If I Dream

by K.M. Scott

This is a powerful start to the authors new series, it draws on an almost cacophony of emotions and at times it was a race not only to get to the next up but also the down that was destined to follow.

There was a darkness to the story that while it didn’t hide the light in every character, it certainly allowed the edges of each and every one of them to be singed by pain and sadness.

Bad things happen to good people and Serena is a good person, who was unfortunately caught in a web of her father’s making. The guy was an absolute piece of work, on the outside it would appear that his daughters had the world at their feet but nothing could be further from the truth, his misery and malevolence knew no end.

Ricard seemed to relish her misery almost, he stripped her of everything that you would have thought a father would wish to bestow on his daughter, his dominance of her every moment was excruciating but when he ensures that Ryder, the person that she needed almost as much as air itself was taken away, I couldn’t forgive him… for me, he was unredeemable!

Ryder, fought not because he wanted to but because he had no choice, with limited options to absolve himself of a debt that is owed to the sort of people who have no consideration for the who and why’s in life, he did what he had to in order to survive but his life changed again when the debt was sold on and he finds himself at the behest of Richard, Serena’s father.

I thought it odd that Richard took Ryder to his home but I think it was just another power trip for him, but he made sure to emphasise that when it came to his daughters …they were out of his reach, Ryder was warned! But will he listen?

Serena wants everything her father has denied her, a life not only outside the home that quiet easily be mistaken for a prison and a life out of her father’s clutches but has her conditioning left her unable to take such drastic steps or will she find her strength and stand up to him? Well, only time would tell but from the minute she met Ryder, she had an ally, they each have feelings for the other and the more time together the more intense those feelings become, that is until her father throws a spanner in the works.

There are twists and turns in every chapter, some I understood and some I didn’t but what I did understand that there were times when almost every character got my heckles up. I loathed Richard with an absolute passion, I found aspects of Serena difficult to come to terms with and as for Ryder while I have to say that overall I actually liked him, that didn’t mean that he rocked my world ever page, he too could have done with a swift kick up the butt!

But what I cannot deny is that Serena and Ryder were perfect for each other and theirs was a romance I wanted to work, they deserved it but would they get it in the end? Well that remains to be seen.

Fabulously well written, this will be one that will remain on the kindle for a while yet and I just know there will be a re-read on the cards before the next book…I think the cliff hanger ending made certain of that!