Dreamer

by Julia Alaric

Jonah considers himself the most boring person in existence. Even his dreams are boring; the most exciting dream he's ever had involved folding laundry. But then, in the middle of a dream about eating cereal, everything changes. A faint memory of an unseen visitor, impressions that vanish upon waking, become dreams that leave Jonah exhausted, afraid, and determined to figure out who is turning his boring dreams into a terrifying game of cat and mouse …

Genres: M M Romance, Paranormal, Romance, Fantasy, Audiobook, Gay

203 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 31, 2012

About the author

The discovery at age five of her mother’s typewriter lurking the bowels of her basement inspired Julia’s first story, a moving, multi-chaptered, twelve-sentence masterpiece about a blood-thirsty blob. Since then, she’s gone on to write many vastly better spelled stories with much happier endings.

Julia finds absolutely everything completely fascinating, which is why she spends most of her time in a classroom. Her greatest loves, apart from her husband, are language, music, and history, and she makes her living via a slightly ridiculous passel of jobs centered around the three. There are rumors that, in a prior life, she even dabbled in teaching high school math and chemistry amidst her Latin, Greek, and music history classes. Her students joke that she would like to achieve a doctorate in Everything, and they’re not far wrong.

More of her writing can be found at her livejournal (username magistra17sum). She loves to hear from her readers, so please feel free leave a comment or question!

Reviews

[Mandy*reads obsessively* · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*
This story was much different than I imagined it would be, more of a flowing tale with lots of intricate world building than a mysterious suspenseful read I thought it was.
Jonah considers himself very ordinary, he's 28 and has never really dated ( 4 dates being his longest streak) but lately his dreams have been disturbing and aggravating but also arousing.
It seems Jonah isn't so ordinary after all.
Jonah is the first person since the dawning of man that has been able to sense and see Morpheus, the god of dreams. This makes him someone Morpheus longs to know, since the god's knowledge of the mortals feelings and world is limited he doesn't understand what the dreams are doing to Jonah.
The beginning dragged a bit for me and at times the story felt repetitive , of course considering the length, that's not surprising, but the dream world was descriptive and interesting. Considering how I thought this book would go, and the MC's being so different, I mean a mortal and a god...I expected a lot more angst or conflict or issues, I guess, but they were all handled pretty easily and there was little to no drama, not sure if I liked that, I think I would have preferred a bit more 'work' I guess for them. Although I normally hate angst and drama, this story needed a bit more IMO.
he introduces Morpheus to his friends and mother , and tells them who he is and they believe him and accept him and encourage him. All of a sudden Morpheus can travel between the dream world and the Waking after never having been able to in all of his millennia of existence. And then Jonah can start creating dreams for himself...and they have a chat with death, and have hope for an eternity ...
The sex was minimal and mostly off page , both MC's were interesting and enjoyable, it was fun to see a god out of his element.
I think I also would have liked the dreams at the beginning, before we really know what's going on to be in more detail, to really feel what Jonah is feeling, the ones later are more detailed, but I wish the first few had grabbed me more.
I'm not sure how the romance worked for me sure they loved each other, I was just never totally convinced it wasn't more of a 'fate' thing, since Jonah was 'one of a kind' for Morpheus and Jonah was pretty naive in the romance department.
All in all an enjoyable read.

[Hal Evergreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dreamer is a promising novel suffering from a lack of character development and, much more glaringly, a lack of research. You would think that a paranormal novel wouldn't require much research, but that's only true when the author doesn't try to explain paranormal phenomena with real world science. For instance, sleep and dreams are obviously important to this book. If the author had simply stated that Jonah dreams straight through the night, without trying to go into detail about his sleep cycles, then I would have shrugged and taken it in stride as a piece of fantasy. But when the author tried to explain that Jonah is dreaming all night because he is constantly in REM sleep, and because REM is "the deepest sleep," Jonah is able to stay well rested, I had to call BS. Three minutes of research revealed that REM is actually the phase of sleep in which brain activity most resembles the waking state. The deepest stages are stage 3 and 4 of non-REM (NREM) sleep. One of these days, authors are going to discover Wikipedia and it's going to change the world. In the meantime, silly errors like this one will continue to weaken otherwise interesting books. But anyway, on to the rest of the story.

This book is about Jonah, an ordinary, slightly pudgy twenty-something with a boring life and even more boring dreams. Jonah is a very endearing character. I love how ordinary he is. I love that his apartment is always a mess, that his freezer is constantly stocked with frozen dinners and ice cream sandwiches, and that his body is not exactly svelte. Jonah is great. Jonah's love interest, about whom I can't reveal too much without spoiling a major plot element, is much less interesting. He's sexy and a bit winsome, but there isn't really much to him as a character. As a result, their romance lacks a certain spark. I found them rather boring as a couple.

Unfortunately, the best thing about this novel is the part about which I can't go into much detail without moving into spoiler territory. I will only say that the description of the Dreaming, and the details about the mechanics of dreams, are quite fascinating. The book starts a bit slow, but by about the 25% mark it gets very interesting as Jonah learns more about his own dreams and dreams in general. I loved this aspect of the book, and it definitely made it worth suffering through the frustrating parts. I'm always looking for stories that have little twists which make them feel fresh, and Dreamer definitely feels different. I just wish some of the other aspects of the book had been stronger.

[Cole Riann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review posted at The Armchair Reader.

Jonah is pretty boring, and his dreams are too. His best friend's dreams are always so interesting, but Jonah just dreams about things he does in real life -- like laundry, or eating cereal. Yet, even though he seems self-conscious, being rather nerdy and a 28 year old virgin, he's pretty honest with himself that he likes his life the way it is -- until a strange man shows up in his dreams… chasing him. The only thing is that Jonah isn't sure he wants to get away.

This book was really a delight. Up front, though, there isn't a whole lot of tension in the story. There is certainly cause for it. The central relationship is definitely put to a fundamental test, right from the start, but there is little angst or conflict in the prose. The way they they spend their time makes for mostly a sweet story.

Jonah is a great character. We get to see someone who is entirely pragmatic faced with an impossibility. His pragmatism is actually the reason he's able to understand such an impossibility and later become more than he is, all through the power of his mind. That pragmatism is a rarity because Jonah is someone who is ultimately satisfied with what he has, and takes pleasure in his life. He doesn't need the fantastical from his subconscious mind because he's aware of himself.

Much of this book, the vast majority actually, I can't really talk about because the identity of Jonah's dream man is revealed only about a quarter through the book. The reveal is the only really big secret in the book and it should be kept, though it wasn't a big surprise. Still, I found that I liked and understood the way the fantasy elements were done and derived from mythology. I did wonder about Jonah's friends and family, who all took the information about the secret dream man much better than I expected.

In all, I would definitely recommend this story. All I can really say is that it was a sweet piece of escapism that was still quite smart and truly delightful to read. I couldn't put it down. Now, someone please go read this so I can actually talk about it with somebody! I think this is one of the shortest reviews I've ever written and it's all because there's stuff I can't talk about! Damn it all :(

[Lioness7 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a unique book. It is something completely different than other paranormal books that I have read. You have Jonah, a young man, which keeps having dreams that he can't remember clearly. This is a big part of the book. I want to talk about the romance part also, but it will give so much away. I can't do that to a potential reader. It was fun to take in though.

I loved this book because it was unique. Sure, there were parts where you started to wonder if the dreams were ever going to end. I stayed and kept reading out of curiosity and found something good. This book is not suspenseful. I would say it is more fantasy and romance. So, anyone looking for suspense, stay away. That will disappoint you.

Overall, this book will probably be one that I remember due to the plot. It didn't have lots of suspense or action. It was a good romance, but it is what I can't write about the dreams that made the book. I can't say anything more than it was unique.

[Pippii · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it with the Audio book, read by Paul Morey, one of my favourite readsers.

It was a sweet but diffrent story, with dreams and ghosts and really cute guys ♥

[Pépin Pomme · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was awesome!
It's a short book, and I didn't know the author, I was only expecting a good little story, nothing much.
But it was AMAZING. Really, this book is a great work, with a lot of fun and emotional moment. The humor is great, and that was what I was expecting, but I didn't expect all the intelligent reflexions and the very emotional parts of the book that made me cry from sadness and happyness.
The plot really is on point, I was wondering the whole time how things would end, and I was not disappointed.
It's a book I regret I can't read for the first time again.
And I certainly would not mind reading about the side characters of this book

[Vyraf · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. It was kind of simply, easy-to-read and without complicate plot. Usually I like more books with great lenght and plot that includes also other things than romance and is more complicate. Anyway, "Dreamer" was great. I really enjoyed to read it.

Most I liked how the author created the Dreaming. It was really interesting and I even hoped to learn more about it. Some characters felt bit transparent but I don't see it so bad thing since main characters were pretty good and someway I really liked Jonah's family (his mother especially!).

First I wanted to give four stars for this but I dropped one down because I think the ending was too sudden. I still expected something to happen and I was a bit disappointed when I reached the last page. Of course this book wasn't so long and in some way I was glad that this didn't turn out to be a cliche romance story with endless jelous and other not so nice stuff.

I would recommend this for everybody who wants to read sweet and simply romance. I enjoyed this and I think I'll also probably read it again later.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually listened to it instead of reading it. The audible edition gets 5 stars for Paul Morey's narration and the story itself is four stars.
The blurb really doesn't give much info and there weren't any written reviews on Audible, so I had no idea what to expect. I really couldn't tell that it was a romance from the blurb, nor that it was MM even though it showed up in my MM recommendations.
The mystery of who is chasing Jonah in his dreams is solved pretty quickly. The rest of the story is essentially the love story between Jonah and Morpheus. The sex scenes are more alluded to or "fade to black" than is my preference, though that really doesn't detract from the story.
I enjoyed it enough to try more from this author.

[Ashley E · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty lighthearted story about a ordinary man who starts having some very unusual dreams--and decides to do something about it! His determined use of the scientific method to try to divine the reasons behind his disturbing dreams is honestly down-right adorable. But the real answer is much more interesting than any of his theories. And, yes, a certain couple definitely needs their story told at some point. ;)

[Fi Brit · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful story, something fresh and different. The only let down comes if the reader has some knowledge about the mechanics of sleep. I personally found the writer's errors rather frustrating. However, if you don't have the knowledge or are able to suspend disbelief, this book is well worth reading.

[H.V. Corbin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The premise is neat to begin with and only gets better as more things are revealed. The Dreaming/Waking and the Dreamer's Veil are really cool ideas. The characters are cute and quirky, each one making me smile. A really great book.

[Moniqee · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a pretty weird story unlike what we watch ( the concept of dreams ) on TV but interesting enough to keep my attention span to the end.

[Lana · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting take on mythology, I was a bit anxious about the dark figure in the dream but it's really sweet how the book ended.