Falling Awake (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "a funeral always made for a bad day..." (more)
Key Phrases: two anonymous clients, extreme dreaming, red tsunami, Level Five, Martin Belvedere, Vincent Scargill (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Isabel Wright, a Belvedere Center for Sleep Research analyst and Level Five lucid dreamer, meets the man of her dreams in bestseller Krentz's (Truth or Dare, etc.) romantic thriller. When Isabel's boss, Martin Belvedere, is found dead in his study, his son, Randolph, who was always scornful of his father's belief in dreamers capable of uncovering secrets, takes over the business. He fires Isabel before he realizes that her crime-solving through dreams pays most of the center's bills. Isabel trains to be a motivational speaker while falling into the arms of fellow lucid dreamer Ellis Cutler (aka "Dream Man"), whose dreams she had been decoding and who has likewise been dreaming of her (he thinks of her as "Tango Dancer"). Isabel's former co-workers at the Belvedere Center and Ellis's colleagues from his secret government agency provide a rich assortment of suspects and victims who must be sorted out by the lover-detectives as they wrestle good guys from the dark side, repair troubled marriages and fix ailing businesses. Though her New Age imagination sometimes runs into overdrive, Krentz holds her readers' attention with attractive, appealing protagonists, flawed but sympathetic secondary characters and winningly self-mocking humor. Her unflagging positive energy proves so overwhelming that the reader will happily make her way through a story that defies logic, based on psychology that defies reason, to a happy ending that defies description.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Isabel Wright thought that the new director of the Belvedere Center for Sleep Research wanted to meet to discuss her promotion; instead, Isabel is informed that her services are no longer required. With the dearth of available openings for dream analysts, Isabel is prepared to return to her old job at the Psychic Dream Hotline. But Ellis Cutler, one of two anonymous clients from the sleep research center whose dreams Isabel had been analyzing, offers Isabel the opportunity to come work for his employer, Frey-Salter, Inc., a highly classified government agency involved in dream research and the use of extreme dreaming as an investigative technique. Working for Frey-Salter, Inc., would be a dream come true for Isabel, as long as it's on her terms. Ellis is more than willing to give Isabel a more active role in his investigations, but their mutual attraction may make keeping things strictly professional between them mighty difficult. New York Times best-selling Krentz excels at crafting superior, sexy romantic suspense, and her latest has all the ingredients her readers love: a riveting plot, a nicely developed romance between a smart and independent heroine and a tough yet tender hero, and her unique, delightfully dry wit. John Charles
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Jove (October 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0515139599
• ISBN-13: 978-0515139594
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #134,316 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #45 in

  Books > Romance > Authors, A-Z > ( K ) > Krentz, Jayne Ann

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing, December 18, 2004

By	Gayle Greene "GG" (CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Falling Awake (Hardcover)

This is a good (but not great) JAK novel. All of the wonderful writing that one expects from her is present, and the book is well plotted and extremely well researched. It may lack a little of the magic of her best work, but it is still a very good read and better than most of the books in this genre that you will find on the market today. I would have liked a somewhat stronger heroine, and the book does start out a little slow. These are minor considerations; the really fascinating dream research more than compensates for these small lacks.

Definitely recommended.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I enjoyed this story very much ..., November 29, 2004

By	Gloria Baynum "Gloria Baynum" (New York, NY, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Falling Awake (Hardcover)

I enjoy most books by this writer but I think this book is one of her best to date. I loved the characters and the direction Ms. Krentz took them into. Fun Story!

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Falling Awake, March 25, 2008

By	Kelly "Reviewer for The Sinfully Sensuous" (Littleton, Colorado) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Falling Awake (Paperback)

Isabel Wright analyzes dreams at the Belvedere Center for Sleep Research. Her work is very high level and no one is privy to what her work actually entails. She has the uncanny ability to not only interpret dreams but correct things that go wrong in them. She currently only has two clients, but she has been helping them since she has been at the center. The dreams that she has been working on disturb her, and she secretly has a crush on one of her clients that she only knows as Client #2. When Dr Belvedere is found dead, and his son takes over the center, he fires Isabel thinking her type of work is frivolous and against the reputation he wants to build at Belvedere.

Client #2 is Ellis Cutler. He has used Isabel's talents to solve police cases that are unsolvable, and has recently relocated to California to be near Isabel. He feels the same connection to her, as she does to him. When he finds out her employment has been terminated, he decides to get close to her in order to bring her on with his former employer. Ellis wants Isabel to help him solve a murder, and doesn't hesitate to use her to do it, but when Isabel becomes the next potential victim, he vows to protect her. When Ellis and Isabel discover that Dr. Belvedere was indeed murdered, the need to solve these mysteries becomes paramount.

I thought that the chemistry was lacking between Ellis and Isabel. It was not written to be very believable for two people to fall in love in their dreams in such a short time, and so I wasn't buying the story from the beginning.