In Your Dreams (Blue Heron #4) By Kristan Higgins
*** 1/2
"Nothing kicked off Emmaline Neal's weekend like using a Taser." --In Your Dreams, Kristan HigginsEmmaline is a small town cop who needs a date to her ex's wedding. Jack, scion of a wine dynasty, is known for being happy to help women who have need of dates for various life events - just a good guy doing a nice thing, no strings, no romance. In the process, they find they like each other more than a little, but complications back home make getting together difficult, if not impossible.
One of the interesting things about this story is the long looks at what went on in Jack and Emmaline's pasts prior to the current action. We get to see both of their past relationships in great detail. This added a lot of depth to the story and fleshed out what made Jack and Emmaline the people they are today, but I couldn't help wanting to get back to their presents rather than spending so much time in their pasts. This is the main reason I didn't rate this book higher; I was much more engaged in their *now* than I was in their *then.*
There's a lot of great humor (though I could do with out all many the embarrassing moments - I don't know, I may have too much empathy or something, but I *hate* reading/watching/seeing/doing humiliating things), and while you have to suspend reality to believe in the adorable small town atmosphere, the situations were believable. Mixed in with the flirting and cute relationship stuff were some fairly intense situations, including the aftermath of a horrible car accident and subsequent PTSD, family drama, and bullying. This book may look like a light-hearted romp at first glance, but there are parts that give the story weight, as well.
In Your Dreams is the 4th book in the Blue Heron series. I wasn't aware of that prior to reading (I hate coming into a series late), but it didn't affect the story - it can very much be read as a standalone. I never felt like I was missing any important details; rather, knowing that the supporting characters likely get more page-time in other books made me more interested in reading the rest.
Kristan Higgins is incredibly popular at my library, and I have no doubt that this book will please those fans, as well as lovers of contemporary romance and stories of relationships and character growth.
*FYI - the cover art is wintery, but this is not a holiday title.
**I received In Your Dreams as an Advanced eGalley from Net Galley**
I've been wanting to read this...some aspects of Kristan Higgins' writing drive me crazy (the female character's silly internal dialogue, the bad-behaving dogs but everyone just thinks it's so adorable (UGH)), but I do appreciate how she normally has fully fleshed-out storylines and characters. Her books don't feel like badly written sex-romp romances, and that can be hard to find in the 'romance' department.
ReplyDeleteShe did the extensive backstory thing for the main characters in the other Blue Heron books, too, so if you read those, prepare yourself!