Dream Keeper

Kristen Ashley

Nov 2021 · Sold by Forever

About this eBook

Spinning off from the bestselling Dream Man and Rock Chick series, this is the emotional and steamy contemporary romance fans of the Dream Team series have been waiting for!

He’s perfect—but he can’t be hers.

Pepper Hannigan is determined to keep any romance off the table—and out of her bedroom—while her daughter Juno is still young. Sure, a certain handsome commando is thoughtful, funny, and undeniably hot, but Pepper’s had her heart broken before, and she won’t let it happen again. Not to her or her little girl, even if this hero could melt any woman’s resolve.

Augustus “Auggie” Hero can’t deny his attraction to beautiful, warm-hearted Pepper or how much he wants to make a home with her and her little girl, but Pepper’s mixed signals have kept him away. That is, until Juno decides to play matchmaker. Her efforts finally bring Pepper into his arms, but they expose the danger Pepper is in. To protect Pepper and Juno, Auggie will have to live up to his last name and prove happy endings aren’t just for fairy tales. 
 

Ratings and reviews

I loved Auggie and Pepper. This easily could have been my favorite in the story. I loved Juno, Pepper's daughter, and who she turned to for help in trying to move things with her mother and Auggie along. It was original and fun and really added some good depth to story. Pepper and Auggie do not have any easy path to love, and there is a lot of angst and drama along the way, which should surprise no one. What kept this from being a five star read for me, was all the repetitiveness that we see when something happens between Pepper and Auggie, and then we have to rehear how the scene occurred when one of them tells one of their friends and then sometimes we would hear it a second and third time as those friends told other friends. It got a bit tiring. I'm a fan of reading out old favorites from prior books, but only when they fit naturally into the story. This felt like scenes created just so we could see them and have them weigh in on what was occurring with Pepper and Auggie which also gave it a very juvenile feel. Auggie and his guys are all very alpha, but that's detracted from when they are sitting around for pages talking out feelings and situations and scenarios. That being said, if you can just skim through that, this is a fun, angsty romance with a lot of depth.

This was another wonderful addition to the series. Pepper was understandably protective of her heart as well as that of her daughter’s. I may not have lived through anything like she did in her marriage, but I totally empathize with her. She was fiercely protective of Juno and I loved the relationship they had. Although she had a hard shell for Auggie to break through, and this couple had a stumble or two, she wasn’t so hardcore she couldn’t yield when the cards were plainly saying it was time. Auggie was incredible! He had all the alpha goodness of a KA hero which is one of the reasons I love these books so much! Although he made a few errors in the beginning of their relationship, it didn’t take him long to correct his mistake and make amends. From that point onward he was pretty swoon worthy. When this couple finally came together, they were like an inferno. Watching them grow together and as a unit with Juno was precious. Juno was quite a handful and it was as entertaining as anything I’ve read to see her manipulate Auggie and her mom. The inclusion of a particular character to help assist with that endeavor was just as entertaining as the rest of the story. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves alpha heroes and sweet heroines with a little girl thrown in.

Where do we begin? Let’s start with Lottie, Queen of the Dream Team: “You guys have left me out of all the fun stuff. There’s one fixup left, one last chance, and I’m all in.” And then realizing maybe some the shenanigans she had been left out of, when she was included, weren’t as fun as she realized. But then again, she got to give Mo a hard time for taking so long to get to her 😊. Or Axl snagging Hattie off a sidewalk as she was walking by and Mo hijacking Pepper’s car with Ryn and Lottie in it to stop them from other attempted hijinks? Maybe we go for the full sweet and the chapters that Juno, Pepper’s daughter, gets and how she expresses herself, her feelings, and how she sees the world around her. Warning, if you didn’t love Cisco from the previous books in this series, you will absolutely fall for him here <3 But the book is about Auggie and Pepper, and them overcoming the internal barriers that are keeping them apart, so they can have their HEA like their friends. This isn’t easy because they both have scars and triggers buried deep that have formed them. In the game of “you think your family is crazy, wait until you meet mine”, they both, unfortunately, win. They both learn they are not alone anymore, they have someone by their side to hold them up, help them out, or hold them back, because they care. They take care of the big things, the little things, the mundane things, and the important things, of the people they love and care about. Once they get over that great big hump at the beginning, to get them together, these two are magic. They will give you all the feels, they will give you some laughs, they give lots of sweet, they have electric chemistry, and when they finally figure things out about themselves and each other, they were simply fantastic! And, it would appear, Elvira and Lottie are scheming, the big bad still hasn’t gone down, so, yay, more stories to be told!!!!

About the author

Kristen Ashley is the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of over eighty romance novels. Her books have been translated into fifteen languages, with three million copies sold. Born in Gary and raised in Brownsburg, Indiana, Kristen was a fourth-generation graduate of Purdue University. Since, she has lived in Denver, the West Country of England, and she now resides in Phoenix. She worked as a charity executive for eighteen years prior to beginning her writing career.