Review: Man of My Dreams

Man of My Dreams by Olivia Worley
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

Maybe it should unsettle me that this man appeared out of nowhere with my character’s exact name and appearance—with my book in his bag—but isn’t this exactly the sort of thing that would happen in a rom-com? As soon as I’ve had the thought, though, another, darker one swallows it: It’s also the sort of thing that happens at the beginning of a horror movie.

Man of My Dreams was a mystery thriller that at first had the reader thinking they could be witnessing a stalking story only to be thrown into the wilding out for wilding sake end of the pool. Ivy's a new successful debut author who's struggling to finish her second book and getting stressed about the deadline. She had an almost meet-cute in a bookstore, only to get a real one outside, with a man who turns out to have the exact name, occupation, and London birthplace as the character in her new book she's writing. After each encounter with Liam, he's seeming more and more perfect, except she's also started to get threatening notes from someone claiming she's a fraud the exact time she started a relationship with him. Is he the one trying to out Ivy's carefully guarded secret, or is her guilt driving her paranoia? Strap in because you may guess one or even two reveals but you'll never guess the craziness avalanche that hits at the end.

With every passing breath, I am more certain of two things: I am falling in love with Liam, and I don’t know if I can trust him.

Told mostly from Ivy's point-of-view, the reader is lead by, not fully an unreliable narrator, but one that purposefully holds onto her secrets for the sake of mystery until the end. I was willing to go along with this, as it does work to deliver an intriguing mystery aspect but, the aforementioned wildness, got way too sensational and unbelievable at the end. With Ivy's povs, we also get flashbacks, to eleven years ago, from Ivy's older sister Cora. Cora is severely immune compromised and can't leave the house. As Ivy is dealing with Liam and a potential danger in the present timeline we get Cora dealing with loneliness and her own potential budding romance in the past povs. Cora's povs give a background on the familial dynamics and why Ivy may be so paranoid in the present.

I freed us both.

It's when things start coming to a head in the present that the story started to unravel, not a good way, at the end. With Ivy and her budding romance possible danger from Liam, we also get some secondary character relationships with her Aunt and a friend about to get married, both characters were not developed enough and, especially the friend, felt kind of what is the point of them. A couple reveals we get from Cora's past povs were sensational and good for shock values but it's when we get the reveals in the present pov that sent this story into wilding for me. So many connections and tie-ins get thrown at the reader in the end that I almost started laughing, not in a good way. You'll definitely have more than one “Oh come on!” moments as reveal after reveal gets thrown out. The ending gives a One Month Later update that delivers the cherry on this wilding sundae. The beginning had me locked in wondering what was happening but this ultimately fell apart for me and lost good entertainment value when the story and some characters lost it's way to building substance and most of the reveals were too wild to enjoyably go along with. If you're looking for truly wild though, the later part of this would deliver that in spades.


View all my reviews