OF DREAMS AND ANGELS

A businessman who’s sworn off love searches for the woman he’s literally been dreaming about in this debut novel.

Canadian Joe Riley, 37, has spent nearly two decades avoiding serious relationships. The workaholic, with his own private wealth management practice, prefers going on solitary hikes and living alone. Then a strange woman monopolizes his dreams. These are more than lucid dreams; Joe sees through her eyes and feels what she does. When awake, he can’t get her out of his mind, completely derailing his busy routine. Advice from a psychologist and even a medium only convinces him that the woman of his dreams is real. So he learns all he can about her: She’s Claire, a divorced Englishwoman with three kids and a cheating ex. After making the unprecedented decision to take a California vacation, Joe suddenly changes his mind—and his destination. Surely, it can’t be that hard to find a newspaper writer named Claire in Britain. He scours bylines and makes phone calls once in London, but what will he say if they’re face to face? While explaining what led him to her is one thing, there’s the possibility that Joe is already in love. Morrison delivers a grounded, absorbing romantic tale. Ample discussions of love do sometimes spin off into clichés, which are no less formulaic with characters continually acknowledging them. (“ ‘I know this sounds utterly cliché, if not painfully cheesy, but I feel like I’ve known you longer than these few weeks,’ Claire said.”) Nevertheless, the author offers a refreshingly realistic narrative approach. Both Joe and Claire, for example, willingly succumb to romance while plagued with endless doubts that such a relationship can last. Two people fearing the prospect of love does make for a heart-rending story, especially in the latter half. But humorous details provide relief, such as Joe naming his inner voices (for instance, perpetually cynical Roger). Morrison moreover sets his novel in the late 1990s, sparking such memorable scenes as Joe trying out this thing called the “World Wide Web.”

An appealing love story that’s both sentimental and down-to-earth.