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A review by katsbooks
Man of My Dreams by Johanna Lindsey
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I was a little disappointed by this book. I'm going to be painfully honest here but the reason I picked this up is because my mom had a whole shelf of these books when I was a kid. She kept them on a shelf in her bedroom that was not meant for polite company. But, naturally, I knew they were there. I remember pilfering a few from her and sneakily returning them. I learned how to skim while reading her books because I would be so anxious I was going to get caught or only had a limited amount of time before I felt like it needed to be back on the shelf because someone was coming home. I remember being completely scandalized because *gasp* there was sex in these books. Preteen Kat had no idea how tame this was compared to what she reads almost 20 years later!
So this book wasn't bad by any means. I think it just suffered from high expectations. I found the romance to be really fun. It was definitely not as scandalous as 13-year-old Kat remembers. (Although, I'm fairly certain I never read this exact book when I was younger.) In fact, I was actually quite disappointed with the spice. It was there but it wasn't great. And frankly, it was a little sexual assaulty, especially initially. So trigger warning for that. It ended up being used as a way to further the plot along in a way that I definitely wasn't a fan of. Plus the entire set up was kind of contrived. And I say that with full knowledge that a lot of romance plots are a bit contrived to begin with, especially in historical romance. Honestly, I would have liked this better had it been a simple romance with no spice (or sexual assault).
From a strictly romantic perspective, the secret identity trope was fun. The first 2/3rds was fairly well done. It's what kept me reading but, the last 1/3 was meh, at best.
I think I may pick up another Lindsey in the future but I can already tell, this wasn't a favorite.
So this book wasn't bad by any means. I think it just suffered from high expectations. I found the romance to be really fun. It was definitely not as scandalous as 13-year-old Kat remembers. (Although, I'm fairly certain I never read this exact book when I was younger.) In fact, I was actually quite disappointed with the spice. It was there but it wasn't great. And frankly, it was a little sexual assaulty, especially initially. So trigger warning for that. It ended up being used as a way to further the plot along in a way that I definitely wasn't a fan of. Plus the entire set up was kind of contrived. And I say that with full knowledge that a lot of romance plots are a bit contrived to begin with, especially in historical romance. Honestly, I would have liked this better had it been a simple romance with no spice (or sexual assault).
From a strictly romantic perspective, the secret identity trope was fun. The first 2/3rds was fairly well done. It's what kept me reading but, the last 1/3 was meh, at best.
I think I may pick up another Lindsey in the future but I can already tell, this wasn't a favorite.