Wildest Dreams

I gave it an honest try...

...but I was so annoyed that I couldn't finish it. Maybe the ending is stellar and will redeem the bad writing and vapid lead, but I got a little over half way through before being too revolted to keep listening another 7 hours. The narrator did well enough, considering how little she had to work with. So...here's the laundry list:

Problem 1: the writing. "Soooo coooool" and "frickin awesome" would be acceptable in moderation, but those are the main adjectives. Kristen, get a thesaurus! Also, the dialogue is inauthentic, and her descriptions of emotions and emotional growth are ham-handed. Her descriptions of places and sex scenes are good, but that is not enough to support the plot.

Problem 2: Finnie is horrendous. Aside from the choice to go to the parallel world, she doesn't make any major decisions or assert herself; things just happen to her. That is absolutely not in the spirit of an adventurer, so her primary motivation immediately falls through. Her other motivation, grief, is treated superficially, so there's really no other motivation to make her interesting or sympathetic. However, it's awesome to see a female protagonist who chooses to be domestic and really owns her femininity, given that so many female protagonists take on traditionally masculine traits, so hooray! There is a redeeming quality!
Problem 2(a): Whenever Sjofn is discussed, she sounds much more interesting than Finnie. Why aren't we reading about her?

Problem 3: this book is surprisingly anti-woman. I expect women authors to know better than to write so many women who are motivated only by the need to impress men. Most of the women are shallow, irrational, don't make their own decisions, or all three. The relationships between the women are completely unrealistic, and there is a conversation where Finnie's other mother actually tells her that she just needs to sleep with Frey more and then he'll be faithful. Ugh. Finnie is not responsible for Frey's behavior, period, but Finnie doesn't seem to realize this. For the author to claim that women are responsible for men's actions, especially when the women don't actually make many significant choices, is both ridiculous and medieval.

Problem 4: Frey is boring. He doesn't respect women, as shown by his conversation with his second-in-command right at the beginning of the book, and he's never willing to meet Finnie halfway; she always has to accommodate him. He is emotionally two dimensional and magically overpowered to boot. He's basically an anime hero, or something you would expect from an adolescent male writing a wish-fulfillment character.

Problem 5: Plot? What plot? The only plot points that I was trying to stick it out for were a) dragons, and b) Finnie's response when she finds out Frey has bound her to the parallel world. Maybe then she will grow a backbone.

So, in conclusion, bleh. Don't waste your money.

70 of 81 people found this review helpful

The hell..?

What would have made Wildest Dreams better?

It would be nice if it didn't promote blatantly abusive and one sided relationships. Was this really written by a woman? Because it seems like it was written by a scorned man. I wouldn't want any young girls to read this book until they've matured into young women, the story is written just well enough that I would fear it would encourage them to pursue abusive relationships and to blame themselves when they are treated badly.

What could Kristen Ashley have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

I am male and I know this wasn't really geared towards me, but this was borderline disturbing to read at times. Finnie should not always be the one in the wrong and the one who needs to change. And he just trapped her in his world without any consideration for what she wanted, which seems unforgivably cruel and selfish to me. I do not understand the point of this story.

What about Tillie Hooper’s performance did you like?

She did fine. No complaints about her

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I would have liked it if Frey was ever held accountable for his behavior and not perceived as perfect or always in the right. I saw a lot of promise in the beginning of this book but it just became clearer and clearer that this was a terrible story with little to no point or moral fiber.

Any additional comments?

This book almost made me believe in censorship.

39 of 45 people found this review helpful

What. The. Actual. F?

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A completely different story.

What could Kristen Ashley have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Never have written it.

What three words best describe Tillie Hooper’s voice?

Sexist, demeaning, disgusting

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Wildest Dreams?

I just can't.

Any additional comments?

How has this story gotten such good reviews? The whole thing is demeaning towards women and I am genuinely disgusted. I listened to the first few chapters and then could not force myself to continue ... Spoilers ahead...

So, things I tried to ignore but ultimately could not...

1) This princess is a lesbian and is being forced to marry and when she tells her future hubby, he's so repulsed by her (and by the fact that she wears pants -_-) that he hates her with a fiery burning passion. BUT, he likes her butt in said pants and even though he hates her, he wants to watch her fool around with another woman because he thinks it'll be 'interesting'.

2) Frey, or as we will now refer to him, Creeper, doesn't realize that said princess is so horrified by the idea of marrying him that she's switched universes with her alternate self Finnie. Finnie's main objective in switching universes is to see her parents again, who died in her world. BUT, when she gets to this new world she is forced to marry Creeper and then dragged by him to the middle of nowhere and abandoned at a lodge (with carriage and horses, let me clarify). Does Finnie, our supposed adventurer, grab the horses and set off to find her parents? No, she has to, in very great detail, clean the house. Then she goes through her 'very sexy underwear' and makes friends with the locals who (SURPRISE) teach her to cook! Oh, and don't forget baths in a nearby stream. Can't forget the baths.

3) Then Creeper comes back to check on his wife with his friend in the middle of the night, and his friend gives us this little nugget here:

“I must say, Frey, I wouldn’t give a gods damn that one preferred tart. That was my new bride, she’d be tasting my cock either straight through her mouth or because I was thrusting it so deep, she’d savor it in her throat,”

4) This is where I stopped because I couldn't even. But, I read through some other reviews on here to see if anyone else was as appropriately appalled and I learned that Creeper ultimately messes with Finnie's birth control so she gets pregnant and has to stay with him. Yeah, that sounds totally okay.

Returning immediately.

46 of 54 people found this review helpful

Great narration, terrible story

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

People that don't mind the heroine being a complete doormat

Has Wildest Dreams turned you off from other books in this genre?

Nope, but I'd really like a warning label for "male lead is a chauvinist pig"
Would have saved me money

What does Tillie Hooper bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Really great and engaging narration. The only reason I held on as long as I did

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Real sorry to let this one go, but I can take no more. Stranded in chapter 16

I listened this one (audiobook). The narrator was not to blame. In fact, she's the reason I got this far. The beginning was rather nice, I was enjoying the female lead. A sassy lady with spunk and a glass half-full attitude. Que the male lead... even though he was a real *not nice* (insert male bodypart) at the start, I warmed up to him as he warmed up to Finny. I was iffy on the whole keeping a secret from Finny part, but he could have salvaged that.

What was un-salvageable was the whole; "I'm an aristocrat, I'll fuck whoever I want, whenever I want even though I'm married and you'll just have to live with that if I'm inclined to do so" and "if you withhold sex, you're at fault if I get it somewhere else" and with the 'mother' adding insult to injury "it's up to you to keep your husband interested, as long as you give him anything he wants he won't be inclined to go looking outside of his marriage"

Finny turned into a brainless twit around him, a freakin' ninny agreeing to anything and everything and begging for it all. And that was a damn shame.

I hadn't read any reviews on Goodreads before buying (just the ones on Audible and they were raving) but after a few disappointed signs from Frey, I went looking. One of them said that at some point he even substitutes her birth-control meds for placebo's because "HE" will decide if and when baby's will be bourne (!!!). At that is AFTER he already cut her off from her own world without her knowing at the time, or notifying her after that.

I tried to listen on after that, but there were some more male chauvinistic remarks and the mothers "advice". And I was afraid I might throw my phone in anger if I came across the whole birth-control issue and the book isn't worth that. So this is it for me.

I like some aspects of the Alpha male type but Frey took it too far and I'm allergic to Ninny heroines.

14 of 16 people found this review helpful

So bad, I stopped listening half way through.

some spoilers ahead. I REALLY wanted to like this book. I thought it would be worth a credit.... I was wrong. I can get over the "magically keeping her trapped" because every story needs something like that but... the main guy... Drakar... he's just a shovanisitc, egotistical, passive aggressive and manipulative prick... *spoiler alert* once he sabotaged her birth control, I said to myself "thats it, that's the last f-ing staw* and stopped listening. I don't like men who think they are the best or think they are "master of all ", just because they have a penis, I don't like it in real life and other certainly don't like them in books.

This book is not worth listening to... even the narration was bad.

14 of 16 people found this review helpful

One of the few who didn't like it

I think I was hoping for something original, judging from the extremely positive reviews this book received. Unfortunately, although it has a nice writing style, the book borrows way too much from cliche situations that I could not be bothered finishing it. Not nearly enough attention to the kind of detail that would have built this new world into something wholistic and real. This 'alternative world' was a romantic take on historical Europe with some unoriginal fantasy. The main character, Finny, used language that should have caused at least some comment, if not confusion from her contemporaries in the alternative world (eg: "fricking cool").
All in all, it didn't have anything new that could capture my attention

18 of 21 people found this review helpful

Repetitive words

The performance by Tillie was spectacular, she is energetic and extremely entertaining in her reading of his poorly written book. Tillie pulls you right into the story, she changes her voice depending on what character is speaking. I mostly find audio books put me to sleep, but Tillie had me staying up and wanting more.
The downfall to this book is the book itself, Tillie, though giving a wonderful performance, could not make up for the uter lack of skill the writer has with actually writing. She repeats words consistently, the majority of the words being "awesome" and "freak'in," too the point you want to pull your hair out and send the woman a dictionary.
If you can tolerate these two words too the excessive amount in which she uses them, the please go ahead if only for listening to the Tillie Hooper's delightfulperformance

12 of 14 people found this review helpful

Poorly Written

This book makes me feel like I should have written novels in my freshman year of high school. I could have been a best selling author! Apparently, you don't need to have a large vocabulary or the ability to form a decent storyline.

I kept trying to finish this book but the way the author makes the main character out to be some daft, whiny, doormat is hard to listen too. I don't understand how this book got such high ratings? It does no justice to women. It's almost as if the writer was trying to justify all the stay at home moms out there with this character by saying "women who stay home , cook, clean, please their husbands and parents are the right sort of women that everyone likes". Anyways, the book was bad in my opinion and I was a stay at home mom. The writer is poorly written and the plot is crap. Save your time and money.

12 of 14 people found this review helpful

"So freakin'" AWFUL!!!!

What disappointed you about Wildest Dreams?

Almost everything disappointed me about this book. But the top four disappointments: Full of anachronisms, full of cliches, cringey dialogue and the narrator's over enunciated voice.

Has Wildest Dreams turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, thankfully I've read other articulate writers who can express their ideas much more eloquently.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator over enunciated her words to the point that I felt like it was the equivalent of nails on chalkboard every time I heard her say "so freakin' cool!" (I am not sure how many times she says this, but it's a lot. At least 40 times?) Additionally, I now hate the word "twitched", because everyone's mouth "twitched" all the time plus the narrator over enunciates the "ch" sound so much I dry heaved every time I heard it.

What character would you cut from Wildest Dreams?

The two main characters, Finnie and Frey. They were one-dimensional, their love was unbelievable, and their actions didn't make sense. He acted like no one any self-respecting woman would love, and Finnie accepted all of his disrespect. UGH! He was simply an a-hole and I could not identify with her nor root for their "love".

Any additional comments?

The only reason I forced myself to listen to this book was because I wasted a full credit on this audio book. The premise was good (which is why I bought it in the first place) but the execution was not. I'm mad at myself, for I read the negative reviews, but I didn't take heed.

Although I never read "50 Shades of Grey", I read enough reviews to know the writing itself was not quality, so I stayed far away. However, if "50 Shades" (sexy writing) appeals to you, which I know it does to many, then you may possibly enjoy this book.

20 of 24 people found this review helpful

couldn't finish

I struggled to finish this book for many reasons. Mostly it was due to misogyny. The MMC is so misogynistic and controlling and overbearing that I wanted to puke at some points. I realize it's part of the world building, and the FMC does stand up to him, but I couldn't stomach it. I have a thing where men make decisions about a woman's body for her and without her consent or knowledge. It's a huge NO for me.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful