Review: Dream On

I didn’t get a chance to read Angie Hockman’s novel Shipped when it was released but it sounded so great that I jumped at the chance to read her most recent book, Dream On. It was a really sweet and lovely romance that I had fun reading, even if I knew it wouldn’t be one that would stay with me for a long time.

Here’s the book’s description:

What would you do if your dream man turned out to be real?
When law student Cass Walker wakes up after surviving a car accident, she is flooded with memories of her boyfriend, Devin. The only problem? Devin doesn’t exist. But everything she remembers about him feels so real, like the precise shade of his coffee-brown eyes; the texture of his favorite hand-me-down scarf; even the slightly crooked angle of his pinkie, broken after falling off a trampoline in third grade. She knows he’s a figment of her imagination—friends, family, and doctors confirm it—but she still can’t seem to get him out of her head.
So when she runs into the real Devin a year later in a Cleveland flower shop, she’s completely shocked. Even more surprising is that Devin actually believes her story, and soon they embark on a real-life romance. With her dream man by her side and an upcoming summer job at a prestigious law firm, Cass’s future seems perfect. But fate might have other plans...

That description sounds completely bonkers, doesn’t it? The plot of this one was almost too bizarre to be believed but if you can just let the story happen, you’ll enjoy it a whole lot more. My attitude was sort of, “well, this is highly unbelievable but I’m just going to roll with it and see what happens” and what happened worked out alright!

That said…it was kind of hard to get behind Cass’s stubborn conviction that she was absolutely meant to be with Devin. It was like she couldn’t contemplate anything else and just had to believe in her false memories, even after she meets him and he has no idea who she is. Granted, she had a traumatic experience and was trying to cling to something that, to her, was familiar. But I definitely had a few moments of thinking, “Girl, what are you DOING?!? He’s the WRONG MAN.” She had to figure that out for herself, of course, but it took some time to get there.

I was very clearly rooting for a particular romantic Happily Ever After and, while I did get it, I kind of wanted MORE of their relationship. Maybe I’m just greedy!

And now for something that has absolutely no bearing on the story but I need to mention: I love that it was set in Cleveland. I’ve been there a couple of times and have thoroughly enjoyed each visit. I can’t wait to visit again!

Dream On was a sweet and fun romance. I enjoyed reading Angie Hockman’s latest novel and will definitely still be checking out Shipped and whatever she writes next!

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, Simon and Schuster Canada, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*