Series: Standalone
Publication Date: October 1st 2013
Purchase: Ebook
Source: I received an ARC from the publisher (Escape Publishing) in exchange for an honest review
A beautiful, spiritual story about a woman who meets the man of her dreams — and then wakes up…
The last thing Leah thought she’d get out of a shocking car accident was the perfect boyfriend. But there was Brennan in the hospital bed next to hers — equal parts charm, cheek, and chocolate. Their relationship, their love, her life, is almost too good to be true.
Then, to Leah’s horror, she discovers that it is. Her new life with Brennan is only a fabrication of her injured mind — a coma dream that ends when she wakes up.
Struggling with injuries and grieving for a man that never existed, Leah battles to put her life back together. But a series of coincidences hint that for some people, love can transcend all barriers and achieve the impossible.
When I saw this book on Netgalley, and I read the summary, I knew I just had to read it. The blurb is just so intriguing–the heroine meets the love of her life, but it turns out that their meeting, their life together, wasn’t… real. It was all a dream. To be honest, I would never have wanted to read this book if I hadn’t loved the blurb, and yet it gives away such a huge part of the story that I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to. So does the blurb hurt or help? If you don’t mind how it gives away the huge plot twist, then by all means, give this book a try. But for those who hate spoilers, this book might not be right for you.
I still enjoyed reading this book, despite how I was waiting and waiting for the time when Leah would wake up from her coma and her dream. Always, in the back of my mind, during Leah and Brennan’s love story, I would be wondering, Is this when she wakes up? Is this when she’ll lose the love of her life? I kept thinking and wondering the entire time, so I couldn’t really connect with the main characters. Their story was all a dream and wasn’t real, so I was never invested in their story or their romance. That’s not to say this isn’t a good book. I still liked it! But I didn’t LOVE it. Still, Leah and Brennan’s story was sweet and heart-warming, a romance that seemed very natural.
Leah meets Brennan in the hospital after her accident, and they are very sweet and flirty together. They’re not sure whether they’ll ever see each other again, but they want to. They want to try to have a relationship, to see how far a relationship will take them, because during their time at the hospital, they connect. They have conversations and become friendly, even though both sides want more. The first half of the story is told in Leah’s POV, and her narrating is very simple and straightforward. She and Brennan fall more deeply in love with each other each passing day, and it was all mellow and slow. But it wasn’t until Leah wakes up that things… get exciting. More interesting. Because in reality, she’s never met Brennan or his family. And yet she feels in her heart she does.
I wasn’t a fan of the writing, but Jacquie Underdown stepped it up for the second half of the book. I liked the story much better, because I honestly had no idea what would happen. Is Brennan even real? If he is, will Leah ever see him again, get the chance to love him, have the life they were meant to have before she woke up? The story really took a different turn after Leah wakes up, and I ended up really liking how Leah copes with the loss of Brennan.
While Beautiful Illusion isn’t the BEST book out there, it was still really interesting to read. If you’re intrigued by the blurb, like I was, who knows, you might end up loving it!
3 hearts for me!
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