Daydreamer

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.

This book is standalone, but I just have to say how excited I am for the next books (Ollie, Lottie, Vicky and Mike). This book had everything- fun banter, beautiful story, lovely characters, and lots of emotion. I felt for Lucy so much. Felix did such a brilliant job redeeming himself that I cheered hard for him (for their HEA). I love that his actions (both hurting her and then doing everything to get her back) brought them so much closer. They could be themselves- Lucy no longer felt unequal. This is a keeper for me. I loved it and the epilogue (and cannot wait for the other stories to come out).

This was a great read! I will warn you that a British person wrote this story, so there are some things as a non-British person that you might not understand. Like I eventually figured out that an Aga was a stove. I also think a jumper is either a hoodie or a sweater. Anyway, these didn't detract at all from the story. I know these kinds of things bother some people, so I wanted to put that out there. I really liked Lucy, and I really disliked Felix for the first part of the book. He eventually redeems himself, and all is right again in the world. I also enjoyed seeing appearances from characters in her other books. This looks like it's the start of a great series. I can't wait to find out what the story is between Lottie and Ollie.

This is a 3.75 book. I wasn't going to get this book but in the sample right at the end it mentioned that Lucy was a writer and I was like Sold! I enjoyed this story but sometimes Felix was talking and then Lucy was talking and it was hard for some reason to keep track. The English way of speaking took some getting used to. And what is an Aga? Jumpers, knickers, the boot, sitting room, drawing room it kinda took me out but not bad. It's a very lovely story. Not too saucy for the Karen's out there! I just adored hefty, Lucy, and mike...it's like what I would think a typical English little happy family being like after watching British movies. I loved how Felix let Lucy be herself. I can't wait to read about Mike and Victoria story...I'm sad that it wasn't next. I'm not really interested in the Duke and lollies story but I will try it out whenever it comes out. The Netflix deal and the man's wife named verity was a nice nod to a popular romance author. This was a nice cleansing palate story to read after I had read a stalker, alphahole series!!!