Blogtour Review: Rekindled Dreams – Linda Carroll-Bradd

Rekindled Dreams by Linda Carroll-Bradd
Published by Entranced Publishing on 7 October 2013
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 222
Format: eARC
Source: ARC Publisher
Buy on Amazon |

When museum curator Vena Fenton returns to her small Montana hometown, she’s forced to live under the same roof as Finnian Quaid, the star of more than one teenage fantasy. Finnian is now an environmental lobbyist, making a bid for senate, and is as dreamy as ever.

Finnian needs a more settled image if he wants to get ahead in the polls. In order to do that, he needs a wife. With Vena living under his roof, his problem seems solved. As the romantic sparks fly, there's more at risk than Finnian's political aspirations. Can they keep their eye on the prize, or will their growing love derail them both?

*I received a free ARC of Rekindled Dreams from Entranced Publishing in exchange of an honest review*

Welcome to my stop on the Rekindled Dreams blog tour.

Rekindled Dreams is a quick read with both some humorous and some intense moments. It also has some things happening that could very well have been omitted in my opinion, as some scenes really did nothing to move the plot or the story forward. I did get a little frustrated with for example the things that happened between Vena and the Marshall, because it didn’t have anything to do with the overall story-arc, nor did it help me understand Vena.

While I did quite enjoy Rekindled Dreams, I also found myself thinking that it could have been a lot shorter and still tell the exact same story. I also had some trouble connecting to Vena, and it was really difficult to understand her. In some instances, she appeared to be a well-adjusted woman, confident in her accomplishments and happy with her job. Then, she suddenly seemed like a little, insecure girl, not knowing what she wanted. And the not knowing part had to do with both her personal and her professional life, which is what made it difficult for me to see who she really was. I thought it was strange that she could seem so confident in some scenes, then, like a little orphaned girl in other scenes.

Also, sadly, I never really got the ‘rekindled’ part of the dreams that is alluded to in the title. Rekindled Dreams does have a pretty good premise, though, because Vena lusted after her best friend’s brother, Finnian, when she was younger. However, in those days, Finn was dating Vena’s older sister, and only saw Vena as his sister’s friend – nothing more.I can totally understand that Vena was dreaming of Finn – at least most of the time! When Rekindled Dreams starts, Finn is back home to renovate his family’s bed-and-breakfast, and he’s not aware of Vena’s arrival. When she first shows up, he doesn’t even recognize her – which is somehow gratifying; until it isn’t, really. There is a lot of history between these two characters, but that history isn’t really developed as fully as it could have been. Instead, the readers are fed snippets of that history, and to me, there was no big, lost love story there at all.

In the end, I still enjoyed Rekindled Dreams, though, because I’m a real sucker for true love! And I really think what can develop between Finn and Vena is true love. However, the execution did not make me swoon completely, mostly because some of the story-lines felt a little forced, and others were almost superfluous. Don’t let this put you completely off of Rekindled Dreams, though, it might be a cultural thing! I am not American, so the ‘feel’ of the – to me – backwards American small-town feel to the story might make complete sense to other readers. I kind of thought neighbors were too meddling, though, but again, this might be because I’ve never lived in such a small community.

Vena and Finn did have some pretty hot moments in Rekindled Dreams, and I enjoyed both the way they misunderstood each other and how they got to know each other again after not having interacted for ten years. The silliness of the older women living close by made me laugh quite often, especially because Vena had forgotten how they could be because she’d been living in LA for a while. In between the meddling of her grandma’s friends and the hostility of other people in the local community I’m sure other readers will find some enjoyment as well.

Finn followed Vena down the hallway and stopped at the kitchen sink to scrub the dirt from his hands. What a complex person. That contrast of sassy confidence one minute and little girl innocence the next intrigued him. Years had passed since he’d had this many partial hard-ons.

All she knew was that she liked the atmosphere. Neighbors sharing an abundance of vegetables and strangers asking about reaching a decision made her feel included. Caring about others transformed a group into a community. Her heart was at peace here, and she could get used to this slower lifestyle.

There is a tour wide giveaway for the blog tour of Rekindled Dreams. One winner will win a 10$ gift card from Amazon and 2 other winners will each win 1 e-copy of Rekindled Dreams by Linda Carroll-Bradd.
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About the Author:
As a young girl, Linda was often found lying on her bed reading about fascinating characters having exciting adventures in places far away and in other time periods. In later years, she read and then started writing romances and achieved her first publication–a confession story. Married with 4 adult children and 2 granddaughters, Linda now writes heartwarming contemporary and historical stories with a touch of humor from her home in the southern California mountains.

You can find Linda here:

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads |

You can find more about Rekindled Dreams on the Entranced site, you can also find the buy links here as soon as Rekindled Dreams is available.

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