Cat Johnson Braves Doll Lil’s Word Association Challenge!

Author: Kara Lockley
Book: Alinora
Release: September 2009
Series: Novella
Reviewer: Mona Leigh
Source: Author
Purchase: Read for FREE right now

She had almost everything she ever wanted. Good friends, a nice house, a thriving career. The only thing missing was love. Until she started dreaming of a carefree romance every night. Her dreams were so vivid they made her doubt her sanity. Was too much time at the office forcing her stressed-out mind to create a retreat at night? Or were her dreams somehow… real?

In this forty-eight page short story, Kara Lockley has given us a complete fantasy in which Lily owns her own highly successful interior decorating business, but her personal life is barren. Her adoptive parents are dead and she’s all alone in the world. She’d like to fall in love and have a family, but can’t seem to meet the right man.

Lily moves into her new house at the edge of a wild forest, and begins to dream at night of another world called Alinora where everything is perfect. It’s in this perfect world that she meets Caleb. Night after night, as she sleeps, their relationship grows stronger and they fall in love. She begins to yearn for this other world preferring it to the real world to the point that she questions her sanity and decides to consult a therapist.

In Alinora, Lily and Caleb have a house and live together. During one visit Caleb remarks that her stomach is getting round and she happily tells him she’s pregnant. When she wakes from the dream, she wonders how real her pregnancy is. Turns out, it’s very real—she’s pregnant in the real world, too. Somehow, she must learn how her real world ties in with Alinora and find Caleb—if he actually exists. She must also figure out what to tell her friends and employees.

In these few pages, we’ve been given a complete fantasy novel in short form. The characters, the world building, and the way everything wove together seamlessly made this a magical read indeed. Alinora is a delicious bit of dessert after a steady diet of meat and potatoes. I feel almost guilty for enjoying it so much.

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Mona's first grade teacher, Mrs. Stanford, gifted her with the love of reading. For that, she'll always live in her heart. But reading took over Mona's life, eclipsing everything but playing sports, and has continued to be a huge part of her life. Although she has always written poetry and stories for her self, last year she decided to try her hand at writing fiction. She is currently editing her first urban fantasy and hopes to have it ready for the agent by summer's end. Besides reading, Mona loves speed in the form of fast cars. The faster, the better! In her next life, she plans to drive race cars (or whatever happens to be their replacement in the future) all while reading and writing. She has also taken up rune reading, and find it to be disturbingly accurate and exciting.

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