Title: Shades of Dreams
Author: T.A. Chase
Publisher: Amber Allure
Genre: M/M Contemporary Romance
Length: Novel (185 PDF pages)
Rating: 3 stars
A guest review by Lily
***Warning, this review may contain information that could be considered a story spoiler.***
BLURB
Stephan Colby is on top of the world. He’s the lead singer of one of the hottest new rock bands, and his best friend is in the band to share the success as well. In addition, Stephan’s madly in love. Yet Fate has a cruel way of kicking a man in the teeth, and when Stephan’s world crashes down around him, he turns to his Rock, his bandmate, the one man who has always been there for him.
Rocky Sanicily has always had Stephan’s back, and they’ve been through a lot together. Rocky has also been in love with Stephan for many years, but has never found the courage to admit it. When Stephan suddenly loses the most important thing in his life, however, Rocky must do everything in his power to keep Stephan from giving up. If he succeeds, will he be able to finally tell Stephan how he feels? And if so, will it bring the friends closer together, or tear apart their relationship forever?
REVIEW
When Stephan’s world crumbles due to the unexpected death of his lover it’s Rocky, his best friend and band mate, who’s there to help him through it. Rocky, who has kept his love for Stephan a secret for years begins to find it increasingly difficult to keep those feelings quiet, especially when it appears that he’s received permission to go after Stephan.
For his part Stephan can barely imagine a life without his lover in it until a voice in his head starts turning his attention towards Rocky. As they try to find a way to deal with their grief Stephan and Rocky grow closer together. Can they work their way through the hard times to a happy ending or will the stress and pain tear their friendship apart?
Shades of Dreams was a nice read although it is quite emotional at times. Stephan and his lover were together for three years before his death and it’s quite a blow when a drunk driver ends their time together. As he completely falls apart Stephan can’t help but lean on Rocky who does his best to take care of him as well as the rest of the band. Before long both men begin to hear someone telling them to go on and find happiness with the other. But it’s not until one of their friends forces a confession out of Rocky that things finally come to a head. Stephan starts to come out of the bubble he’d been living in since the accident and realizes he has unfairly led Rocky to take care of everything and everyone. Now it will be his turn to take care of his friend, and himself, as he begins to accept their friendship is deeper than he ever imagined.
I found both protagonists likable and interesting. Their relationship, evolving from best friends to lovers, was interesting and I was engaged throughout in their romance. The supporting characters are also nice and added depth to the story. Although the main focus of the story is Stephan and Rocky’s relationship the author did a good job of including the others into the storyline which made the book well-rounded and entertaining.
While I did enjoy reading Shades of Dreams I did have a couple of reservations. First, I felt the whole paranormal aspect, the ghost of the dead lover coming repeatedly to both men and telling them to in essence ‘get together’ was a bit overdone. Second, the speed with which Stephan decides he’s in love with Rocky was too fast for me. One moment he can barely function he’s so distraught over the death of his lover and then all of a sudden he’s ready to start over. For me personally, the story would have worked much better without the paranormal spin and just letting the friends slowly fall in love.
Overall however it was a nice read. T.A. Chase can always be counted to write interesting characters and despite my reservations I did enjoy the story. There is a lot of angst in the first half, some lighter moments later on, hot sex and sweet moments as well. While this is not my favorites of the author’s books I’m sure it’s one her fans won’t want to miss.
Angsty death, friends finding each other, emo rah-rah stuff… this sounds very much like my cup of tea (vanilla chai, to be specific). *hee*
Balancing that out, though, I’m not sure I’m ready to read yet another rock band story right now. They seem to be coming out of the woodwork at an alarming rate. LOL (I’m also not hugely gung-ho on the whole ghost thing. I sometimes don’t mind it but it’s a judgement call, really.)
That said, I do love T.A. Chase’s books, so I’ll likely give this one a shot next time I’m buying. 🙂
Nice review Lily; thanks for pointing me toward this one!
~Tis
Tis, I’ve noticed that the current fad seems to be rock bands. Lots of those stories in the past few weeks.
Overall a nice story but not her best, imho.
Thanks, and you’re welcome! 😀
Lily I’ve not read any other books by this author. I think I will look to see if anything else has been reviewed by TC and than decide on this one. I was actually interested until you mentioned the ghost of the boyfriend. I’m not really into that subgenre of paranorms. Thanks for the review.
Lisa, TA has written quite a lot of books and I’ve enjoyed many of them. This wasn’t terrible but in my opinion there are others much better than this one on her backlist.
It’s not for me either, Lily, but big thanks for the info. The author is very talented (Bitter Creek’s Redemption) but may be writing ’em too fast these days. I keep checking in with reviews and hoping for my kind of story, but here the paranormal aspect sounds like a superficial shortcut rather than an actual progression through grief and to a relationship.
You’re welcome, Val.
“the paranormal aspect sounds like a superficial shortcut rather than an actual progression through grief and to a relationship”
Exactly! 🙂
Thanks for the review Lily. I have most of T.A’s work and love them, but haven’t got this one yet. I was afraid the turnaround for Stephan would be too quick, from grief for one lover to loving his best friend. It’s good to know it’s on the quick side. Didn’t realize there was a paranormal aspect though. This will be a wait and see on my mood buy.
You’re welcome, Cosmonaut!
Like you I’ve read a lot of T.A.’s books and as I said, for me it would have worked so much better without the paranormal aspect and with a slower pace to their relationship.
Thank you very much for your review 🙂
I got myself this book in a whim since I´ve enjoyed some of this author´s releases, but I was somehow a lil disappointed. No regrets anyway.
Even if the idea of a ghost looking for his lover´s happiness is sweet, I agree that it would have worked better if the ghost had been more… subtle. I don´t mind about Stephan going with Rock soon after (everybody seems to know about Rock feelings except him, and they have know ech other for a long time) but I was expecting him to mourn more at the same time.
The rock band part is important but I see it more like background so I don´t think it would bother people that have had his share of bands lately.
Having read TA Chase books where bodyguards show up, I was glad to see one here too. And I would love to see Stone and Hal together *fingers cross* I can at least dream 🙂
You’re welcome, Helena! Thanks for your comments. And what a great idea, Stone and Hal together. Perhaps T.A. will give them their own story in the future.
I was really looking forward to this story and was somewhat disappointed with it. I was OK with the ghost aspect, since I could rationalise it as Stephen’s subconsciousness in action. He must have realised Rocky is in love with him but he has to had to suppress it until now. 🙂
Bigger problem for me is that Shades of Dreams feels like two different books. The first half when Stephen is dealing with his grief is incredibly sad but also wonderful. When he suddenly snaps out of it, he gets a character transplant and mood of the book changes. I was looking for a sad and angsty story that is ultimately rewarding but I was left with WTF feeling in the end. Having said that I loved Rocky and Stephen as characters.
Like Val, I’m been getting a feeling TA Chase is starting to write too fast with not enough time to develop storylines and fine tune/edit writing. I’m interested to see if Voice for the Silent is reviewed here and what grade it gets since it was a first TA book that left me cold.
he gets a character transplant
I love this image, Kaija! What a perfect, succinct way to describe this. It happens a lot in books, and I’ve never been able to describe it as well as you just did. 🙂
You’re right, Kaija! It does feel like he’s a different person from one moment to the other. 🙂
I’ve enjoyed T.A.’s writing but lately not so much.
I like TA Chase so I was thinking of getting this, but I don’t like exes that come back as ghosts. It just annoys me, so thanks for the heads up. I think I shall pass on this one.
You’re welcome, Luci. I understand, I’ve enjoyed many of her other books much more.
I liked this one well enough but yes, I have to agree with you on the “ethereal” intervention. The book was well done, well-written and flowed smoothly. To be honest, it seemed odd that Rocky and Stephen never BEGAN together but then if they had, this would have been a very short book.
Most TA Chase I like. Some I don’t… only because the stories are “told” rather than “shown” but this one doesn’t as much.
There does seem to be a spate of Rock Star books of late, most of which don’t quite reach the bar set by Jet Mykles (for me anyway). This one does come close.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Reece. Despite my reservations I did too although not as much as some of her others.
I love Jet’s Heaven Sent series. Now those are some yummy rockers!!
I did not know it was a paranormal spin to this one… Hmm. What you didn’t like about it, is what I won’t like about it. Have to reconsider reading this…
I like this author, but after reading this review I’m not so sure about this book.
Certainly have to think about it. 🙂
Thanks for the review!
You’re welcome, TT!
This may not be what you’re wanting to read now but at least T.A.’s got a pretty large backlist to choose from. Happy reading! 🙂
Yes, I know she has. 🙂 I’ve read several books from her. All of her contemporaries, at least. I have some in my to-be-read pile as well that is fantasy (The Vanguard) and sci-fi (Stealing Life), I am looking forward to those. 🙂
Thanks for the review Lily. Well done as usual. I generally like TA Chase’s work, but I’ve noticed that I haven’t always liked the books that were originally blog stories as much as ones written as books. Perhaps they just don’t flow as well when read in one shot, as opposed to weekly installments? TA only posted the first part dealing with Stephan’s grief, but now I’m curious about the ending especially his “character transplant”. (Good one Kaija!)
Thanks, Tj and you’re welcome! 🙂
I haven’t read any of the stories on her blog since serialized books aren’t my thing. I hate waiting for the next installment.
LOL Kaija’s line was fabulous, wasn’t it?
Tj, I don’t the problem is really with Shades of Dreams starting as a blog story. Bitter Creek Redemption is one of my favourite TA books (with absolutely gorgeous cover) and it started out as one. When I think of it, it may have more to do with the publisher since, with the exception of Bitter Creek, I like TA’s Amber Allure books less than her books by other publishers.
The next one, Embrace My Reflection, is kind of a make-or-break book for me. If it isn’t significantly better than Voice for the Silent, TA is off my auto buy list (at least for Amber Allure books :-).)
Argh, I keep missing words :-(. The first sentence should read “Tj, I don’t think the problem is…”
I havent read any of TA Chases books in a while. If you guys find a book where the dead partner comes back and says something /or leaves some clue other than “Move On”, let me know.
Great review.
Thanks, Hannah! 🙂
Hopefully TA Chase will have more time to devote to writing now that she has quit work to devote herself fulltime to the task. I love her earlier works with High Line, Out of Bounds and Tabliod Star are among my all time favourite m/m romances. Recent works such as Bastet and Shades of Dreams have been very disappointing. I have removed her from my buy without reading the reviews list after this effort. Shades of Dreams was very disappointing.
I hope so too, Jen. Like you I loved High Line and Out of Bounds.
I’ve liked many of her other books. This one due to subject matter (death of a partner) I couldn’t touch. It was never on my list, but I’m sorry to hear it didn’t work as well as she hoped.
I too hope that now she is writing full time, we will see a return to stories like many in back catalog.
Thanks for the review, Lily.
You’re welcome, Lynn! 🙂