Reviews

Dreaming Awake by Gwen Hayes

jenny17's review against another edition

4.0

I loved the book. i really like Theia's character love the way she talks. And her friends are awesome. There is one reason why i gave it 4 stars and if you read the book you know why.

cbee9's review against another edition

3.0

I surprisingly liked this book better than the first in the series, because theia seemed to become a much stronger character after she came back from under, which made it more bearable to read

chaselle's review against another edition

4.0

Nothing tops the first book in this series but i still fell in love with the charchters all over again! Tot's worth the read and i felt like i was living every moment of her experiance. So AMAZING!!!!!

novahkiin's review against another edition

3.0

Would have been a 3.5, but there was a certain loss I could not get over.

jennifervu's review against another edition

4.0

Oh my gosh, this was extremely better than Falling Under... I'm impressed! Her prose was incredible! The romance was so incredibly steamy and it's been awhile since I've read that kind of romance! So it was nice. :)
I forgot most of the prequel but Gwen Hayes managed to update me on everything necessary that happened, which is crucial to an awesome sequel! It was nice to read this and actually understand everything they were saying.
My only fault in this was that this story seemed really unoriginal. Bad boy risks girl's life, tried to stay way but couldn't... that sounds a lot like Twilight. Ugh. Despite the unoriginal story line, the prose again was amazing!
I'm definitely reading more of her books in the future :)

mandalouwho's review against another edition

4.0

Wow, that ending. That fight scene. Varnie. :C

ashreads10k's review against another edition

4.0

If you've read my review of Falling Under, the book that precedes this one, you'll know that I was massively torn in my feelings towards it. I loved and hated it at the same time, which is the ultimate paradox, I know. But I enjoyed Dreaming Awake infinitely more so because everything that annoyed me in Falling Under was gone. Theia and Haden are firmly together, so there's no more cat and mouse games going on. The obstacle of their 'forbidden love' is out of the way, so there wasn't as much unnecessary angst to clog up the plot.

I liked Theia's character so much more in this novel. She's changed due to events in Falling Under--that I will not spoil for you--so I felt that she took a stand for herself better, and grew so much more as a character. In Falling Under, she was little mouse, inexperienced in the world because she was trapped behind an oppressive father. But now she's changed, and her eyes have been opened. There isn't any going back. She doesn't allow people to make decisions for her anymore, and she puts her foot down when they try.

Haden also blossomed substantially for me. He came off as such a jerk in Falling Under, but now that he and Theia are dating, he's a sweet and loving boyfriend. A miraculous transformation, I know. Even though he's a half incubus-type demon, he has this cute boyish awkwardness sometimes. But then there's also the smoldering bad boy, which is hot too.

We lose a beloved character! Just going to say that. It was definitely a blow.

Is this simply a book and a sequel thing? Will there be another? I'd really like to know! These characters have grown on me, as has Haden.

charlottee96's review against another edition

4.0

This book is a great sequel to falling under however it does leave you feeling a little underwhelmed.

randomly_kait's review against another edition

3.0

Okay, so I still REALLY liked this book, but there was a time, you know, after Varnie died, when I had to just sit the book down and walk away from it for awhile. Varnie was my favorite character gosh dang it! My heart is completely broken!!! :(

raven168's review against another edition

3.0

Actual rating would probably be closer to 2.5 stars I think. This book had all the possibility to be better than the first with how it could play out. Unfortunately, the execution of the story fell totally flat. Theia seriously annoyed the hell out of me for pretty much the entire story. It was just stupid how she "dealt" with all the issues that were happening to her and around her. How could she possibly think she was doing the right thing by keeping EVERYTHING to herself? That and how does she immediately assume that it's Haden affecting eveybody when, hello, she's also part demon now and suffering from a hunger she has difficulty controlling considering it just happened to her. How can you not put two and two together? And why did it never seem suspicious to her when all the sneetches were practically throwing themselves at her? She knows that Haden's mom is a succubus, whose blood in now running thru her own veins, and she's seen Haden use his lure on people. Seriously. There's only so much blindness to reality one can take from another person. There was only one thing that bothered me about Haden in this book. He's supposed to be 170 years old right? Even though with the whole time flowing differently in Under thing he's only 17 in human years, he's still 170. So it just seemed kind of ridiculous when he started acting like a 13 year old little girl in love for the first time. Yes, okay, he was in love for the first time, but come on! It was better the times when he manned up throughout the book. Especially when he was building his army. And fighting. Any hot guy who knows how to use a sword is totally swoon worthy in my book. It was interesting to find out why Ame was obsessed with Mike even though it kind of just seemed to be thrown into the story just because it could have been and explain Ame's "powers". Toward the end we get stories from Donny's and Ame's point of views and I found Donny's to be pretty bad. All it did was make her look like even more of slut than she already did by going on about all the protection she insists on using and yadda yadda. It also cast Gabe into a slightly bad light, or at least a disappointing one. I would never have guess that he was THAT vain. Ame's was a little more interesting except for what we find out with it.

Spoiler

I can't really believe that Varnie was killed off. He was probably my favorite character and I really saw no purpose in his death. I get that he died to protect Ame and all, but it just didn't seem right. Don't get me wrong, I'm not an 'everybody must live' type of reader, but it just makes more sense when there's a point. What was his? A morale booster? At most.

When Theia was locked up and watching thru the snowglobe there was one part that actually had me thinking it was pretty cool. That is, until we find out what it really was.

Spoiler

When the shadow came for her and it was being described as death like, I thought "hey, wouldn't that be pretty awesome if there was a death entity in that realm and it was choosing Theia to give power to in order to defeat Mara?" That'll teach me to think something cool would happen. How does it possibly make any sense that the shadow was in fact her own? And not simply her own shadow, but really it was her demon side that she had to accept. *facepalm*

I did like the idea of how the book ended though.

Spoiler

The two of them ruling as king and queen of Under was kind of interesting. Even though they're going to to try to make it "a better place" (which just seems a little odd to me considering it is a nightmare realm) I do kind of find myself curious how well they'll do. Eventually all their human friends will die and their demon sides would probably get stronger. And then what will they do?

I do kind of wish that Theia would have acted a bit more mature about accepting her role at the end, but considering she is only 17 and not too bright, it didn't surprise me how she acted and her reasons for taking up that mantel.