Beautiful Dreamer

Title:  Beautiful Dreamer

Author:  Sam Singer

Publisher:  Dreamspinner Press

Length:  220 pages

Rating:  B List

Quad Shot of Love

Blurb:  From the time he was a child, Nicholas Crittendon, oft-overlooked second son of the Duke of Sanburne, has been outcast because of his fascination with the myth of the Lost Kingdom. As legend has it, the entire population was wiped from existence when its prince was cursed by an evil sorceress into a deathlike sleep.

Convinced that the Lost Kingdom is real, Nicholas devotes his days to reading and research, trying to pinpoint its location. As he grows older, his nights become haunted with dreams of a blond, green-eyed young man calling to Nicholas for help. Nicholas’s interest spirals into an obsession that drives him away from the comfort and safety of his life and toward the unknown of his dreams. Those slumbering visions may hold the key to everything he’s searched for and a lover he never believed could be real.

Review:  A sweet M/M retelling of an old favorite.  I always enjoy reading the spicier and gayer version of the old stories.  This one, while starting out a little sleepy, blossomed into a full tale of love, loss, coming of age and finding and rescuing not only your lover but yourself in the process.

Nicholas had the harder time in this story.  Don’t get me wrong, evil curses that have you trapped sleeping for centuries are nothing to sneeze at.  But the struggle to deal with dreams that leave you questioning your sanity and tormented by a lover you can neither truly be with nor ever forget would be nearly unbearable.  Nicholas is not the picture I had in my head when I read the blurb, he was so much more.  Not to mention smart and hot to boot.

With Ian’s story there is an element of two stories that are woven together within each other.  We begin with his parents and their love and struggle to have an heir to love and to lead their people.  He is a sweet boy who is undoubtedly spoiled without being a total brat.  I liked him and his parents and I felt for them and the difficult choices they were faced with throughout the book.

I loved Nicholas’s best friend, Charles.  He not only helped to make Nicholas more complete and kept him sane when so many had turned their backs on him and laughed at him, Ian could not have been rescued without him.  Charles was a truly wonderful friend.

There is an old fashioned quality to the story and to the thinking of many of the characters that while it made for a story that was a little light on the specifics of the sex, I felt that it fit well with the theme and feeling of the story.

Reviewed by Nina