It will come as no surprise to any of my regular readers that my first review of Cannonball Read 14 is a selection written by Kristen Ashley. What you might be surprised to learn is that she has switched things up a bit with Dream Keeper. Which is not to say that there aren’t A LOT of references to characters from other books, or that obvious leads to future books weren’t being set in motion, because of course there was so much of all of that. And a lot of questionable at best sounding dishes being described in glowing terms. (Seriously, pork rind nachos? Hard pass.)
So, you might be excused for wondering what HAS changed after that rather extensive list of things that have stayed the same. The easy answer? Feelings and working through baggage.
Both leads come with rather significant familial baggage, and the big plots of Dream Keeper involve them recognizing said baggage and then doing the work to move past it. It was really rather nice to see Auggie, this novel’s grunty commando lead, recognize when he had been a real dick and take steps to make amends rather than just telling Pepper, the good-hearted stripper with an adorable kid, that she needed to understand that’s who he is and accept it because he’s a “good guy.”
Circling back to the family baggage, Auggie’s parents have an incredibly toxic, codependent relationship that really affects his romantic relationships with women. It’s with Pepper’s help that he is able to recognize this and set appropriate boundaries rather than just continue to let their toxicity negatively impact his life.
Pepper’s story is much scarier. It involves cults, trafficking, deeply embedded misogyny, and really is the big plot driver of Dream Keeper. Of course everything comes right in the end – it IS a romance, after all – I just wish that the plot hadn’t been telegraphed quite so clearly.
Technically Dream Keepers is a stand alone, but you really need to have read at least 16 previous Ashleys (the Rock Chick series, Dream Man series, first three of this series) to really understand who all of the players were and how they tie in to this story. It’s great for fans to see old favorites, but when they are that pervasive it makes it really hard for new readers to follow.
