When the sun goes down, their passion awakens…and so do their nightmares.
Centuries ago, a man with Bryn Llewelyn’s dreamwalking ability would have been a shaman or a priest. In this time, he’s merely exhausted, strung out on too much caffeine and too little sleep.
Sleep means descent into Somnus—an alternate reality constructed of the combined dreaming consciousness of ordinary humans. A place he’d rather avoid. Trouble is, his powers don’t include the ability to go without sleep indefinitely. At some point his eyes close…and his nightmare begins.
As a teen, the treatment that cured Laszlo Grimm’s sleep disorder stole his dreams—and his ability to feel emotion. Petrified of needing more “treatment”, he clings to familiar rituals and habits. But lately his nightly terror has returned, and when he meets Bryn in the real world, the man seems hauntingly familiar. Not only that, Bryn awakens feelings in Laszlo for the first time in years…
Slowly Bryn and Laszlo realize they are both unknowing pawns in a plan of unspeakable evil. And that their powerful attraction could release the destinies locked within them—or be the instrument of their doom.
Centuries ago, a man with Bryn Llewelyn’s dreamwalking ability would have been a shaman or a priest. In this time, he’s merely exhausted, strung out on too much caffeine and too little sleep.
Sleep means descent into Somnus—an alternate reality constructed of the combined dreaming consciousness of ordinary humans. A place he’d rather avoid. Trouble is, his powers don’t include the ability to go without sleep indefinitely. At some point his eyes close…and his nightmare begins.
As a teen, the treatment that cured Laszlo Grimm’s sleep disorder stole his dreams—and his ability to feel emotion. Petrified of needing more “treatment”, he clings to familiar rituals and habits. But lately his nightly terror has returned, and when he meets Bryn in the real world, the man seems hauntingly familiar. Not only that, Bryn awakens feelings in Laszlo for the first time in years…
Slowly Bryn and Laszlo realize they are both unknowing pawns in a plan of unspeakable evil. And that their powerful attraction could release the destinies locked within them—or be the instrument of their doom.
When I first started The
Dream Alchemist, I was unsure of it. Jumping into a new ‘world’ is always a bit
discombobulating, both for the characters and the readers. But it didn’t take
long before I was hooked. From then on, I had a hard time putting the book
down.
In the reality the
author has built, humans go to sleep and dream their lives in Somnus. Most
humans are drones, dreaming their own dreams and ignoring what is happening
around them. Then there are the Shades, bits of nightmares that hang around.
But the most important are the Dream Walkers – those who once they go to sleep,
are more awake than they are in real life and can remember everything that
happened to them while in that state.
We are introduced to
several walkers in this, the first book of the Somnus series, but the main
story was about Bryn who has been a walker since he was 7 and Lazlo who had no
idea he was a walker because of some horrible experiments perpetrated on him as
a child and throughout his adult life. I’ll admit, I skipped all but the first
sex scene. In so many books the scenes are so much the same that it has become
like reading the same thing over and over again – so I skipped ahead to the
story which was fabulous.
I don’t want to ruin
all the interesting things you’ll find in this amazing tale, but they include,
monsters ready to take over the non-dream world, tea that turns people into
drones, magic-filled necklaces, annoying dream walkers, and the gift of
alchemy.
Interested? I would
highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good mystery along with their M/M
romance.
Now – for the reason I
gave it 4 stars instead of 5.
Two reasons really – I
found the love story between Bryn and Lazlo to be lackluster. Their feelings
toward one another felt more like lust that love and even the lust was rather
pale. Also, this is a multi-point of view story. Mostly between our two heroes,
though there is one at the very end from another point of view. And none of
them were separated. It would have been nice to have the industry standard of
either a large space or **** in place so we knew there was a change in point of
view. To go from one paragraph to the next without a break and have it be from
a different point of view was jarring each time.
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