DaydreamerPaperback

First: there are multiple descriptive love scenes and a ton of swearing.

Now for the review: I am not going to cut and paste the back cover because I’m sure you have read it. And, if you are reading reviews, then you have re-read it multiple times already. (Yeah, pet peeve). Anyway, I was talking about this book with my son. I explained that sometimes you invest your time in reading a story not because you can’t wait to see what happens next (because you pretty much know what is going to happen) but because the journey of the story is well worth it!

I recognized the pattern of this pretty early on*** but it didn’t matter. I still devoured the story. And Eagerly! Truly, Susie Tate has written this story many times over. I will say, it takes a truly talented author to take a basic story pattern and successfully re-write it again, (much less multiple times) with astounding success.

Like I said, it’s the journey. The pattern may be the same but each story is absolutely different from any other. The trauma the characters are dealing with are realistic. Their healing follows realistic patterns. On realistic timelines. (Ok, there is still some fantasy in it but it’s believable. Not “trite” or glossed over).

I think Ms Tate has seen/heard/experienced the trauma from her patients during her career as a medical doctor. She certainly portrays the effects from a base of knowledge born from experience.

And dang, if the groveling at the end isn’t the best this side of the Mississippi! Heck, both sides of the pond! Hands down.

Highly recommend.

BONUS: There are No token (and completely embarrassing) “grand gestures”. (Although, there are what I would consider grand gestures. But real ones. Done not just to win the girl but simply because he truly knows and loves the girl. -happy sigh-

***SPOILER ALERT: My favorite Susie Tate books have this pattern: girl loves Guy. Guy is not sure what he feels, just knows that she irritates the living ^#%! (Those symbols were random, if there is any semblance to any actual word it is completely unintentional) out of him. And he is very put out that he can’t stop obsessing over her. Meanwhile he is making all kinds of unsubstantiated assumptions about her actions and being very public in his disapproval and/or harshly critical of her. From the get go you know there is way more layers than he can see and you want to pop him upside the head to get him to open his eyes. As the story progresses the layers start to peal back revealing layers to be way deeper than you imagined at the beginning. Really Making you want to pop that pig-headed guy. With a blunt object. In a more critical anatomical location. Then things blow up. He hurts her in a completely irredeemable way. She walks away and he starts to get the puzzle pieces. Bit by bit he BEGINS to realize what a total $&@%# (again, random) he has been. And what a treasure she was before he chewed her up, spit her out and stomped all over her. There is some real growth from both the H & the h. Then comes the best groveling BOTH sides of the pond. Real change is made. Real healing begins. And finally he wins her over. The heroine and hero truly progress personally and relationship wise. You end the book with a very satisfying HEA.