Wildest Dreams by Kristen Ashley

Seoafin “Finnie” Wilde was taught by her parents that every breath was a treasure and to seek every adventure she could find. And she learns this lesson the hard way when they perish in a plane crash. But she never forgets and when she discovers there is a parallel universe where every person has a twin, she finds a witch who can send her there so she can have the adventure of a lifetime. But upon arrival in the Winter Wonderland of Lunwyn, she realizes she’s been played by her twin and finds herself walking down the aisle to be wed to The Drakkar. Thrown into inauspicious circumstances, with years of practice, Finnie bests the challenges and digs into her adventure. But as Frey Drakkar discovers the woman who is his new wife is not Princess Sjofn, a woman he dislikes but instead, his Finnie, a free-spirit with a thirst for venture just like him, without her knowledge he orders his new bride bound to his frozen world, everlasting. But at the same time Frey plunges Finnie into a web of political intrigue that includes assassination plots, poison, magic, mystery and… dragons.

Broken Dove

Broken Dove

There's something wonderful about reading nearly 500 pages chock-full of two people in love.

Is this a perfectly written story? Hell no. Quite frankly, Kristen Ashley desperately needs the thesaurus entry for “cool”. Frey also exhibits some truly problematic behavior. Without spoiling too much, he makes some very serious life altering decisions without the input or consent of Finnie. Luckily for me, this isn't my first barbarian alpha male and I have no problem turning off my modern sensibilities to enjoy a good romance novel. I did stress about how Finnie would react when she found out, but the plot interrupts the fallout and the actual impact to the relationship is minimal (for good reason imo). There was already a huge falling out in the middle of the book over the “other woman”, so I consider the drama quota filled. All's well that ends well, and ultimately, this was a 5-star read for me, but certainly not for everyone.

I found Finnie to be a delightful character to read. I love her enthusiasm for adventure and her subsequent ability to roll with the punches. The best fish out of water tales have heroines that make the most of it, and that's exactly what Finnie does. When it's finally cleared up that Finnie does not share Princess Sjofn's preference for women, the story really takes off. Frey starts to see Finnie in a new light and they most definitely suit. The sexual tension is fantastic and the domestic shit is even better. As the relationship develops at a slow, but steady pace, you can't help but love these characters more and more. Finnie shows Frey more love than he's ever known (the dragon statue scene had me tearing up). Frey falls for Finnie's compassion and zest for life.

This book has given me a newfound appreciation for romances where the couple is established early on and the bulk of the book details the highs and lows of their marriage. There are too many touching moments to count and the heat doesn't disappoint.

P.S.: This book may contain literally the only occurrence ever where the hero tells the heroine not follow him when he's off to do some important business and, despite her curiosity, she does. Mind b l o w n.

I was so excited to start on this series but I couldn't make it through a few chapters. The female protagonist is supposed to be a 30 year old lady apparently yearning so much for adventure she's trade places with her “twin” in an alternate dimension, and then immediately finds herself getting married to a guy whom she can only use two words to describe: scary, or hot. Those two words were repeated to no ends to describe his every change of expression or perfect features.

You know what else is always repeated? “That is so... cool!” Oh my god. The female protagonist uses this whimsical exclamation for every single thing, even something as huge as being whisked away into a different dimension. She sometimes changes it up with “awesome” but I don't count that one. I could've handled it the first one or two times but by the 3rd time onwards I had had enough.

Props to Tillie Hooper for the narration, however. She did her best valiantly and her voice acting at least perked up the lifeless dialogue and lines.

I pointed my eyes straight ahead too and muttered, “I'm sure I'll find something I can do.” I felt Frey's eyes on me, kept mine aimed at the hall then I heard Frey sigh. “Indeed, you will and this terrifies me,” he muttered back and that was when I allowed myself to giggle.

I just read in one of the reviews that this book is a mixture between The Chronicles of Narnia and A Game of Thrones with a sprinkle of fairytale romance. Well, I don't know about that. The world-building was quite quaint, but the writing, overall, not as ... let's say skillful. The protagonist and her “worldly” language: “fine-ass”, “cool”, “eeek”, “ho boy”, etc were very irritating distracting. She's supposedly a late 20s/30-something woman, however she sounded/behaved like a teenager.

I was also taken by surprise by explicitness of the book. Obviously, I was expecting romance to be a big part the story, however I didn't think there would be that much romance, if you know what I mean. I believed it was going to be something similar to Cruel Beauty, which I really loved. I should have done a more thorough research before picking it up. I'd just read the synopsis and I thought “Well, this sounds kind of fun”.

And it was, at times. The atmosphere is very fairytale-like (I have a soft spot for fairytales) and some situations were quite amusing, still, the protagonist isn't exactly the brightest peach on the block and I'm not a fan of the “Jane meets Tarzan” kind of relationship, even if Tazan rules over a kingdom of ice and he can order around dragons.