Dream Spinner by Kristen Ashley | Book Review • Ana's Attic Book Blog

Dream Spinner (Dream Team Book 3) by Kristen Ashley

Book 3 (kind of 4, see below) in a series. Contemporary Romance.

I haven’t been reading or reviewing much over the past year, but I decided to catch up on a few reviews of books that I’ve read this year. I never miss a Kristen Ashley book. She is a guaranteed enjoyable read, and while Dream Spinner is no exception, it wasn’t really one of my favorites.

Don’t get me wrong. I actually loved Axl and Hattie, and I loved Kristen’s writing, as always. But the whole relationship build-up didn’t happen in this book. These two have been dancing around each other for months, and we’ve seen glimpses in the previous books in the series.

“Hattie, this is the longest non-relationship relationship in history. We’ve been together since the first time you shot me down for a date and I think you know that better than me.”

Hattie is a dancer at Smithies, but she is classically trained and an actual ballerina. Her father is emotionally abusive, yet she still takes care of him and his health issues. Axl is a commando who has been into her for a while, but she has been shooting him down, and he’s kind of moved on. That is, until she has a stalker, and you know what happens when a KA heroine has a stalker, right? Axl to the rescue!

(BUT, she didn’t call Axl, she called Brett Cisco, the antihero you can’t help but love. Please Kit, we need a Cisco book!)

Axl had his own family drama, but he was a little more lighthearted and certainly more talkative than most KA heroes. But he was still very much a Kristen Ashley alpha– started off as kind of a dick, but you can’t help but love him. Hattie also grew on me.

“You make people feel when you dance. You make them gasp. Your dad’s been a dick to you all your life, he messed with your head, hurt you, and your loyalty to blood doesn’t break. Your art, babe, we haven’t even gotten to that. Fuck, we haven’t even scratched the surface of you.”

My big issue is that it was just another rehash of the Rock Chick/Dream Man series. There was nothing memorable. I had to read through my notes and skim the book again to write this review. I still enjoyed every second, but nothing kept me running back to my kindle. And while I love crossovers, there are a TON here. I’m glad the River Rain series won’t really have crossovers, there is just too many characters to keep straight.

“I get that, honey. But you’re not experiencing the adorableness of you.”

Likes:

Cleo the cat.
Kristen’s writing style.
Brett Cisco.
Seeing some previous characters.
The friendships between everyone.

Dislikes:

There wasn’t really anything new and exciting.
Focused too much on her relationship with her dad.
Tons of suspense but no action!
I enjoyed it while I read it, but forgot about it as soon as I stopped.

The Down & Dirty:

If you love Kristen Ashley, you will enjoy Dream Spinner, but don’t expect anything new, different and exciting. I’m still going to grab her books the second I can, because, well, Rock Chick and Dream Man are two favorite series, so I don’t mind more of the same. I still breathe a happy sigh while reading, and tear up at her happy endings. And I still can’t wait for the next in the series. A Kristen Ashley book that isn’t my favorite is still a book I loved.

Rating: 4 stars, 4 Heat

Purchase Dream Spinner by Kristen Ashley

*NOTE: If you haven’t read Quiet Man yet, it’s a good idea to read that before this series, but for this book in particular, because Lottie and Moe play a larger role in it, and Quiet Man was their book.