Review: Dreaming Awake

Sequel to FALLING UNDER (Review)
By Gwen Hayes
Available now from NAL Trade (Penguin)
Review copy

Last year, I knew nothing about FALLING UNDER when I read it.  I'd never heard of Gwen Hayes.  I hadn't requested it for review; it just showed up on my porch one day.  But I loved it.  I enjoyed heroine Theia Anderson's proactivity, the strong female friendships, and the swoony romance.

When DREAMING AWAKE, like FALLING UNDER, showed up randomly on my porch one day, I was surprised.  I didn't think FALLING UNDER needed a sequel.  Theia and Haden had saved each other.  End of story.  But as I read, DREAMING AWAKE convinced me that it did deserve to exist.

Yes, Theia and Haden saved each other.  But at what cost?  Mara, Queen of Nightmares, is pissed.  She was thwarted, yes, but not forever.  And she wants revenge.  Even without an evil, powerful queen to worry about, Theia has problems.  She's no longer completely human.  She has new powers and hungers she must learn to control.  In addition, Theia and Haden have proved that they will go to great lengths for each other.  But they're still young and newly in love.  They've got a lot to learn about communication and compromise.

Donny and Amelia, Theia's best friends, continue to be integral to the story.  Parts of DREAMING AWAKE are even in their points-of-view.  Donny and Amelia are part of what make Gwen Hayes's world so absorbing.  The heroine doesn't exist in a vacuum of new boy and new powers.  She had a life before Haden that continues on.  It raises the stakes, as well.  Theia has people to fight for outside of the world of Under.

I don't recommend reading DREAMING AWAKE if you haven't read FALLING UNDER.  Too much of the story focuses on the consequences of the previous book.  I do recommend reading both, however.  This is young adult paranormal romance at its best.  (And with the ending of DREAMING AWAKE, I am now hoping for a third book.)

Review: Falling Under (and Contest)

Don't forget! March is my blogiversary month, which means lots of contests.

By Gwen Hayes
Available now from NAL (Penguin)
Review copy



First, I love the cover of this book. The photo and color scheme are somewhat typical, but the foil letters are fun and the material is soft. It's a nice book to hold in your hands and feel. (Yes, I'm shallow, that matters to me.)

FALLING UNDER has a lot in common with the TWILIGHT series. Girl meets guy who warns her that he's dangerous. Eventually, they get separated and the girl pines. It's a typical formula, but one that can be well done. FALLING UNDER is fun and romantic, and heroine Theia Alderson holds it all together.

Theia's rather sheltered and naïve, due to her father who is strict but rarely present. She starts having strange lucid dreams – and waking up with grass stains on her nightgown. Then the boy in her dreams shows up in school, drawn to her but refusing to touch her and trying to drive her away by hanging out with other girls. Pretty soon Theia decides that Haden Black's routine is kind of annoying and takes matters into her own hands. It's foolhardy but awesome. She keeps that kind of attitude throughout the book, most triumphantly when she decides to go after Haden instead of moping in his absence.

Short passages are in Haden's point of view. This is good because it rounds his character out some, but bad because I prefer Theia's diction. Luckily, as he spends more time around normal teenagers he becomes less flowery.

Theia has two good friends, Donny and Ame, who both have their own romantic plotlines. I liked that Theia remained involved with her friends and their lives. Gwen Hayes uses their beaus into the main plotline so that their story doesn't slow down the speed of the book. That’s good since FALLING UNDER is the kind of book you read in one rush before going to sleep.

If you're tired of teen romance paranormals, the FALLING UNDER probably won't be your thing. But if you enjoy that genre, FALLING UNDER is worth picking up.

You also have a chance to read FALLING UNDER for free, thanks to Penguin. One reader with a US or Canada address (no PO boxes) will receive a copy. Fill out the form below to enter. Contest ends 3/14.