Title: Man of My Dreams
Author: Olivia Worley
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Psychological Thriller
Format: eARC
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ (3★)
Release Date: June 2, 2026
Synopsis
Bestselling romance author Ivy Harcourt has spent years writing perfect fictional men while having absolutely no luck with real relationships.
But everything changes when she meets Liam: a charming, British architect who seems almost too perfect to be real… mostly because he’s nearly identical to the love interest in the book she’s currently writing.
As their whirlwind romance develops, Ivy starts wondering whether their meeting was simply fate… or something much darker.
Because Liam may not be exactly who he claims to be.
And Ivy has secrets of her own too.
My Thoughts
I absolutely devoured the first part of this book… but I’m not entirely sure what happened after that...
The premise alone hooked me immediately: a romance author meets the literal embodiment of her fictional book boyfriend in real life. Coincidence? Fate? Or something much darker? ( "You" vibes all the way.)
Ivy, a bestselling romance author, meets Liam: a charming, British, ridiculously attractive architect… who also happens to perfectly match the description of the love interest in the book she’s currently writing.
From there, things spiral FAST.
We get twists, stalking vibes, murder situations, secrets on both sides… and in the beginning, I genuinely could not put the book down.
But somewhere around the halfway mark (maybe closer to 60%), I started feeling like I was suddenly reading two different books at the same time… just with the same characters.
It’s like the blurb sets up one type of thriller, and then the story slowly pivots into a completely different direction altogether. Not necessarily bad, just very different from what I thought I had signed up for.
And honestly, I think that shift is what lowered my rating in the end.
The pacing itself stayed solid though, and the book remained very bingeable throughout. Every time I thought I understood where things were going, something shifted again, which definitely kept me reading.
Some twists worked really well, while others felt more predictable, but overall I stayed entertained the entire time.
That said, the strong unsettling atmosphere from the beginning slowly faded for me as the story progressed, which was a bit disappointing because the setup was honestly excellent.
And then… the ending.
While everything technically gets wrapped up, emotionally it still felt slightly incomplete somehow. Like I needed one or two extra chapters to fully tie everything together with a proper red bow 🎀
Final Thoughts
Overall, Man of My Dreams was an entertaining and very bingeable thriller with an incredibly strong premise and a fast-paced start that completely hooked me.
Even though the story eventually shifted in a direction that didn’t fully work for me, I still had a good time reading it and flew through the pages very quickly.
Definitely a thriller that starts VERY strong and keeps you curious until the end.
ARC Disclaimer
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
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