Title: Dream and Dare
Author: Nic Stone
In: A Universe of Wishes (Dhonielle Clayton)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: LGBTQI, Paranormal fantasy
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Crown
Year: 2020

I love that the title of this short story is actually the names of the two lead characters. And that they are well-suited to their names. I mean, on the surface. They both definitely have elements of the other within their personalities, but mostly, they are very much like what their names imply.

Dream is seen to be the “perfect” wife, but is also into those activities which are considered unfeminine. I love that although she loves beautiful dresses, she also loves to climb trees and explore in these dresses. It’s a reminder that there is no one way of being a woman.

Contrastingly, Dare is tough and faces a lot of the ridicule for being “too masculine”. In fact, she deals with so much of this nonsense that she decides to effectively escape her life. And enact her revenge on all of those idiots who think that she needs “fixing”. It’s heartbreaking that both the girls experience prejudice in one form or another when they are just existing, but Dare’s constant battles are pretty hard to read about at times.

It was a pretty cute short story this one. I mean, they not only manage to find each other with a heavily implied happily ever after. But they also show that they’ve both been dancing around their interest in each other for years… a very cute little short story. And one I look forward to reading again in the future.

<- The Takeback Tango

Wish ->

Image source: Goodreads