3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
Something To Dream On weaves a tale about destiny, love, loss and one woman’s fight after an unfortunate series of events snatches her life away from her. Lizetta Lansing has searched her whole life for someone who will love her for her soul, rather than her appearance. Having been bullied as a child for being overweight, Lizetta’s self-esteem has taken many hits but nevertheless, she strives positive and kind every day, and she eventually draws the eye of Jensen, a former drug addict on the path to change. The two fall in love and Lizetta finally feels as if she has a perfect life. Unbeknown to her, a foreshadowed event would occur, an event that would test the limits of her soul and her love for Jensen.
When reading the description of this novel, I was confused as to what the novel was actually about. It described the two main characters but also included various vague rhetorical questions that seemed not to be clearly linked to each other. I found that this did, in fact, describe the novel quite well. Alongside the main plot of the story, there are two separate plot lines or. The first of these involved a fortune-teller showing Lizetta that the Death card was in her reading and predicting a tragic event that would occur. The second was the interludes that occasionally came in the book, the part in italics that would describe Lizetta in some sort of idyllic, fantastical land.
I felt that these two story lines were supposed to remain detached for most of the novel but then were meant to cleverly link back in and make all the pieces fall back together; the author did attempt to do this but it wasn’t particularly clear and I still remained confused. In addition to this, there was a painting that was significant, talk about destinies and Lizetta’s bizarre guardian angel experience. All these elements did not quite fit together in the span of the book and to craft such a rich and complex storyline featuring these elements would have taken a longer book, to get it right.
Despite being confused by the plot, I thoroughly enjoyed reading from the point of view of the characters. Each character – mainly Lizetta, Jensen and Laura – had their own distinct voice, which is usually difficult to achieve when chapters are split between characters. I found Lizetta’s parts particularly enjoyable, because of her upbeat attitude and positive outlook on life. She was a good, well-rounded, realistic character, as was Jensen and Laura. I was a little disappointed at the way that her character development panned out, as it undermined her as a person and put Lizetta on a pedestal for saving her. She was an interesting character and I would have liked to see some personal development in her.
Lizetta’s journey throughout the story and Jensen’s personal battle were definitely my favourite parts of the plot. They were believable and very human struggles. Jensen’s attempt to resist temptation was something I, and many others, can identify with; both his and Lizetta’s development from their struggles defined them well as characters and gave the novel more realism amidst the more surreal events that take place.
All in all, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. It was a light-hearted and enjoyable read. Despite the side plots being a little complex and not quite tying together, the main plot was interesting, the writing was engaging and the characters were well-shaped and likeable. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy romance and fantasy books.
******
Something To Dream On
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
Like noorsawhney's review? Post a comment saying so!