ROMANCE My Dream Lover
David Navarria | CCPC Organization 200p, mass market, $12.95, ASIN B0BTQ7LC95
Navarria pens a genre-bending slow burn of a love story in this coming-of-age romance with science fiction elements. My Dream Lover follows the life of genius Robert Bryant. At the age of 16, Robert moves to Rue, Ohio, when his wealthy father builds an aviation building near Robert’s mother’s hometown. Robert and his sister, Emily, adjust to the change easily enough when they make friends with another sibling pair, Roger and Coral LeBlanc. While Robert views Coral as his little sister’s best friend, someone he’s fond of, for Coral it is love at first sight. Many years pass before Robert returns her affections, only for the two to be parted by tragedy. Those wrenching circumstances propel Robert’s work with time travel—work that catches the attention of the U.S. government. With the aid of a few surprise characters, Robert just may see his life’s work—and love—come to fruition.
Robert and Coral’s time-crossed love story unfolds piece by evocative piece, ultimately fitting together within the pages like a jigsaw puzzle. As the engaging, heartwarming story surges to its climatic plot twist and satisfying conclusion, Navarria binds all the threads together in a way that lovers of romances with a touch of fate will remember. Readers should be aware, though, this is more general fiction love story than a romance, in terms of genre: while the motivations behind Robert’s actions all stem from love, My Dream Lover’s central couple has minimal encounters with each other in the text.
That choice builds tension, of course, and readers open to the blend of types of story may find the world building and character development enticing as Navarria offers a heart-wrenching exploration of first love, first heartbreaks, and a man’s efforts to bend time itself in an imaginative plot.
Cover: B | Design & typography: A | Illustrations: – Editing: A- | Marketing copy: A
A time-crossed love story that blends romance, SF, and more.
Great for fans of Jonathan Strahan’s Someone in Time, Nicholas Sparks’s A Walk to Remember.