Amazon.ca:Customer reviews: Dark Stranger The Dream (The Children Of The Gods Paranormal Romance Book 1)

Top positive review

Wow

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 2, 2023

I have read all the books I can in this series and they are extremely addictive. The story line keeps me reading. I love the character of all the books, truly believe this should be on TV, movie, something. I'd be first in line to watch. I would highly recommend to keep reading, just keeps getting better!

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Meh......

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 11, 2016

I have been in a bit of a book slump lately and have been searching for something different to read. While I am a huge PNR/Sci fi fan, I definitely lean more towards vampires, shifters, and aliens, so the 'Ancient Immortal/Children of Gods' thing did not really grab my attention. In truth, it was only reading a comparison to JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series (of which I am a huge fan), that piqued my interest enough to buy this book. But, while there are some general similarities between this and the BDB novels, I did not find that comparison apt, personally. Having said that.....
This IS unquestionably a well written book, featuring a large cast of characters, and a plot that offers plenty of action, suspense, drama, and just a hint of the romance to come. I was fully aware going into this, that this book was just the first in a long, ongoing series so I expected certain things would be left unfinished, unanswered or unexplained. Nevertheless, for me, this book was less it's own story and more a long-winded introduction into the series. I appreciate the immensity of the imaginative and detailed world the author has created, but unfortunately (with this book at least) I felt it overshadowed the characters themselves. With more time seemingly spent on setting the stage for this series going forward, rather than on any interactions between the lead characters themselves, I found myself unable to connect with the H/h. Towards the end of this book, just as it seemed like the focus might finally narrow to Kian and Syssi specifically, the story came to an abrupt halt. With more books to follow, I can only assume we will become better acquainted with these characters moving forward, but by the end of this book I just wasn't attached enough to any of them to really care about whatever comes next. Bottom line? I was mildly intrigued by this story, but it simply did not provide what I needed to draw me into a long series. I might read book 2 someday, but I am certainly in no hurry to do so.
If you are a PNR lover, are intrigued by the synopsis, and are prepared to commit to a long series, then I can recommend you give this a try.

9 people found this helpful

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ChampionCity

Meh plus some Trigger Warnings

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 11, 2022

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TW for this book: Asian Stereotyping, Human Trafficking mentions (off page, perpetrated by villains), slut shaming.

This book was heavily marketed to me on Amazon, I saw all the high ratings and took a chance and honestly, if I hadn't been stuck on a plane I probably wouldn't have finished it. The main couple meets in real life only two times in this book, the first at almost 25% into the book.

They meet on a dream plane maybe 3-4 more times but it's arguable how much that counts as they barely have a conversation before making out in the dream. It was very clear that the author was padding the book to split it into three parts because it was very light on plot, but somehow the conversations between the characters are always short and have no impact. The main couple, Kian and Syssi, are constantly saying how they feel so connected and attracted to each other, but their conversations are very short, It felt like all their conversations ended with her blushing and him just staring at her, which the author always describes as many ways as they can: how she looked when she was blushing to him, how she felt when she was blushing, why she was blushing, how she felt about blushing, how he felt about her blushing, how he looked looking at her blushing. It was exhausting to read additional descriptions of characters we'd already met over and over, well into the book.

I'm just saying if I pick up something that's being marketed to me as a paranormal romance I want some conversation, I want some tension, I want to feel like the characters have a connection. Even when they talk about things they have in common, they just info dump on each other. At one point she asks why he's vegan, she is as well. She says a long paragraph about being healthier. He says a long paragraph about how he cares about animals, but that he would eat meat in a survival situation. She says, have you ever been in a situation like that? And he says yes. And then they stop talking about it and just start describing how the other person looks and making assumptions about each other and never talking. This is the closest they get to something in common and they sound like two co-workers in a break room!

They keep hinting that there's some dominant/submissive thing going on but let me tell you, there is no sex, and it's weird to hear her describe him as dominant when the most they do is some french kissing, twice. A few times in a dream she climaxes from him kissing other parts of her body. That's about it. He tells her what to do one time, but when she says he crossed a boundary, he immediately backs down. It's so weird. It's the un-kinkiest book ever.

OH, and I have to mention. At the very VERY end, a secondary character is getting her nails done, and is talking to the nail tech who has a very stereotypical east-Asian accent and it is jarring, especially since the scene serves no purpose and the nail tech did not have to be written this way at all. They are not a main character, they're only in this scene, and it just feels really gross, especially as a sucker punch right at the end. The rest of the book is just a bunch of white people, and there's some off camera human trafficking that's mentioned as a backstory for the bad guys, worth mentioning if that's a trigger for you.

If you liked the black dagger brotherhood books but wish they were paced just so, so, slowly, with long, long, mostly pointless descriptions, than this book is for you.

6 people found this helpful

Love my Kindle

Love paranormal romance?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 5, 2020

Verified Purchase

I’m always on the look out for good new writers to follow, and this could have been a good story as the ‘bones’ of it showed loads of promise. What ruined it for me was, the writer introduced too many characters far too soon in the story, not only that but she went on and on in extreme detail describing how beautiful they all were to the point that, she ‘drowned out’ most of the story with it and it just became…. well, boring. I absolutely hate it when the writer ‘pads out’ the story so much that you end up skimming to find the plot to the story that’s worth reading, and that’s what I ended up doing with most of this book. Usually writers that do this drone on in incredible detail about the clothes that the character is wearing i.e. the designer and the type of fabric, colour, hue, print etc. or the wall paper, chintz fabric, colours and design and type of furniture. It’s all padding and yes, you need to ‘set the stage’ but not for pages after pages that, by 60% in, you think oh, finally the actual start of the story, only to find that, nope, more boring padding. That amount information/description just makes it become more paraphernalia than actual necessary to the storyline plot and should have been cut out and just dotted in now and again to give the read a idea of representation for their imagination to depict, not chapter after chapter of what amounts to, loads of characters with ‘fabulous shiny manes and amazing lustrous skin and what they like to wear’. It’s not necessary at that point, that kind of info should be injected in when they are pulled heavily into the plot. It’s just too much; you just end up skimming lines or nodding off. I get the impression from reading the synopsis on the continuing sagas in this series that it pretty much carries on in the same vane, which is a pity, as I’d have bought the next book in the hopes that the writer has improved her style.

32 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

I was expecting more.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 17, 2023

Verified Purchase

Where do I start? The guy on the cover is the hottest part of the book.

The characters are flat, and after the first two chapters everything is a repeat. I forced myself to finish the book, hoping for more, but it fell flat.

If you want to know how many ways the author can describe how gorgeous a man is, or if you are into books where the plot is:

Hot guy. He's a good guy.. Oh, wait, he's not.. He's dangerous. He's safe. Watch out, he is a bad guy. But wait, he's good, just like I thought!

If you are expecting something akin to 50 Shades of Grey, move right on by. This isn't it..

3 people found this helpful

A. Callahan

Wasted Potential

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 23, 2023

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This series could be something amazing but the story jumps around like a frog on cocaine. Interesting plot lines are interrupted by back story for totally unrelated characters. If you are a linear thinker, this is not the story for you. While I would enjoy finding out what happens with Kian and Amanda, I just can't subject myself to more chaos.

One person found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Not a full story, only the first 3rd of a book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 17, 2022

Verified Purchase

I'm fed up of books that are broken down into 3 books just so you have to buy them all, just sell me the whole book. There is a difference between a series of books and just chopping one book up which is what was done here.
If like me you want a book where you actually get to finish the character's story you will not enjoy this book.
That said and to be fair I did enjoy this first third of a book even though there were too many characters introduced to quickly. I would love to have read more but I'm not buying the rest of the book out of principal.

One person found this helpful

Rad Ryder

A trite cliche ridden romance

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 6, 2019

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With ill formed characters, unimaginative scenarios, makes for a dull boring read.

Kian is two thousand years old surrounded by other immortals and they still haven’t worked out morning routines? His guardians come to his penthouse every morning to scarf down breakfast, because they can’t cook, and Kian gets frustrated and angry. Two thousand years old and he hasn’t come up with a way to deal with simple situations like this?

They have to stay absolutely hidden especially as immortals and kian’s yet baby sister, at 200 some years of age, is an absolute knock out college professor with all the boys and men on campus popping woodies over her. Way to stay low profile!

Their favorite restaurant in the trendy college town is an Italian place called Gino’s and Gino the owner keeps a special menu for them and a special room for them and has the room in his packed trendy restaurant to squeeze in an extra table so Kian’s bodyguards can watch the exits while Kian has a private meal waited on by Gino.

There was precious little dialogue but a lot of bland info dumping done in a very unimaginative way. Dude in charge of the Bay Area calls Kian and Kian answers: ...dude (because I can’t remember his name)... what’s happening in the Bay Area.

These few examples taken by themselves must seem like nit picking taken to a whole new level. But I got less than one third of the way through this book and it was still info dumping in back ground detail and character details that were unimportant to the story, like the dude in charge of the Bay Area or how often the butler changed personalities and accents and what TV show it was based on; bland and unimaginative, like the body guards who can’t cook even though they’re a few hundred years old and Gino the Italian restaurant and own/waiter; and cliched to the point of not supporting the info dumping story, like the knock out stunning sister keeping all the males on campus erect by passing by while maintaining her immortal secret. But the best example of unimaginative is the name of the group of immortals who directly oppose Kian and his group. DOOM, seriously. They’re called DOOM.

I gave this an extra star only because the writer can technically write, no grammatical errors, no punctuation errors, no editing snafus.

17 people found this helpful

Tracey petrie

rip off

Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on January 10, 2023

Verified Purchase

I read three books - story interesting but what I did not like was recapping the previous book in the next one as it takes up a quarter of the next book and then finishes at 83% on my kindle. !!

Will start to become a very expensive exercise in reading these books. There is no need to recap what happened in the last book I feel like they just stringing it out and making as many books as possible for more money. The series could’ve been done in two books.

avid_reader

I really don't understand all the great reviews

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 11, 2018

Verified Purchase

This is just another in a long line of stories about vampires and the stupid women that either fall for them or are too dumb to run the other way. As for the book itself, it's slow. I know there are going to be those that say I didn't give it enough time but when you hit the 50% mark and it's a chore to even pick it up to read, that's giving it PLENTY of time, IMHO. I started scanning parts of it at around 40%, hoping that I'd just hit a slow spot, that I can forgive, but it didn't get any better. I gave it two stars because I didn't find and grammatical or spelling errors (how sad is it that you have to rate books on that criteria these days).

The problem with so many of these books is that we have an ancient male character that has just never matured. He's been around "forever" and still longs for his one true love (or maybe a second or third, but who's counting). And then when lust finally overcomes him, he's all guilt ridden and angsty. And then the women in these kinds of books... they have dreams or some out-of-body experience and just swoon and loose their minds. Doesn't matter how intelligent or accomplished they are, some tall, dark and hunky comes along and they've lost their mind. Seriously? Do these authors think so little of their own sex? I say this because most of the authors of these books are women. It's amazing to me, with all the smart and accomplished women out there that have fought long and hard to get where they are, that some women still see they're own gender at dumb and weak. I won't be buying any more of this series.

14 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Started off strong, but fell flat

Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on January 31, 2022

Verified Purchase

This book had a great precedent but really feel short in the end. There was too many points of view, bounced around from character to character and took forever to get to any action.
The world building was over drawn and we spent so much time doing back stories that the relationships of the main characters took too long to get to. The femail main character was a "basic" and I really didn't have an emotional connection to her or the relationship that was trying to be forced. The dream scene came from no where, and as a result the sex scene felt off. I don't think I will continue with the rest of the series. It was disappointing after what sounded like a good book idea.

One person found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Boring

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 16, 2021

Verified Purchase

Nothing happens in this book. A lot of angsting over whether the fated mates will ever hook up. Loads of introduction of characters and no storyline. Syssi just moves in with him because the hot guy tells her she's in danger. There is no evidence of this. Why she doesn't go to her ex-marine brother instead I do not know. Did the author tell us he (and everyone else) was good looking? Only a million times although he has no personality.
He manipulates her memories but she doesn't mind and they have kinky dreams but never actually hook up. Then it ends abruptly so you can buy another few books.
I don't really like fated mates books where they fall instantly in lust with each other . Prefer a slow burn romance where they get to know each others personalities and are a bit more interesting than just really, really good looking.

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5 star		55%
4 star		22%
3 star		13%
2 star		5%
1 star		5%

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Dark Stranger The Dream (The Children Of The Gods Paranormal Romance Book 1)

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