Book Review: Catch Me When I Fall

Catch Me When I Fall by Vicki Leigh

4 Stars

Verdict: If you want an original spin on a supernatural romance.

At the heart of this novel is a simple, clean idea which is shockingly original. Dreamcatchers are like guardian angels of the night, protecting us regular living humans in our sleep from the Nightmares, which are vicious creatures that feed on fear.

The story is told from first person –and a male perspective for once! Daniel is a Dreamcatcher who is burnt-out from two hundred years of successfully protecting his charges while they sleep. After successfully protecting his last charge for eighty years, he needs a break. Instead, he’s assigned a dangerous case, Kayla, who is a psychiatric patient with an unprecedented amount of nightmares attacking her.

I’ll stop there. The blurb I originally read went on to reveal a few more exciting hooks, but I think it ruins the novel when the blurb mentions twists which are over 3/4 into the novel. Instead, I’ll let you know there’s plenty of action and plot twists to keep you entertained.

I was a bit wary at the start. I could tell the general direct of the book just by the cover and was a little concerned that I've basically already read this in one form or another. But this was far more original and had more to it than Hush Hush and Twilight and other books with supernatural forbidden romances. In fact, I feel like this book should have come first, and it might be appreciated more if it had.

The characters are believable, natural, with their own struggles in life (and death too, as Dreamcatchers are appointed after a person dies saving another). Leigh layers on the details softly. At first I felt a little confused, but I didn’t mind as the story carried me along. And the longer I was in the book, the clearer the concept became. That’s how books should be.

What made me know it was a great read was that it almost made me miss my stop on the train. Despite the toddler poking me and someone with headphones which might as well be speakers, I became engrossed in the story and had no idea how much time had passed. And when a novel can block out the world and almost mess up my day, you know it’s a good one.

Without talking about spoilers, there were times where I thought Hey, this sounds like x-men/Harry Potter/Supernatural/Twilight/Charmed/City of Bones... Although the idea itself is so fresh and original, the story perhaps isn’t. And the ending... well, isn’t the strength of the book, but I’ll definitely stick with this series.

Source: NetGalley.com