Title: Luke’s Dream
Author: Melissa Haag
Series: Judgment of Six Companion Series #3
Genre: Romance, YA, Werewolf, Magic Powers, Girl Power
Source: ARC
Pages: 222 Pages
Rating: 4 stars
Available at:
Blurb:
Luke’s been kicked in the teeth by fate enough
to know: nice guys finish last. He’s done being nice and waiting for his
due.
Finding Bethony, another potential Mate, was supposed to be his chance at a true Mate. However, she’s young and afraid and needs time to get to know him first. Bethony has different plans. She’s willing to Claim Luke, but only to stop her terrifying dreams; she’s not interested in love or romance.
The closer the pair get to the Compound, the deeper the danger becomes. Luke isn’t the only wolf looking for Bethi. He must choose between Bethi’s safety and peace of mind, or his dream of finding a true Mate.
Finding Bethony, another potential Mate, was supposed to be his chance at a true Mate. However, she’s young and afraid and needs time to get to know him first. Bethony has different plans. She’s willing to Claim Luke, but only to stop her terrifying dreams; she’s not interested in love or romance.
The closer the pair get to the Compound, the deeper the danger becomes. Luke isn’t the only wolf looking for Bethi. He must choose between Bethi’s safety and peace of mind, or his dream of finding a true Mate.
Review:
Getting this ARC
was probably the best day of my entire summer. For those who don’t know, Melissa
Haag has been writing companion books for all of the novel’s in her main
Judgment of Six series. The plot is the same, the story and perspective is
COMPLETELY different. This particular book is Luke’s perspective of (Un)wise [my review of which you can
read HERE].
(Un)wise is possibly the most difficult book to
get through in the original series, mainly because there is A LOT of flashbacks
of the girl’s past lives. Important? Very. Frustrating? Incredibly. You just
want to skip over all the back story to get to the events in the present, but
those back stories affect the present and the rest of the books in the series,
so you absolutely need to read them. The good news is that Luke’s version of
the story does not have all those pesky flashbacks. The bad news is that
without those pesky flashbacks Luke’s perspective on things is about 80 pages
shorter. Without those 80 extra pages, the book feels EXTREMELY short, almost
like it is missing something (which I suppose it technically is, but it makes
sense because Luke would have no direct knowledge/ experience of those
flashbacks). This is one main reason why this book is rated 4 stars in my eyes
and not 5. The biggest point of (Un)wise was
those flashbacks, and without them it is more a love story than anything else.
Now let’s get
one thing straight, I was never the biggest Luke fan originally. I think the
main reason for that is because, as I have said before, (Un)wise is hyper
focused on plot so learning about the love interest takes a bit of a back
burner in comparison to some of the other books in the Judgment of Six series.
The great thing about the Companion series is that you can really get to know
the leading men in a way that you are just not able to in the Judgement of Six
series. With the companion series, you are able to fall in love with your
favourite men all over again because you get to see the story through their
eyes. You get to see how much they love their women and their blind devotion
and their drive to protect their mate is something beautiful. This is especially
true for Luke, mainly because we know almost nothing about him even though he
makes brief appearances in Hope(less),
(Mis)fortune, (Un)wise, and (Dis)content.
We finally get to learn more about him, not only his backstory, but his
personality and we finally get to understand his thought process about certain
decisions (JUST LET HER CLAIM YOU *cough*, did I say that out loud?). However,
saying that, the second and final reason why this book got 4 stars instead of 5
is because Luke’s reasons for not letting Bethi claim him are shaky at best. I
know people who disagree with me, but I was just as frustrated with his lack of
explanation in this book as I was in (Un)wise.
She was clearly suffering, by the end she was clearly falling for him, and
STILL he protests! I didn’t blame Bethi for wanting to beat him up sometimes,
because I was ready to reach through those pages and beat him up myself.
Now, I have
talked a little smack over here, but I promise, this book had ENDLESS humor.
Ever wonder why Luke has such a weird reaction to when Bethi talks about her
boobs? Yeah, you get the answer to that one, and I promise the whole thing is
hilarious. Ever wonder why Bethi’s dreams are sometimes better than others?
Yeah, you get the answer to that one too, and it’s absolutely endearing. All of
your questions from (Un)wise were
answered, and I promise that Melissa Haag makes those answers fascinating to
read. Her writing has always been on par, but she continues to outdo herself
with every book.
The last thing I
will mention is that the ending of Luke’s
Dream is slightly different than the ending to (Un)wise. When Melissa originally wrote (Un)wise she was under the impression that Isabelle’s story would
be next (aka (Dis)content), however
she ended up back tracking an explaining Charlene’s story first in the prequel (Un)bidden. (Un)wise ends with the lead
up to (Dis)content, Luke’s Dream ends
with the lead up to Thomas’ version of (Un)bidden.
It makes more chronological sense. Did that all make sense? I hope so, if
not, you’ll get it when you read it.
Now that you’ve
taken the time to read this review, I have no idea what you are waiting for, GO
BUY THE BOOK! You’ll love it, even if you haven’t read (Un)wise.
