Bryn Reyes is a real life sleeping beauty. Afflicted with Klein-Levin Syndrome, she suffers episodes of prolonged sleep that steal weeks, and sometimes even months, from her life. But unlike most KLS patients, she doesn’t spend each episode in a catatonic state or wake up with no recollection of the time she’s missed. Instead, Bryn spends half her life in an alternate reality made up of her memories. For Bryn, the past is a place, until one day a boy she’s never met before washes up on the illusory beach of her dreams with no memory of who he is.
But the appearance of this strange boy isn’t the only thing that’s changed. Bryn’s symptoms are worsening, her body weakening as she’s plagued by hallucinations even while awake. Her only hope of finding a cure is to undergo experimental treatment created by a German specialist. But when Dr. Banz reveals that he knows more about her strange symptoms than he originally let on, Bryn learns that the boy in her head might actually be the key to understanding what’s happening to her, and worse, that if she doesn’t find out his identity before it’s too late, they both may not survive.
"It held me hooked to the last page looking for answers, but the story never gave them"
Reviewer: Reader for Bookangel.
Bryn has an unusual condition, lapsing into comas for weeks or months at a time and left to struggle to put her life together when she isn't trapped in a dream world of her memories. She had been alone in dreams for so long that finding a man washed up on the beach with no memories is a welcome, if terrifying, shock. Then as she lapses in and out of the dreamworld, she finds he knows things she doesn't - and that he is still in their shared dream alone when she wakes. Could he be real, and if he is how can she find what happened to him? She hasn't much time to find out, for something dark is stirring in her coma dreams, and it's after both of them.
The characters come across deeply, as rounded people not perfect dolls, and Bryn's frustration with her condition is an ongoing theme. Her wish not to miss Christmas is particularly poignant. The writing needs special mention, changing style between dream and reality to make a subtle distinction between the two. The presentation is professional and well written and there are some spooking and compelling scenes in it.
The ending was a problem for me: it held me hooked to the last page looking for answers, but the story never gave them. It is a natural break point and may be deliberately ambiguous, but so few questions were answered I felt disappointed. It is the first book in a series, so it is an understandable decision, but in some ways it does feel unfinished.
While it builds a fantastic premise, and was absolutely engrossing, I was a little disappointed by a lack of pay off: Bryn does find the man of her dreams, but with threads like the ghost issue, the backstory, the doctors, her cure etc, still unanswered, I found it frustrating.
I would have said a 4, but the ending for me lowered it to a 3. Romance readers may enjoy it more, but I'd suggest treating it as a sample for the trilogy. Rating:3
The fact that you were hooked to the last page is definitely good to hear. I am actually wondering if the fact that answers are not given might be a good thing for me, but I can kind of see it being a fifty fifty shot. I might have to look more into it.
I personally don't like books that don't have a clear ending. I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing, or maybe it's just a matter of personal preference. Either way, I prefer a book to have a good, satisfying ending.
New to the site? Leave a comment below or view the chat on our forum here:
