Ratings4
Average rating2.8
After years of forming an intimate bond with a mysterious man every time she closes her eyes to dream, a young woman, Eliza, forces herself to find a fulfilling life outside the confines of her own mind. Along with her partner Logan, she roams the safely discovered planets and moons of a newly traversable galaxy by inter-galactic transport, centuries after the evacuation of humans from Earth to a new home, Otera.
Silas, the unknown man in Eliza’s dreams has spent most of his life as a contract pirate, formally known as a Mako, mining the unexplored lands of dangerous moons to earn a living. Having dreamt about a woman he’s never met every night for as long as he can remember, Silas has never allowed himself a relationship that reaches beyond physical: confident that one day, he would find the woman in his fantasies somewhere in the universe.
With Silas returning to the Otera following a final job for a man to which he owes a debt; and Eliza heading back home after visiting the Glade moon with her partner– the two come face to face as both of their connection pods land on a transport vessel heading in the same direction.
Forced into the same proximity for the duration of travel, they struggle to understand what it means for them to finally meet when the universe seems to be pulling them both in different directions. Eliza, attached to, and traveling with her long-term partner. And Silas, fulfilling a dangerous deal with a crime syndicate with whom he has a past.
When the pair bond over their shared love for forgotten Earth-age classic literature, and the ways in which each have fallen in love with the other in their dreams, Eliza is torn between the life she’s always known on the Otera with her partner, and the infinite possibility of a future with the man she knows is her soulmate.
Reviews with the most likes.
This was almost a 4-star read for me; I enjoyed the plot and cleverness of the storytelling that much, and I didn't see the twists at the end coming. I liked the light touch world building, and the use of the first person omniscient (it took a chapter or two to get used to, but I've never read another book that used it and I am drawn to narrative novelty). It's definitely a romance novel with a sprinkling of sci fi/magical realism, but that sprinkling is really well-deployed. The reason I bumped it back to three stars are (1) the middle of the book dragged for me (from abt 47% finished to 67% finished in kindle is sex; and it's well-written, but I found myself bored of it — skimming past it to get to more plot), (2) despite the book being written entirely in her voice, I found the FMC to be a bit flat and personality-less, and (3) there were just enough words used incorrectly (close cognates where I could tell what word the writer meant to use, but the wrong one was selected) that I found bothersome. Overall I really enjoyed this book! It was just missing a few key things for me.
I'm definitely going to pretend that epilogue didn't happen... mostly because I loved the story of Eliza and Silas. It is a really cool way to end a stand-alone though. I saw the author wrote another epilogue though... I need it
3.5, not what I thought I was getting. Also discrete and discreet are two very different things.