Dream Maker by Kristen Ashley Pages: 497
Series: Dream Team #1
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Setting: Denver, CO
Source: ARC, NetGalley
Also in this series: Dream Chaser, Dream Spinner (Dream Team, #3), Dream Keeper
Also by this author: Mystery Man, Rock Chick Renegade, Law Man, Motorcycle Man, Dream Chaser, For You, Dream Spinner (Dream Team, #3), Dream Keeper
Goodreads
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Dream Man and Rock Chick series comes a brand new story about love, friendship, and the bonds of sisterhood.
Evie is a bonafide nerd and a hyper-intelligent chick who has worked her whole life to get what she wants. Growing up, she had no support from her family and has only ever been able to rely on herself. So when Evie decides she wants to earn her engineering degree, she realizes she needs to take an alternative path to get there. She takes a job dancing at Smithie's club thinking this would be a quick side gig, where she can make the money she needs. But with her lack of dancing skills and an alpha bad boy who becomes overly protective, Evie realizes this might not be as easy as she thought.
Daniel "Mag" Magnusson knows a thing or two about pain, but the mask he wears is excellent. No one can tell that this good-looking, quick-witted, and roguish guy has deep-seated issues. Mag puts on a funny-guy routine so he can hide his broken heart and PTSD. But when Evie dances her way into Mag's life, he realizes that he needs to come face-to-face with the demons of his past if he wants a future with her.
Dream Maker by Kristen Ashley kicks off a new series and its kind of like next gen Rock Chick/Dream Man series. Yes, I found it to be derivative and very similar to her aforementioned series. However, I enjoyed those, and I enjoyed Dream Maker as well. I think fans of KA will love that she kept her signature style.
Evan, or Evie, is a woman with a messed up family. I think a lot of readers can relate to her struggle to help her family simply because they are family. However, they are toxic and in this case, going to get her killed. She has a blind date with Danny, aka Mag, and it does not go like either planned.
There is plenty of danger and drama-Evie is now embroiled in a seriously messed up situation with some seriously bad dudes. But, she is also in the midst of having some life changing epiphanies. You see a lot of growth in Evie as she realizes that her life doesn’t have to be what it was. I really enjoyed her as a character.
Danny is your typically KA alpha. He is a “commando” type who works for Hawk (from Mystery Man) and he has his own baggage. If you like the over the top macho man, you will adore Danny. Seriously, KA writes some very masculine men!
While I struggled with Dream Maker early on, somewhere around the 20% mark that changed and I dug in and enjoyed it. Its a long book, but it didn’t FEEL long, which I think is a trait of good writing.
- POV: 1st and 3rd (this annoyed me a little-its 1st when its Evie, and 3rd when its Danny)
- Tears: no
- Trope: damsel in distress, girl squad rep
- Triggers: none
- Series/Standalone: standalone
- Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
- HEA: View Spoiler »
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The Rock Chick series by Kristen Ashley…then you will probably like Dream Maker!
Dream Maker
Great review here Samantha!! I loved this one, and I loved how similar to the writing style it was to the Dream Man and Rock Chick books. And I like my men Masculine so I love how she writes the heroes here. It will be interesting to see how these others books in the series develop.
I only got to 21%. I had to DNF it. I wasn’t enjoying it at all. While I love an alpha man, Danny was on the borderline of being psychotic and I couldn’t like his character at all.
[…] Dream Maker by Kristen Ashley, King/Tyrant by TM Frazier, …then you will probably like Shakedown! […]