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stephanie_inman 's review for:

If You Could Only Dream by M.E. Clayton
1.0

This is a follow up novella, sort of an extended epilogue for The Buchanan Brothers series.

I had mixed feelings on this series. I loved some of the characters (Justice, is by far my favorite character in the series), while I found some lacking (I found both Shane and Denise to be rather dull).
Still, I wanted to read this and see what was going on with the Buchanans. (okay, mostly just Gabe and Justice)

This story opens with one of the next generation of Buchanans turning twenty-one. We find out that there are a lot of new Buchanans. I didn't really understand why we needed this opening, since, as far as I know we aren't getting a next generation series. Basically, we just learn how many kids each couple had and our narrator, Mason and Shane's oldest, tells us how much in love all of his aunts and uncles, along with his parents are.

The story then goes back and we get a chapter from each of the previous four books main characters, starting with Mason and Shane. Shane is pregnant with their first child. From there we get a glimpse into each couple's life.

This novella is basically a love letter to the character of Shane, so, if like me she's not your favorite, it's a bit annoying. The Buchanan men still drop everything for her (seriously, Aiden is in the middle of nearly having sex with his wife, ignores Mason's phone call, but when Shane's ringtone hits his phone, he immediately has to answer it. He basically says "I'd do anything for Shane." and Denise is just like "of course").

Nope.

This is repeated with Gabe and Michael. They pretty much say how Shane is "special" (seriously, I got so sick of hearing that throughout this series) and she is the most important person in their family.

Denise, Justice, and Sophia, at this point really should have walked away.

I was hoping for a Happily Ever After for everyone, rather than Denise, Justice and Sophia playing second fiddle to the all mighty, "special" Shane.

It kind of undercuts the romance between the other couples when the men are acting like their sister in law is way more important than their wives.

It is, essentially, why I didn't give any of the previous books a higher rating, and why I don't think this novella is worth more than one star.