Dead Dreams - Or Are They Nightmares?

Don't go to sleep tonight - or you too could experience Dead Dreams!

Book Summary:

A young adult psychological thriller and contemporary mystery

Eighteen-year-old Brie O’Mara has so much going for her: a loving family in the sidelines, an heiress for a roommate, and dreams that might just come true. Big dreams--of going to acting school, finishing college and making a name for herself. She is about to be the envy of everyone she knew. What more could she hope for? Except her dreams are about to lead her down the road to nightmares. Nightmares that could turn into a deadly reality.

My Review:

I went into this story very intrigued by the title and book summary.  I wanted to like it.  I tried to like it.  But there were so many things that just didn't work for me.

The writing is fine.  There are few editing errors to get in the way of the story's flow.  I liked the pastor, Brie's parents were okay, and the story idea was interesting.  My biggest issue was with the main character, Brie.

Brie is young and trying to extricate herself from those she sees as cloying and controlling family members.  It's understandable and good that a college-aged adult wants to grab the bull by the horns and make her own way in the world.  I can certainly applaud that.  To try to establish her independence, Brie works hard at school and two dead-end jobs to pay the bills.  Even then it isn't enough.  So she decides to take on a roommate.

And this is where Brie goes downhill for me.

Enter Sarah.  Wealthy, spoiled, paranoid and scheming Sarah answers Brie's ad for a roommate - and with all of the cash flashing around, Brie falls for the show.  We know immediately there's all sorts of red flags concerning Sarah - Brie even sees them - and yet common sense still flies out the window. 

Brie never outright questions Sarah's strange comings and goings, her obsessive display of secrecy and security parameter requirements, the strange break-in attempts that start immediately after Sarah's residency begins, etc., etc., ad nauseam.  Then when Sarah suggests they play out an identity switch to commit fraud, Brie plays right along with it all, even when she discovers Sarah has outright lied to her.  Brie never confronts Sarah about any of her bizarre behaviors or schemes. 

That for me was too bizarre and unbelievable.  I just couldn't imagine anyone being that stupid nor having any sense of self-preservation.  Then when Brie decides to go through with it all anyway at the end, I by that time unfortunately didn't care.

Through it all, Brie came across as rather cold toward her family (especially when her father ends up in the hospital, fighting for his life), cold toward everyone that cared about her, and yet rather meek and timid where Sarah was concerned, letting herself be pulled by the noose like a lamb to slaughter.  All she seemed to care about in the end was the prospect of having a ton of money and hiding out as she traveled the world in style with Sarah.

Like I said, I really thought this sounded interesting and thought the prologue started it off well.  I so much wanted to like it, but in the end just didn't find the characters to be redeemable enough to establish any sort of empathic connection.

The ebook is only ninety-nine cents, however, if it sounds like something that might tickle your fancy.

Emma Right's Bio:

Emma Right is a happy wife and homeschool mother of five living in the Pacific West Coast of the USA. Besides running a busy home, and looking after their five pets, which includes two cats, two bunnies and a long-haired dachshund, she also writes stories for her children. When she doesn't have her nose in a book, she is telling her kids to get theirs in one.

Right worked as a copywriter for two major advertising agencies and won several awards, including the prestigious Clio Award for her ads, before she settled down to have children.  Visit her website at http://www.emmaright.com/

Price/Format: $0.99 ebook

Pages: 240

Publisher: Right Books

Release: August 26, 2013

Kindle buy link ($0.99):
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ESVEVBQ?tag=tributebooks-20

Follow the Tribute Books Blog Tour:



http://deaddreamsblogtour.blogspot.com/



And now for the giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Free Book Bonanza

Well folks, I'm in shock at the moment. 

The freebie fest continues - and in such an unexpected place!  This morning I looked up Running into the Darkness to see what sites have updated the pricing to free status.  Got the shock of my life to see it up for free not only on Barnes & Noble but...

Get this...

It's coming...

Wait for it...

AMAZON!!!!

And I didn't even do anything!  I think they're starting to get more savvy about price matching.  :-)  So today you can now find this first book in the Deepest Darkness series as your free pre-Christmas gift on not only Smashwords but Barnes & Noble and Amazon as well.

Here are the links:

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

Smashwords

I'll continue to update you as more sites set their pricing to match.  Happy reading!

An Early Christmas Special

Sorry to have dropped off of the radar for the past month (or is it two?) but I've been trying to make some headway on the latest installment of the Deepest Darkness series.  Plus there haven't been any interesting blog tours to participate in of late - this girl can only stomach so much YA, paranormal, and romance.  Death and destruction are more my cup of hard-boiled joe!

So I've decided to somewhat participate in Na-No-Wri-Mo this month and really make some headway on Rising from the Darkness as much as humanly possible.  I say "somewhat" because for the life of me, I can't just vomit as many words as I can onto a page and hope something sticks.  The self-editor in me is nearly impossible to shut off, so when I get 1,000 words onto a page it is usually in near publishable shape - and sometimes it takes an entire day just to get that.

So in honor of my first foray (somewhat) into Na-No, and the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons, I've decided to offer up a gift of sorts.  From now until the end of 2013, you can pick up as many free e-book copies of the first book of the Deepest Darkness series, Running into the Darkness, as tickles your fancy.  Gift copies to family and friends and it won't cost you a cent.

At the moment, the freebies are showing up only on Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/98766 but soon you should also find it on all other outlets such as Sony, Apple, and Barnes & Noble.  Amazon is a whole other realm, but let them know where you found it for free and maybe we'll succeed on getting Amazon to participate too.

To all of you writers out there, good luck with Na-No.  To all of you readers - an early Merry Christmas!