561 reviews for:

Wildest Dreams

Kristen Ashley

3.74 AVERAGE


This book was on my recommendation list from Goodreads so I kind of just trusted them and went ahead and read it without really knowing what was awaiting me. Boy this book did NOT disappoint. It was amazing. I loved the characters. There was a nice fantasy world, funny characters you came to care about and a good amount of action and intrigue. So it pretty much had everything. I couldn't put this book down. I had so many chores I wanted to do this Saturday and I just ended up reading this book all afternoon. It was brilliant. Some minor things that I didn't love: the name Finnie. To me this is the name you give to a pony, not a young woman. I couldn't really warm up to it and it felt to childish. That bugged me a bit. Also after a while I had enough of her "Ho Boy" and sometimes her behavior was just too childish. Loudly exclaiming "that's so cool" when learning elves exist didn't really fit in with the picture of this young woman seeking adventure. I did love Frey's expression though and his notice that Finnie's feet itch was brilliant. I loved that.

Story wise the reason I didn't give this 5 stars was because in general I thought the author made it too easy for her characters.
Spoiler I mean at the beginning Frey obviously hates Finnie and cannot stand to be next to her - because he thinks she is a lesbian. The moment she says she's not his entire demeanor changes and he's oh so on board with the whole marriage arrangement. That was just too easy... Then every time there was a serious conflict, it was also solved either too easily or too safely. If Finnie is being attacked Frey and his men almost flee until their in save waters again (literally) and they all go back to easy-peasy relaxed states. And when Frey makes life altering decisions that threaten their relationship, there is no real confrontation because they're being attacked so they're a little distracted and in the end it's all good. Finally, I'm not saying I wanted Frey to die, not at all!!! But again, I felt like the author played it a bit to save with his heroic saving and appearance with dragons...


I still loved the book. This is one of those lucky finds I'm extremely grateful for and I know that I'll devour the second book today too.
adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Reread August 2025 - still love! 
adventurous emotional funny lighthearted tense medium-paced
hanahbananabread's profile picture

hanahbananabread's review

3.0

Sweet but boring. Heroin is an idiot.

carriebreathesbooks's review

3.75
adventurous emotional slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Really fun world building! 

Certainly not the typical genre I would read but I admit I was sucked in a bit with this one.

I found myself getting annoyed with the excessive use of the "ho boy" phrase and felt there was oftentimes too much detail provided in certain parts but the actual storyline was quite intriguing

3.5 Stars

I have seen a lot of friends read these books and finally decided to go for it. I needed a light, fluffy read with a little romance. I was pleasantly surprised minus the excessive use of the words "cool" and "awesome" and could have gone without her calling Frey "honey." I was warned to expect alpha male and Frey was but not as bad as some of the other books I have read. "Alpha male" can often mean abusive and honestly just plain inappropriate, inexcusable behavior but that didn't occur in this book minus some annoying secret keeping and miscommunication. As a person with a masters degree in marriage and family therapy the utter lack of communication that seems to almost always occur in romance novels gets a little tedious and annoying. Therefore, I was annoyed by Frey on occasion as well as Finnie but chocked it up to being the norm for a fluffy romance. Overall it was a fun read and I can see why people enjoy these books.

I liked the whole plot but man it dragsssss