Review by Ronny

Only in Your Dreams is a fun spicy small-town romance.

Favourite Quote:

I reach for him, but he shakes his head with enough intensity that I hit the brakes. He slips out of my bedroom, inching the door shut between us, eyeing me through the shrinking crack. 

“I’ll be back, Clover, I promise. Wait up for me.”

Book Synopsis:

If he can prove he loved her then, and he loves her still, this time might be different.

Ten years after one of the most heartbreaking nights of her life, Melody Woods is back in her small hometown of Oakwood Bay, broke, jaded, and unceremoniously dumped by her big-city boyfriend. To top it all off, her twin brother, Parker, is pushing her to take his spot on a camping trip with the one guy she’s spent a decade avoiding.

For college football coach Zac Porter, his best friend’s twin sister, Melody, has always been off-limits. And after fumbling his chance ten years ago, a devastated Zac was sure he’d lost Melody for good. So, when Melody shows up at the campsite instead of Parker, Zac realizes that now is the time to prove to her that they were always meant to be, no matter how long it takes to make up for his teenage self’s mistake.

Reeling from the truth of her last relationship, Melody plans to stay in town just long enough to get back on her feet. Then, she’s gone again. Meanwhile, Zac is facing an uphill battle to coach his team to its first winning game in years, to show Melody how she deserves to be loved, and to keep Parker from ever finding out. Maybe then, being with her will be more than just a dream.

Review: 

I’m always looking for my next small-town or sports romances read. So, when Simon and Shuster Canada pitched us a small-town sports romance written by a Canadian author, I was like, “Yes, please!”. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It has all those qualities that I have come to expect from a rom-com, like an interesting story, a swoony romance, and characters that you can connect with. This story is filled with lots of delicious drama, which made for a super entertaining read. The characters in this story were kept on their toes at all times; sometimes, it’s because of their own actions and other times, it’s because of an unexpected twist that neither the characters nor you saw coming. This made you want to turn the page because you needed to know what would happen next. 

One of the things that I thought was really well done was how Ellie handled the difficult topic of toxic relationships. Her long-term boyfriend has just dumped Melody and is confused and unsure where their relationship went wrong. However, as the story progresses, Melody quickly realizes that her relationship with her ex is unhealthy. He was controlling, emotionally abusive, and isolated her from her family and friends. We watch as Melody is now not only dealing with having to start a new life after her break up but also having to cope with these PTSD emotions she finds herself experiencing because of her relationship with her ex. Ellie did a great job weaving and talking about this serious topic in a really thoughtful manner. 

Melody is a prickly-ish character, and I liked her. It was great watching as she essentially rose from the ashes of the dumpster fire that was her last relationship and found what makes her happy and, of course, has lots of hot sex with Zac. She is a real character, and the problems that she finds herself facing are relatable. Zac is also a pricky-ish character, and at the beginning of the book, Melody learns that over the past few years, Zac has become rather grumpy in nature. We also learn that Zac and Parker (Melody’s twin brother) aren’t as close as they used to be, but we aren’t sure why. It was a lot of fun unravelling those mini mysteries about what had happened in Zac’s life during those years that Melody was away. 

The romance is super-hot. There is a lot of banging and almost banging going on in this book. Ellie blends a lot of different tropes into this relationship: you have brother’s best friend, slight second chance, forbidden love, hidden relationship, friends with benefits, he falls first and harder, and friends to lovers, and all of these tropes come together to create an enjoyable love story. It becomes pretty clear pretty quickly that Zac is harbouring some major feelings for Melody, and we learn that he has been pining for her since they were teenagers. He just didn’t want to act on those feelings because of his friendship with Parker. Melody also has a crush on Zac, but I don’t think she realized how strong her feelings were until she was about to head off to college. Then, unfortunately, teenage Zac kind of messes up, which has made Melody hate him for the past ten years. There are some insta-lust feelings and actions happening between these two, almost right from their reconnection. It’s pretty obvious that they both have some strong feelings for each other. But of course, because this is a romance between brother and best friend, they have to keep those feelings a secret. If you like sneaking around and those shenanigans that come with hiding a relationship, then you are going to love the romance in this story. 

Only in Your Dreams is a swoony, spicy romance that I really enjoyed. 

Thank you, Simon and Schuster Canada, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.