Book Review
Title: Sleeping Together (Perfect Drug #1)
Author: Kitty Cook
Genre: Contemporary/Romance/Fantasy
Rating: ****
Review: Like some other books I have read I knew absolutely nothing about Sleeping Together before I picked it up, but the synopsis sounds interesting. “Vanessa Brown is having nightmares: about babies. Ever since her husband, Pete, mentioned he wanted to start a family, Ness has been trying to convince herself she’s stoked to spawn despite her inability to keep a cactus alive—and a decade-old secret she doesn’t like to remember. So when she catches her slacker-cool co-worker, Altan Young, stealing sleeping medication from the pharmaceutical company they both work for, she decides to try the pilfered pills to finally find some rest. But side effects of Morpheum include headaches, nausea, and possible mind melding—a fact Ness and Altan stumble upon when they share the same freaky sex dream. (Awkward.) Now, these two colleagues are joined at the brain by night, experiencing dozens of fantastic sleep-staged adventures courtesy of a little imagination and a whole lot of drugs.”
We are introduced to Ness and Pete, Pete wants a child, but Ness doesn’t given the fact that she can’t even keep a plant alive and she has some serious anxiety over this. Ness works at a pharmaceutical company with Altan who she seems to have a crush on. Altan however, has been stealing a drug from the company called Morpheum which is being marketed as a sleep aid which both Altan and Ness need when Ness finds out the only logical thing, she can think to do is take the pills from Altan and possibly confront him. Ness agrees not to tell their boss if Altan shares some of the pills with her and he agrees, and Ness has the best sleep of her life but through Altan’s diary entries we see that there are some side effects to the drug but nothing major. We also get some background on Ness and learn her fear of getting pregnant comes from the fact that she was raped in college and found out she was pregnant and even after getting an abortion she never told Pete who she was dating at the time.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, both Altan and Ness are taking Morpheum to deal with their issues that are keeping them up at night, but they are documenting what they think the dreams are telling them. However, it is clear that neither Ness or Altan is happy with their current lives. As Ness becomes more honest with Pete the drug, she is taking shows her things she could have and wants with the right person but when Altan enters her dreams she is stunned she is seeing him that way but isn’t really that upset with it. When they share their first dream together, Ness and Altan realise that the drug might be to blame but neither is unhappy about the fact they are sharing sex dreams.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Altan and Ness decide to experiment and see if they can share a dream again and if they can influence the dream. It turns out that they can share dreams willingly and even though Ness wants to keep the sex off the table she can’t deny her attraction to Altan especially when he is willing to take on Bigfoot for her. So far, I love these characters and their strange, messed up slightly funny erotic dreams and it is far from what I was expecting from this novel which is brilliant.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, Altan and Ness find some common ground in their dreams and are able to talk with each other about things they could never tell another living soul. Their attraction also seems to be developing into something more as time goes by. Ness is also dealing with sexual harassment at work from her boss Malcolm and he is insinuating that both Altan’s and her jobs could be on the line. He also says that he could propel Ness’ career if she sleeps with him, but her past won’t allow this, and she wants to protect Altan as well. So far, the novel is getting interesting and I can’t wait to see where the relationship goes as Ness and Altan are developing a deep connection that neither has with their partners or in Altan’s case previous partners, but Ness is severely conflicted about her developing feelings for Altan and where her relationship with Pete is going as they seem to want different things out of their marriage.
As we cross the halfway mark in the novel, things are becoming more and more difficult for both Ness and Altan as they aren’t sure where their relationship can go given the fact that Ness is seemingly happily married. However, the pair are under pressure from their boss who is also threatening to drug test them if Ness even implies his behaviour is improper and continues to sexually harass her. Both Ness and Altan also are beginning to feel like Morpheum might be doing them more harm than good as it is bringing up the past and showing them things they can never really have although I hated Malcolm, I don’t really like Pete either and I personally feel that Altan is a much better match for Ness and she would get exactly what she needed out of their relationship as Altan can relate and understand her problems.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, Ness and Altan are confused by their feelings for each other as Ness is supposed to be happily married and Altan is trying to move on from his divorce but it isn’t working that way, especially when Ness is doubling up on pills and might be developing an addiction to cope with her pain which is only made worse when Altan confesses he has been seeing someone but still has feelings for Ness. Altan is also the first person that Ness tells about being raped and he doesn’t react badly in fact, he offers her support in a way Pete never could. When Ness finally comes clean to Pete about her past, she won’t let him in but run to Altan for the comfort and support she needs and while she is kind of a crappy character with messed up morals, I can understand why she is acting the way she is.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, Ness finally loses it and when a patient overdoses, she takes the blame to protect her boss and Altan, it also provides Ness with a way of getting away from Malcolm’s sexual advances. The ending of Sleeping Together was exactly what I wanted but not in the way I was expecting, and everything is done in a way where the drugs can be blamed for their actions rather than the characters controlling them and the main relationship never crossed over from dreamland to reality but I am glad that this isn’t the end and there will be more from the Perfect Drug series in the future.
Buy it here:
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
I received this review copy from Booksprout.
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