Name: Of Dreams and Angels
Item: Of Dreams and Angels
Rating: 4
Author: Peter Benedict

Loved it! 😍

Intriguing story actually brought tears to my eyes, and I'm a guy...not supposed to cry.

Synopsis

A man dreams through the eyes of a woman he's never met, setting out to find love that might be a figment of his imagination.

Joe Riley has a successful life in the world of finance. He's spurned attachment, leaving his life and heart invulnerable. When he begins to dream of a woman half a world away he's never encountered, his notions of practicality are called into question.

In a search that brings him to the psychologist's office, a medium's table, and from the Rocky Mountains to the streets of London, Joe begins to fall for the woman of his dreams. He's beset by innumerable questions: Is he going mad? Might she actually exist? Is this the greatest privacy invasion of all time, or a possible cosmic match in the making?

His quest for answers confronts the deeper questions that assail most of us who open our hearts: Will I be enough? Will they love me when it stops being easy? Will they sweep me up, just to watch me fall?

A moving exploration of relinquishing fear and embracing the unknown, Of Dreams and Angels invites you to trust the dreams that brought you this far will bring you further.

I absolutely loved this story. Not many authors can bring tears to my eyes but this one did.

The tale takes place in Canada and the UK. I thought the first three chapters dragged due to a lot of narrative description but then the story kicks into gear and off we go. I'm glad I stuck with it. I finished it in two days.

At first I wasn't sure I liked Joe, the protagonist, but he grew on me and I came to accept him and his struggles. Drama built as I wanted him to find Claire. I liked Claire immensely. The author did an excellent job of establishing her character.

This is a five star story with four star writing. It's good but could be better. It can be difficult for a writer to say less, rather than more. I understand...the words are flowing and there's always more to say or describe. But pace is important to keeping the reader engaged. Overwriting scenes can disconnect. The reader begins to scan, not read. This happened to me at various times in the book. Nonetheless, the story line was so good that I kept going. I was hooked.

My other critique is to suggest less narrative description and to add more dialogue. Narrative grows wordy. Dialogue tends to be shorter...the way we actually speak. The story will move better and the reader less likely to wander. There's an adage for writers, "show, don't tell." The more we use dialogue, the more the character speaks and becomes visible. It's too easy to get lost in description of what a person is saying rather than let the person speak for him or herself. The voice is important.

That's all the critique. As noted, I liked the book, the writing, and the love story. Brought tears to my eyes. Quite a feat.

Reviewed by

Peter Benedict served in Vietnam, worked on a fishing boat off the coast of Alaska, created multiple startup companies. He has written screenplays and won multiple screenwriting awards. Forbidden is his first novel. He has a graduate degree in Philosophy.

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Of Dreams and Angels

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