Review: Sweet Dreams - Kristen Ashley

Title: Sweet Dreams

Author: Kristin Ashley

Release Date: April 2011

Publisher: Smashwords

Genre: Contemporary

Rating: 5 Hoots

Reviewer: Karia

Lauren Grahame has spent her whole life thinking something special was going to happen. She didn't know what it was, she just knew it would one day be hers. But she learned the hard way that special wasn't on offer.

So, after divorcing her cheating husband, Lauren searched for nothing special and she thought she found it when she landed a job as a waitress in a biker bar in Carnal. It was perfect: a nothing job in a nowhere bar in Nowheresville.

Then Tatum Jackson walked in. Part-owner of the bar, he took one look at high-class Lauren and wanted nothing to do with her. And he made this known, loudly.

Tate's angry insults seared in her brain, Lauren decides the feeling is mutual and she doesn't want anything to do with the gloriously handsome Tate Jackson. The clash of the bartender and barmaid begins but, even though Tate makes his change of mind clear (in biker-speak, a language Lauren is not fluent in), Lauren is intent on going her own way.

Until a serial killer hits Carnal and Lauren finds out Tate isn't a bartender, he's a bounty hunter. He stakes his claim for Lauren before he goes on the hunt for a killer but Laurie doesn't speak biker nor does she understand bounty hunters and Tate comes back from the hunt to find his old lady has moved on.

Life throws curveball after curveball at Laurie and Tate as secrets are revealed, women are brutally murdered, Tate leads Lauren to special and Laurie tries to find her inner biker babe. (Goodreads)

Review:

Holy Moly...I read The Gamble in two days, which is a huge feat seeing how it has approximately 16 500 kindle pages…This one has even more, topping out at 16964 kindle pages! Many Goodreads friends have made the same analogy I had surmised, that is to say comparing "Sweet Dreams" to "Outlander"; extremely long, but loved every single page of the story. This would be true of all three in this Colorado Mountain series…were the story is told mostly in first person and focuses in and around the area of Gnaw Bone and Carnal, Colorado where the men are vulgar, profane, macho, uber-alpha.

Tate is far and away the most rude, vulgar, dirty, potty mouthed man I have ever read. I loved him from the first moment he jumped off his bike! While his anger and bitterness seem to be vented onto Lauren, this tactic is his only means resist her, trying and failing miserably. Tate is a part time bar owner with his friends, a full time bounty hunter and an ad hock father due to his conniving hag of an ex-girlfriend. Tate has moved past his youth and knows what he really needs is to settle down and make a home for his son, Jonas.

As for Lauren, she is just a regular nice sweet woman, who wants something more out of life than a cheating husband, shallow friends and a house keeper that comes once a week. So, after her divorce and quickie house sale, Lauren cashes in her old life and packs what little she really needs into her Lexus and takes off. I felt for Lauren at so many spots in this book. When I was younger, I too felt something big was going to happen to me. I too wanted to just pick up and take off without telling my parents…even now at 40 I still call my mother and sister daily. The whole idea of starting fresh where you can re-invent yourself and be someone totally new had me cheering for Lauren to succeed and find happiness.

But like most things, happiness sometimes costs. The true cost can be on your loved ones. Watching the pain Lauren and Tate went through broke my heart almost as much as my wanting a better life for Jonas. These two really had their work cut out for them to make the HEA a reality…but boy, it was one heck of an awesome ride and I was sure glad I read it. Enjoy!