"Fantastic romantic suspense"

Lucid dreaming is the ability to control one's dreams and be able to find answers to questions and problems that one can't obtain when awake. Isabel Wright, a level five dreamer, works at the Belvedere Center for Sleep Research where she analyzes the dreams of other lucid dreamers. When her boss dies and his son takes over, he fires Isabel who intends to be a free-lancer. He doesn't realize until it is too late that without her work, the company will go bankrupt in a few months. He is determined to lure her back to his company.

One of Isabel's anonymous clients is Ellis Cuttler, an operative for a black ops organization; he believes lucid dreaming can help solve murder investigations. His director orders Ellis to do whatever it takes to bring Isabel into the operation. Ellis and Isabel have dreamed about each other for months before they even met and an instant attraction flares to life as soon as they do meet. The road to happiness is bumpy because someone is gunning for Ellis and doesn't care how many innocent victims get killed in the crossfire.

Jayne Ann Krentz has written another fantastic romantic suspense novel that will satiate her myriad of fans who eagerly looking forward to the next tale as the author always scores a five on a five star rating system; FALLING AWAKE is no exception. The support cast is as quirky as ever and the protagonists are thoroughly likeable and effortlessly to care about. The action is fast paced with plenty of action scenes but characterizations are not neglected. Each key person in the FALLING AWAKE is a three dimensional individual whose motivations are easy to understand.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted November 15, 2004

Summary

A red scarf. A roller coaster. A tidal wave of blood...

Isabel Wright spends her days at the Belvedere Center for Sleep Research analyzing the dreams of others. Dr. Martin Belvedere, a pioneer in the field, recognized her unique talent for what he calls Level Five lucid dreaming. It's satisfying, lucrative work, but it can be emotionally draining. Especially when one of her anonymous subjects, known only as Client Number Two, captures her imagination through his compelling dream narratives. Secretly, she thinks of him as "Dream Man."

His real name is Ellis Cutler. A loner who's learned not to let anyone get too close, he works for a highly classified government agency with an interest in the potential value of lucid dreaming. And he's just been ordered by his boss to make contact with Isabel, who's been fired after the sudden death of Dr. Belvedere. Heading to California, he pushes his fantasies out of his mind, determined to maintain a professional relationship with the woman who reads his dreams, the mysterious figure he has come to think of as "Tango Dancer."

But when they meet in the flesh, the dream becomes real enough to touch. And a waking nightmare begins—when a suspicious hit-and-run leads them into a perilous web of passion, betrayal, and murder, and forces them to walk the razor-think line between dreams and reality.