New Book Alert: Dreams of Darkness and Desire B.L. Cagle; Dreams Are Highlight of Somewhat Questionable Supernatual Romance Between Witches and Warlocks

New Book Alert: Dreams of Darkness and Desire B.L. Cagle; Dreams Are Highlight of Somewhat Questionable Supernatual Romance Between Witches and Warlocks

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: The highlights of B.L. Cagle's Dreams of Darkness and Desire are the dream sequences. They take a large chunk of the book and they purposely confuse the protagonist, Kira and unsettle the Reader. 

The dreams are prophetic and sometimes metaphorical. Kira's first vision involves her falling and being introduced to a handsome man. She is surprised to see that man moving into a house near hers. The man, Blake, instantly captivates the young dance student in her fantasy and in reality.

The dreams are the types that cover full chapters so the Reader can't tell what is real and what isn't.  There are some pretty intense fantasies that are sprinkled throughout the book. One of the more frightening passages is when Kira dreams that she and Blake are at a carnival. The action takes almost Twilight Zone levels of fear as the two encounter an ancient enemy that doesn't spell good for either Kira or Blake.

Another chapter carries on the whole idea of "dream within a dream" when Kira foresees a confrontation between Blake and her alcoholic soon to be ex boyfriend, Colin. Kira visualizes a couple of different scenarios in which the two engage in violence before it happens. The dream sequences make it hard to tell where fantasy begins and where it ends, inviting the possibility that the entire book may be one extended dream.

Unfortunately, while the book's dream sequences are top notch, the romance is unfortunately lacking. With Kira, Cagle creates a well written female character. Both of Kira's adopted parents died so she lives with her friend, Kat. Colin, her boyfriend, is becoming an alcoholic and keeps making excuses for his bad behavior, including sleeping with other women. Besides her personal life, Kira is a dancing student pushing herself to succeed. Also her dreams and other burgeoning abilities reveal that she is not only a witch, but one of the most powerful witches in the world.

While Kira comes across as a decent character, Blake does not. He is the typical brooding antiheroic character seen in these types of books. He and his friends are part of a group of warlocks and magic hunters. 

They perform a ritual on a young witch that seems like something between a transorbital lobotomy and a ritual sacrifice. It's pretty brutal, making it hard to root for these guys who seem easy going romantic fun loving guys one minute and resorting to such violent actions in another. They also have a very questionable relationship with a group of witches and there seems to have been more than an understanding between the warlocks and Kira's birth mother, another powerful witch (which leads to some very unfortunate implications between Blake and Kira's future).

It's also important to mention that in most supernatural fantasies where witches and warlocks are the main characters, magic hunters are usually the antagonists. Blake and Co.'s behavior doesn't help that reputation. True we find out the reasons that they are doing this and in the last few pages Blake seems to genuinely like Kira rather than trying to assess her abilities as he has been doing through most of the book. But these revelations come too little too late for Blake and Kira to become a couple worth rooting for. In fact, Kira seems to be going from one troubled relationship to another one.

After Dreams of Darkness and Desire, I can only dream about a better romance.