Daydream by Hannah Grace
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🌶️
Genre: Romance
Pages: 448 - Published: 27 August 2024
Dates Read: 08 Oct 2024 - 09 Oct 2024
Don’t hate me when I say this, but the Maple Hills series has been pretty mid and so was Daydream. I mostly liked Icebreaker (maybe because I was smacked in the face with all the smut and was new to hockey romances), but I barely tolerated Wildfire and deeply considered DNFing it. I won’t go too far into those books because I have a full review of Wildfire and Icebreaker already.
So you might be wondering why I would pick up the 3rd installment and the answer is simple—Henry is everything! I LOVED him as a friend to Anastasia and Nate, and knew he would be a great book boyfriend. He was quirky, but extremely thoughtful and I would LOVE to have a friend like Henry.
And fine, I’ll admit the cover art was part of what drew me in, too. I can’t help but to judge covers, I am human.
I was right about one thing. Henry is an amazing guy and was suuuuch an interesting character. He was sweet and caring and I felt like he had a lot of depth. I also liked Halle and her character development. There is also some vague ADHD representation and I think Halle is meant to be “curvy” so I’ll give a few points for that, I suppose.
The pieces were there and the concept had potential but it ultimately fell short.
What to expect/tropes
Dual POV
Opposites attract
Friends to lovers
Slow burn
Sports romance
About
When his procrastination lands him in a difficult class with his least favorite professor, Henry Turner knows he’s going to have to work extra hard to survive his junior year of college. And now with his new title of captain for the hockey team—which he didn’t even want—Henry absolutely cannot fail. Enter Halle Jacobs, a fellow junior who finds herself befriended by Henry when he accidentally crashes her book club.
Halle may not have the romantic pursuits of her favorite fictional leads, but she’s an academic superstar, and as soon as she hears about Henry’s problems with his class reading material, she offers to help. Too bad being a private tutor isn’t exactly ideal given her own studies, job, book club, and the novel she’s trying to write. But new experiences are the key to beating her writer’s block, and Henry’s promising to be the one to give them to her.
They just need to stick to their rule book.
Oh, and not fall in love.
Thoughts
Daydream has zero plot. Mid-way through I was wondering what the hell was going to happen because it felt like it was meandering. I think I was the furthest along I’ve ever been in a book while still heavily debating calling it quits.
The characters do not have enough tension or chemistry. Something was missing. AND there’s really like no spice. Halle is a virgin! The little spice we do get can only be described as meh. Why read a romance book if the characters don’t feel like they’re madly in love or dreamy and the spice isn’t spicy?
As far as the writing, I felt like there was a lot of telling vs. showing. A lot of the convos and inner thoughts were repetitive and this made it hard for me to focus or feel motivated to keep reading. Omg, there’s also a point where the author uses the title of the book in a weirdly short amount of time and I just can’t stand that. It feels so forced.
Although there were things I still enjoyed about this book (like there are a couple really funny moments), I wouldn’t necessarily recommend anyone pick it up over something else. If you are a veracious reader who reads a lot of books, maybe, but if you can only squeeze in so much time to read, skip this one.
