told by Finn our protagonist, and I enjoyed getting to know him and his witty and sarcastic sense of humor. Even in the darkest and most action-packed parts of this book, I could always count on Finn to come up with a comment on the whole thing that would put a smile on my face.

Dreadmyre is an action-packed, dark, funny and mysterious novel that I just flew through. It’s very fast-paced, but not so much that it runs away from you.

Mr. Raikes has made an interesting world come to life and with it a whole bunch of strange and likable characters that I would love to get to know even more. The steampunk atmosphere in the world that Finn suddenly finds himself is easy to picture with the way that the story is written, and I must say that I am more than a little intrigued!

The only negative thing I have to say about this book is that it was so short. There was so much to uncover, such an engaging world, and so many unique characters that I felt like I was slightly rushed through the story. I would have loved to be able to spend a little more time in this world to get even more invested in the characters.

That being said, I really enjoyed the first book in the Emberwall series, and I will definitely be picking up the next one when it comes out!

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 it💛

The Return of King Lillian by Suzie Plakson 📚 BOOK REVIEW

My review of The Return of King Lillian by Suzie Plakson 📚

I read a digital edition of The Return of King Lillian that I received for free from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review.

Genre: Literary fiction, fairy tale, fantasy.

Publisher: Pilmsthistle & Co.

Originally published: November 1st, 2012 (as a shorter novella)

Pages: 390 (paperback)

Audiobook length: 11 hrs and 54 mins

Synopsis by the publisher:

A new hero’s journey for dreamers of all ages…

When Lillian, the one-and-only heir to the throne, is cast out of her kingdom by malevolent forces, she accidentally wanders into the Forest of Forgetfullness, where she is rescued by wolves and raised by an eccentric old wise woman. When she comes of age, Lillian is called by Destiny to return Home, but when she steps out of the Forest, she has no memory of who she is or from whence she hails. Undaunted, the spirited, self-reliant young woman sets off into the unknown, determined to rediscover her long-lost self and to reclaim her stolen birthright. Most of the tale is told by Lillian herself as she chronicles her extraordinary adventures.

My thoughts:

Going into this story I was expecting it to be an entertaining fast read meant for children. I was not prepared for the adventure that I set out on.

First off, I want to just mention the brilliant idea of having Lillian mentioned as a girl-king instead of a queen! That was the thing that caught my attention in the first place and made me curious for more.

The Return of King Lillian is a brilliant fairytale that reminded me a lot of stories like “The Wizard of Oz”, “Alice in Wonderland” and “Gulliver’s Travels”. The whole story is written as if we’re reading Lillian’s diary. This made the reading experience very unique and personal, as if Lillian and I were sitting in front of a fireplace while she told me her whole story.

The thing that truly blew me away with this book was the beautiful way it is written. Sometimes it read like the fairytales I remember my parents reading for me when I was a kid, other times, it’s felt like I was reading a whimsical poem.

Lillian is such a wholesome, pure and naive character because of her time isolated in the Forest of Forgetfulness. But she’s also a strong character, and a lot of the challenges she meets throughout her journey can easily be linked to the problems that we meet out here in the real world. She takes them on with a positive and free-minded spirit, and the character development of Lillian is just a pure joy to witness as the pages go by.

Plakson has written a story that can be enjoyed by both kids as well as adults, with colorful characters, adventure, wisdom, and a good dose of wit and humor.

The Return of King Lillian is not a book that I speed read (as I often find myself doing with fairytales), but it was savored and enjoyed over time as the masterpiece that it is!

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 it💛

Cake by Nicole Brooks 📚 BOOK REVIEW

My review of Cake by Nicole Brooks📚

I read a digital edition of Cake that I received for free from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review. 

Genre: Contemporary fiction

Publisher: Erid Press Inc. 

Originally published: May 22nd, 2019

Pages: 263 (paperback)

Blurb by the publisher:

Would you give to someone who desperately needed it, that which you could live without?

Keely is the epitome of a self-made woman, her ability to make the right choices her superpower. She doesn’t believe in looking back and has the drive, ambition, and financial means to create the exact life she wants to live–regardless of what her kids and her husband, Andrew, want or need. Michelle lives in stark contrast to Keely’s life. She believes she was doomed from the start with a heartbreaking, poverty-stricken childhood. A string of bad choices in adulthood only intensifies her lack of faith in herself. With her daughter safely away at college, she is left alone with her abusive husband, Ray. As the days drag on, she struggles to find a reason to continue. Until she meets Andrew. 

The two women’s worlds eventually collide, courtesy of their daughters, and both are forced to contemplate a time-worn question: is the comfort of a familiar self-constructed prison safer than the risk of trying to live a life of true freedom and potentially failing?

Cake asks how much the world has really changed for women–and for which women–by evaluating the progress of modern feminism. This novel examines privilege, the haves and have-nots, the ideals we choose to embrace, and the facts we forcefully decide to not see. This story entices the reader to contemplate whether our material and emotional conditions arise from childhood environments, personal choice, systemic inequality, or a combination of them all.

My thoughts:

I was drawn to Cake because of the absolutely beautiful cover. Stunning! 

Then I read the synopsis of the story, and it had every ingredient from the looks of it, to serve an emotional and powerful piece of story. And that’s exactly what it did. 

We follow two women who live incredibly different lives but are both constricted because of the daily abuse they experience. 

Michelle has a mentally and physically abusive husband. Keeley is putting herself under the amount of unhealthy pressure to live the perfect life and the perfect look that she herself inflicts pain on herself and her family.

It is two very different stories of pain, love and mental health, but both are equally as powerful and important. 

I loved reading about how these two people, and those who were closest to them, lives intertwined throughout the story. I was a bit worried when more and more characters were introduced with their own chapters and perspective, that it would get confusing and overwhelming. But because all the stories are as tightly connected as they are, it just added depth to the story and made it even more powerful. 

I got very invested in the two main characters. Michelle as the one I wanted to hold, rescue and comfort. Keeley as the one I wanted to shake and talk sense into. Keeley to me started out as a character I just disliked so much, but when we started to reach the ending of the book, I definitely felt a whole lot more sympathy towards her and her situation.

I think Cake is a beautifully written story and a very important one. It shines the light on different kind of abuse that is everyday life for so many women AND men. It’s a good addition to the mental health issues that can go too far, and a reminder to be kind and not judge people too quickly. 

We really have no idea what goes on in other people’s lives when they are behind closed doors, or alone with their own thoughts. And I thought Nicole Brooks did an amazing job of telling a story that reminds us of that fact. 

I thought the whole story wrapped up incredibly quick at the end and I kind of wish that we’d gotten to know a little bit more of the story from between the big climax and the wrap up at the end of it all. But other than that, I thought it was a brilliant book with an incredibly important message. 

I felt for these characters, but even more so, it made me emotional and heartbroken for the people out there who deal with abuse on a regular basis in their real lives. 

Highly recommend!

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Filtered by G.K. Lamb 📚 BOOK REVIEW

My review of Filtered by G.K. Lamb 📚The first book in the Great Society Trilogy.

I read a digital edition of Filtered that I received for free from Reedsy Discovery in exchange for an honest review. Filtered is the first book in the Great Society trilogy.

Genre: Dystopian

Publisher: Monolith

Originally published: November 17th, 2015

Pages: 382 (paperback)

Blurb by the publisher:

Wear Your Mask—in the smog-choked city of Einsam it’s not just a good idea, it’s the law.

Every aspect of life in the Great Society is regulated, your every action observed.

The only thoughts you can trust are your own.

Seventeen years of oppression boil in Evelyn’s mind and she’s desperate for a way out.

In an act of defiance, she breaks from routine and discovers a world of radicals and dissidents. Beliefs she thought immutable crumble away like ash.

Standing on the threshold between the world she’s always known and an uncertain path toward freedom, Evelyn must decide how much she’s willing to sacrifice to learn the truth about the Great Society.

My thoughts:

When it comes to dystopian novels, I tend to feel that I often come across the same storylines over and over again, but Filtered was something very different. 

It is a dystopian novel with a premise of a future that had me feeling suffocated together with the main character and wanting to fight for the truth alongside with her. And while it is fiction and all, I can’t help feeling that a lot of the scary parts of a government-driven fear hits quite close to home. We live in a world where we see the evil of the world combined with information overload, and reading a novel like Filtered has me considering how much of my everyday thinking and actions are completely my own. 

Filtered is a story of dystopia, but it is also one about power, control, propaganda and the search for truth and human kindness in the darkest of places. 

It took me a little while to connect with the main character Evelyn, but at some point, she took me by the hand on this scary but exciting adventure. There were quite a few characters that I would have loved to know better, and also a lot of questions I have been left unanswered, but knowing this is the first book in a trilogy (and ending on quite the cliff-hanger I must say), I’m hoping that will change when the story continues on. 

Filtered was a breath of fresh air, and I will be impatiently waiting for the next book in the series!

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 it💛

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Sleeping Together by Kitty Cook 📚 BOOK REVIEW

My review of Sleeping Together by Kitty Cook 📚

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: Science fiction, Romance, Contemporary

Publisher: Brass Anvil Books

Originally published: March 6th, 2019

Pages: 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 Vanessa’s baby/pregnancy nightmare, and I thought that was a good way to have that character’s anxiety and uncertainty come across to the reader. Vanessa’s 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 guy’s face, mental health issues that are important to address, romance that wasn’t 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 didn’t 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 it💛