A Dreamcatchers TaleTwin souls reunited.
Drew’s always been a fighter: first in martial arts competitions, and now as a dreamcatcher—keeping the people of Seattle safe from spaga attacks that would drain their life force in their sleep. All he has to do to become a full member of Team 32 is complete his first mission.
But the first person he must defend is his ex, Angelo… the only man Drew ever loved, even if he was the one to leave. Drew never got over Angelo, and it seems Angelo might feel the same, despite the heartbreak he suffered at Drew’s hands.
As the chase after a powerful and resourceful caster hits close to home, old feelings resurface. But if Angelo learns of the dreamcatchers, he’ll be a target for the spaga. And how can he trust Drew now that Drew’s keeping bigger secrets than ever?
Preorder/Buy links: Dreamspinner | Amazon US
Cat gives this one 4 Meows...
Drew left Angelo five years ago. Now he sees him and the pull to be with him is stronger than before. He wants another chance. But Nw Drew is a dreamcatcher and he doesn't know how that will affect him having a relationship.
Angelo still has feelings for Drew but doesn't want to be hurt again. when he finds himself back in Drew's life. But things with Drew are far from normal.
This is a unique story and I found it refreshing. I loved the take on the Dreamcatcher and Spider-woman legends. There is a good plot, lots of action and the romance between Drew and Angelo is sweet.
The story did feel like part of a series and at times I wondered if I had missed something but there is plenty of information to keep you up to speed, it isn't overbearing or too much and I followed along fine.
If you like myths, legends, dream-catchers, lots of action, hot men, and a sweet romance you will enjoy this book.
Excerpt...
I TORE open the wrapper and ate the chocolate bar in one go. My gut feeling said I’d need the energy boost for my brain—and a large part of my life meant listening to my instincts. The fact that I loved chocolate was a minor detail.
Normally I went to bed about this time at night. Being the youngest member of Team 32, “Junior”—as my fellow dreamcatchers liked to call me—meant I was still in training. In theory, I wasn’t “ready” to go out on a mission on my own. In practice, I was not just ready, but champing at the bit finally to see some action. It wasn’t in my nature to prepare for something and pussyfoot around waiting for it to happen. But to graduate dreamcatcher school, basically my services had to be needed for the first time on an individual mission, or at least on a team mission.
From what I’d learned so far, there were rarely if ever team missions. For that, the threat would have to be considerable: more spaga—our enemies—than Claw and Taka could manage together, in my particular case. But Claw—the leader of our team—had managed to fight three spaga on his own the night he’d recruited me. He was an expert practitioner of Okichitaw, a style that had Plains Cree roots. I hadn’t seen Taka in action, but I had seen him train, and we’d sparred a few times. He was an expert in Krav Maga, and sword-fighting was his passion. Somehow, I didn’t envision him needing help, either. In short, fat chance of me seeing action anytime soon. At least it felt that way every night as they went out on missions and I babysat the house.
There wasn’t much left for me to keep studying as a dreamcatcher, unfortunately. In terms of martial arts, I’d practiced Kendo for years, then moved on into Taekwondo and Kenjutsu. I’d done the whole competitions thing and had won quite a few prizes before quitting. I’d had my street-fighting phase after that, my need for money, and a sense of terrible frustration needing an outlet combining to drive me. It hadn’t lasted long, though. After a while the exercise of fighting people for money or for the amusement of others had started to feel sterile, pointless.
While my teammates had interesting extra abilities besides kickass fighting, like second sight or creating shields—Claw could use spider magic in creative ways, for instance—my skills outside of direct physical combat were limited to very sharp instincts. My dreamcatcher qualities were very much physical in nature, plus a gut feeling that never seemed to steer me wrong. I could at most use a defensive spell, and I’d had to practice beyond reason to get it somewhat right. In the end, I had cried “uncle” and asked to have the spell attached, already cast, to my life force, to be activated by my free will whenever needed or desired. And that was about it for my foray in the mad skills world. I brought to the table considerable stamina and a lot of enthusiasm in a physical fight. What our skills as dreamcatchers were depended on our nature. We were led by the fearless mother spirit and spider woman Asibikaashi—we called her Aashi for short. The ancestors trained us to use the sacred weapon they bestowed upon each of us on initiation, and Aashi gave us all the same gifts. But what each of us was able to do with them was entirely up to us. All of us had strong life forces, and that was something you were born with. Many of us had been drawn to martial arts or practicing sports or other physically demanding things as a result; having a strong life force meant having more stamina, better physical traits more often than not, and it was coupled with impressive determination from what I could see from meeting other dreamcatchers.
I did put a lot of heart into fighting the spaga. The damned things snuck into unsuspecting sleeping victims’ homes at night, giving them nightmares to get them agitated and steal their life force all the easier—just like they’d done to me on the night I’d been saved and had met Claw. There usually was just one of them going through the house residents one by one over a long period of time. They drained life force gradually, visiting their victims again and again. If not stopped, in the end those victims would die. They were sneaky cowards, attacking defenseless victims—or at least they hoped their victims would be defenseless. But that’s where the dreamcatchers came in.
Spaga attacking in groups was a rarer event. It usually happened when they found a target that had strong life force—like me. Since such an attack hadn’t happened again during the four months I’d been training to become a “real” dreamcatcher, I was left at headquarters at night while Claw and Taka went out on missions. All I had was hope that finally tonight would be the night. Hoping wasn’t exactly my forte—it was annoying the hell out of me.
For some reason, though, tonight I was more restless than usual. I tried meditating, but I was simply too agitated for it. Instead of my thoughts focusing on a state of inner balance, my mind kept jumping over all sorts of possibilities related to my hypothetical first mission and how it could go. I ran various scenarios through my mind, preparing myself mentally for any possible situation and outcome. I tried working out, but it only seemed to agitate me further. Blood whooshed through my veins more and more angrily the more I used my muscles. My gut feeling was trying to tell me something, I realized. But what? The not knowing was driving me positively up the walls.
Maybe sleeping would make it all go away. I did have the spectacular gift of falling asleep in three seconds flat after my head hit the pillow. Just as I was about to get into bed, I felt that shiver down my spine. It was a zinging shot through my mind that put my whole body into a state of fight or fight—because flight never seemed to me like a doable option, with one notable and shameful exception I consciously ignored.
My skin rose in goose bumps and I jumped to my feet instantly. I was fully alert. I knew what it meant, but it was hard to believe and so terribly exciting.
I ran down the stairs toward the webs room. There was a ghostly gray glow coming out from under the closed doors. I knew for sure Aashi was in there. And I had been called on—no doubt about it, she’d summoned me. At last! Though it was the first time I would be summoned for a mission, something deep in me recognized the call with staggering clarity. I swallowed thickly and knocked on the double doors, excited like a horny virgin going on his first date.
Excerpt...
I TORE open the wrapper and ate the chocolate bar in one go. My gut feeling said I’d need the energy boost for my brain—and a large part of my life meant listening to my instincts. The fact that I loved chocolate was a minor detail.
Normally I went to bed about this time at night. Being the youngest member of Team 32, “Junior”—as my fellow dreamcatchers liked to call me—meant I was still in training. In theory, I wasn’t “ready” to go out on a mission on my own. In practice, I was not just ready, but champing at the bit finally to see some action. It wasn’t in my nature to prepare for something and pussyfoot around waiting for it to happen. But to graduate dreamcatcher school, basically my services had to be needed for the first time on an individual mission, or at least on a team mission.
From what I’d learned so far, there were rarely if ever team missions. For that, the threat would have to be considerable: more spaga—our enemies—than Claw and Taka could manage together, in my particular case. But Claw—the leader of our team—had managed to fight three spaga on his own the night he’d recruited me. He was an expert practitioner of Okichitaw, a style that had Plains Cree roots. I hadn’t seen Taka in action, but I had seen him train, and we’d sparred a few times. He was an expert in Krav Maga, and sword-fighting was his passion. Somehow, I didn’t envision him needing help, either. In short, fat chance of me seeing action anytime soon. At least it felt that way every night as they went out on missions and I babysat the house.
There wasn’t much left for me to keep studying as a dreamcatcher, unfortunately. In terms of martial arts, I’d practiced Kendo for years, then moved on into Taekwondo and Kenjutsu. I’d done the whole competitions thing and had won quite a few prizes before quitting. I’d had my street-fighting phase after that, my need for money, and a sense of terrible frustration needing an outlet combining to drive me. It hadn’t lasted long, though. After a while the exercise of fighting people for money or for the amusement of others had started to feel sterile, pointless.
While my teammates had interesting extra abilities besides kickass fighting, like second sight or creating shields—Claw could use spider magic in creative ways, for instance—my skills outside of direct physical combat were limited to very sharp instincts. My dreamcatcher qualities were very much physical in nature, plus a gut feeling that never seemed to steer me wrong. I could at most use a defensive spell, and I’d had to practice beyond reason to get it somewhat right. In the end, I had cried “uncle” and asked to have the spell attached, already cast, to my life force, to be activated by my free will whenever needed or desired. And that was about it for my foray in the mad skills world. I brought to the table considerable stamina and a lot of enthusiasm in a physical fight. What our skills as dreamcatchers were depended on our nature. We were led by the fearless mother spirit and spider woman Asibikaashi—we called her Aashi for short. The ancestors trained us to use the sacred weapon they bestowed upon each of us on initiation, and Aashi gave us all the same gifts. But what each of us was able to do with them was entirely up to us. All of us had strong life forces, and that was something you were born with. Many of us had been drawn to martial arts or practicing sports or other physically demanding things as a result; having a strong life force meant having more stamina, better physical traits more often than not, and it was coupled with impressive determination from what I could see from meeting other dreamcatchers.
I did put a lot of heart into fighting the spaga. The damned things snuck into unsuspecting sleeping victims’ homes at night, giving them nightmares to get them agitated and steal their life force all the easier—just like they’d done to me on the night I’d been saved and had met Claw. There usually was just one of them going through the house residents one by one over a long period of time. They drained life force gradually, visiting their victims again and again. If not stopped, in the end those victims would die. They were sneaky cowards, attacking defenseless victims—or at least they hoped their victims would be defenseless. But that’s where the dreamcatchers came in.
Spaga attacking in groups was a rarer event. It usually happened when they found a target that had strong life force—like me. Since such an attack hadn’t happened again during the four months I’d been training to become a “real” dreamcatcher, I was left at headquarters at night while Claw and Taka went out on missions. All I had was hope that finally tonight would be the night. Hoping wasn’t exactly my forte—it was annoying the hell out of me.
For some reason, though, tonight I was more restless than usual. I tried meditating, but I was simply too agitated for it. Instead of my thoughts focusing on a state of inner balance, my mind kept jumping over all sorts of possibilities related to my hypothetical first mission and how it could go. I ran various scenarios through my mind, preparing myself mentally for any possible situation and outcome. I tried working out, but it only seemed to agitate me further. Blood whooshed through my veins more and more angrily the more I used my muscles. My gut feeling was trying to tell me something, I realized. But what? The not knowing was driving me positively up the walls.
Maybe sleeping would make it all go away. I did have the spectacular gift of falling asleep in three seconds flat after my head hit the pillow. Just as I was about to get into bed, I felt that shiver down my spine. It was a zinging shot through my mind that put my whole body into a state of fight or fight—because flight never seemed to me like a doable option, with one notable and shameful exception I consciously ignored.
My skin rose in goose bumps and I jumped to my feet instantly. I was fully alert. I knew what it meant, but it was hard to believe and so terribly exciting.
I ran down the stairs toward the webs room. There was a ghostly gray glow coming out from under the closed doors. I knew for sure Aashi was in there. And I had been called on—no doubt about it, she’d summoned me. At last! Though it was the first time I would be summoned for a mission, something deep in me recognized the call with staggering clarity. I swallowed thickly and knocked on the double doors, excited like a horny virgin going on his first date.
Book lover, customizations OCD-er and list-lover extraordinaire. Unrepentant coffee addict, smutty romance and sexy bad boys/villains lover of doom. I read, I write, I spamificate -- therefore I am.
Liv Olteano is a voracious reader, music lover, and coffee addict extraordinaire. And occasional geek. Okay, more than occasional. She believes stories are the best kind of magic there is. And life would be horrible without magic. Her hobbies include losing herself in the minds and souls of characters, giving up countless nights of sleep to get to know said characters, and trying to introduce them to the world. Sometimes they appreciate her efforts. The process would probably go quicker if they’d bring her a cup of coffee now and then when stopping by. Characters—what can you do, right? Liv has a penchant for quirky stories and is a reverent lover of diversity. She can be found loitering around the Internet at odd hours and being generally awkward and goofy at all times.
Thanks for the good review, Cat. I like a good action romance, and as you way, this does sound like a unique take on dreamcatcher legend. - Purple Reader,
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Thank you for the review!
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