Review: "Hugo & Rose" by Bridget Foley
Note: This ARC was provided by St. Martin's Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Rose is a wife and mother and while her life used to be something she was happy with, she's been finding herself disillusioned and searching for something more...something that she's only able to find when she goes to sleep and is in a world that she's been a part of since she was a child. In that world, she's with Hugo, the boy she met the first time she discovered her dreamscape and the one person she feels knows her best. But the world she lives in while she's awake is real and while she's able to escape with Hugo each and every night, Rose knows that none of it is real...until one day, she comes face to face with none other than Hugo.
It takes one glimpse at Hugo that begins Rose unraveling of sorts, doing things that she would never have even considered before in order to get answers to the questions crowding her head. When Rose's two lives--the one she leads with her husband and children and the one she leads with Hugo on their island--appear to be fighting for precedence, Rose must decide which life she truly wants. Does she choose a life with Hugo, who's been by her side since childhood and is literally the man of her dreams, or does she choose her life with Josh, who's been by her side creating a family and making their dreams come true?
Hugo & Rose is a novel by first-time author Bridget Foley and had an interesting premise: what would happen if the guy in your dreams is actually real but you're married with children? There are some flashbacks in the story, explaining how Rose and Hugo first meet in their dreams as well as when Rose and Josh begin their relationship. Rose's life in her dreams appears to be as rosy (pun intended) as ever, even decades in, while her life in real life has lost its luster over the years. Just as her frustration with her family gets to a high point, she sees Hugo and he's able to give her some spark she seems to have been seeking.
I don't know if I would classify this story as contemporary romance because I simply didn't feel as if this was a love story between Rose and Hugo or even between Rose and Josh. This was about a woman who was desperately trying to find something different in a life that she felt was sucking the energy and inspiration out of her and believed that finding Hugo was that very thing she needed. It was a creative and interesting enough tale and maybe it would be more fitting under women's fiction than contemporary romance. I certainly didn't find myself swooning over Rose with Hugo and I just felt bad for poor Josh.
I'm a bit torn when it comes to giving this book a rating. I didn't hate it but I didn't love it either. I wouldn't say that I'm ambivalent but I'm the kind of reader that wants to have a strong enough feeling for a book so that I know that it's affected in some way, whether positively or otherwise. The writing itself was good, and while I did take numerous breaks while reading, I was never tempted to shelve it unfinished. I wish I had felt more of a connection with Rose but lacking that, the dilemma she was facing was the wake-up call she needed to finally figure out what it is she really wanted and needed. I'm giving Hugo & Rose 3.5 stars. ♥
Release Date: 05 May 2015
Date Read: 01 May 2015
Learn more about Bridget Foley here.
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