Kristen Ashley - Wildest Dreams

Seoafin “Finnie” Wilde was taught by her parents that every breath was a treasure and to seek every adventure she could find. And she learns this lesson the hard way when they perish in a plane crash. But she never forgets and when she discovers there is a parallel universe where every person has a twin, she finds a witch who can send her there so she can have the adventure of a lifetime.
But upon arrival in the Winter Wonderland of Lunwyn, she realizes she’s been played by her twin and finds herself walking down the aisle to be wed to The Drakkar.
Thrown into inauspicious circumstances, with years of practice, Finnie bests the challenges and digs into her adventure. But as Frey Drakkar discovers the woman who is his new wife is not Princess Sjofn, a woman he dislikes but instead, his Finnie, a free-spirit with a thirst for venture just like him, without her knowledge he orders his new bride bound to his frozen world, everlasting.
But at the same time Frey plunges Finnie into a web of political intrigue that includes assassination plots, poison, magic, mystery and… dragons.

Comment: Years ago, I gave in to the hype and read a book by Kristen Ashley, when it seemed all my "book lovers" friends liked her or had tried her books. I tried the one whose blurb most appealed to me and I found out the writing to be too annoying, as well as the main characters. Still, I thought perhaps I just didn't try the best but the opportunity never came until now, and I decided to go with a different genre.

In this story we meet Finnie, a young woman looking for an adventure and she certainly finds it by having the chance to travel to another world, parallel to ours, where everyone has a sort of twin, living a different life, in a reality filled with magic and fantastical creatures. Finnie has money and a witch friend and she wants to travel there, for an year, so she can spend time with her parents' twins, alive in that world, whereas hers are already gone in ours. Therefore, Finnie will switch places with her "twin" but upon that switch she realizes perhaps her twin didn't give her all the pertinent information...but Finnie has a passion for life and rarely looks back so she will try to make the best of what is coming for her...

The author certainly has a very specific writing style and it's not for everyone's taste. It can seem quite childish for some, amazing for others... I find myself in the middle and the contemporary I tried before felt very annoying but this one is paranormal/fantasy and somehow I was able to better accept the less positive aspects of the writing because the characters were in a very different type of reality.

I liked the main character's adventures and zest for life but it felt as if the less positive side of the whole "carpe diem" wasn't mentioned enough, giving this novel the feel anything can be overlooked if one wants and I think more complexity of character and situations would have been a better approach to this series... what we do get is actually a study on romantic relationships where people just assume and don't really talk, where characters do things behind each other's back and a focus on the little things which added layers upon layers of repetitiveness.

I mean, this makes the book seem a little simple, focused on things that go nowhere because the whole story is a little predictable. Nevertheless, I was able to just keep turning the pages because the dramas and discoveries Finnie kept doing were both funny and made for a fluid read. I'd say it's just too bad the overall feel of the world is so full of rules and workings which resemble realities so unfair to women...this could have been an opportunity for the author to do something new, innovative... 

The main characters, Finnie and Frey, meet and start interacting based on misunderstandings and Finnie's changing places with his intended. From then on, the dynamics between them are based on a certain initial idea, but I fear I was disappointed that such a modern woman such as Finnie would allow her obviously different take on life and experiences to give in to Frey so easily, romantically speaking. I really wish their relationship had been more romantic but, more important to me, that it could have progressed in a more realistic way for the type of plot, namely someone entering a new world without knowing what to expect...

I mean, of course we can always say this is fantasy and it's easier to accept certain things that in other genres we might not be as quick to put aside in detriment of the fluidity of the story, but overall, I'd say the author certainly bets on this aspect here. I liked the feel and tone of the story but some things got on my nerves and I feel the development could have been much better.

Putting aside the things I wasn't too fond of, I still feel curious about some characters and even assuming the romances will go on the same line as of this one, I'm eager to try at least one more, perhaps the dynamics between the main characters can have enough differences to make it as easy to read as this one. For some month in the future...

Grade: 7/10