Title: Lake of Dreams
Series:
Author: Linda Howard
Genre: Contemporary & Paranormal Romance
Published: REPRINT pub. May 2, 2016 (Original anthology May 1, 1995)
Publisher: Pocket Stars
My Rating: 3 stars
Source: NetGalley
Cover Description:
Dreams and reality collide—with potentially deadly consequences—in this stunning novella from New York Timesbestselling author Linda Howard, available for the first time as a standalone ebook at an unbeatable price!
House painter Thea Marlow hasn’t been sleeping very well. Her nights are plagued by dreams, the setting by the water and the mysterious man who appears in them always the same. But the outcome of the dream changes nightly: sometimes the man loves her…and sometimes he kills her. Desperate for some much needed relaxation, Thea travels to her family’s remote country lake house. Imagine her surprise when a knock at the door reveals the man from her dreams…who happens to have just rented the house next door.
So will he love her—or will he kill her?
Originally published in the anthology Everlasting Love by Linda Howard, Jayne Ann Krentz, Linda Lael Miller, Kasey Michaels and Carla Neggers.
Read on for my thoughts on Lake of Dreams. No true spoilers, promise.
Let’s be clear from the very start of this review – Lake of Dreams is a REPRINT of one short novella in an anthology with four other writers first published in 1995. Now this story is available in e-book format, which may explain why it’s out now, 20+ years later. But if you are a fan of Linda Howard’s romantic suspense (as I am) of recent years then you may enjoy it for what it is… a short story that we are pretty much dropped into the middle of, there simply isn’t time for deep story or character development in this particular format. (I read this back in the day, and it pretty much came back to me within a page or so)
Thea has been having dreams – vivid frightening or erotic dreams depending on the night, because the outcome of her dreams change constantly. This man will either be the love of her life or he will take her life… if you believe in dreams that is. Yet when Thea gets away from it all at her family home who is the first person she meets? The man of her dreams who will either love her or kill her.
A contemporary love story with a touch of the paranormal, Lake of Dreams will give you things to think about as you discover just why this man haunts Thea’s dreams.
Lake of Dreams was given a 3 star review by me. It’s a good short story – and that’s what 3 stars mean to me, a good story. It is dated, it is extremely short and is nothing like the romantic suspense we’ve come to expect from the author. But it does fit in with the original publication date’s trends of the time. And it’s still a good, satisfying short read even 20 years later.
*I received an e-ARC of Lake of Dreams from the publisher, Pocket Star and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. That does not change what I think of this novel.*
Available for the Kindle
