Not for me.

DNF.

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With a touch of surrealism, Stylo Fantome explores the thoughts of a comatose woman and the strange awakening she has. Adele Reins is departing from a party after making a major life decision when she and another are in a car crash. Life continues to go on, but Adele is trapped inside a world in her head filled with brilliantly colored poppies, ever changing scenery, and a man who leaves such an impact that it is he she thinks of her when she finally opens her eyes. While her family and friends have rallied around her, starting new lives in the city of Los Angeles, Adele can't move forward and forget the man. When she sees him again her soul calls for him, but he doesn't know the love she knows.

"Tomorrow. Tomorrow I start on a new life. A new adventure. Tomorrow I find ... something."

Adele is a vivacious woman with a massive heart, she's so easy to like. Of course, we only know this form of Adele for a short while, as the impact of her dream state changes her drastically. From the moment she wakes up the story gets a bit strange, but in a way that kept me turning the pages, captivated by the romantic notion that soulmates and love can carry over from dreams into reality. Adele's coma world is so interesting and it takes up a large portion of the novel. This allows us to turn her dream state into a reality, with it leaving its mark even after she awakens. In this case, the dream world is unforgettable and Adele is left searching for it and her lover. I found myself loving the romanticism, especially once we finally meet the man in real life. He's far more real than the dream version of him, which keeps the novel interesting and keeps it from being too insta-love and mushy. Of course, there is the drama of Adele's family who have moved closer, her best friend who has grown comfortable with them, and her ex who has stayed close despite their separation.

I did enjoy some of the multiple POVs and I really appreciated that Stylo Fantome didn't focus only Adele and the impact her coma had on her just her, but on all the secondary characters. However a miss for me, and it seems like this might just be an "it's me, not you" complaint, was the addition of her brother's POV's, I really didn't enjoy them. It's almost like there might have been opportunity for other novels to come about the brothers, but ultimately it was combined into one. Their spacing comes across as a bit out of place and I did get them confused as their voices were very similar. I do think it took away from the overall story and it distracted me from the main romance.

"'Always,' she agreed. 'We'll always come back to the place where we found each other.'"

While I Was Away is a clever novel that kept me intrigued from start to finish. The premise itself was interesting enough for me, but Stylo Fantome takes this surreal idea and turns it into a contemporary romance that is impossible to put down. It's the sort of book you finish and you don't immediately pick up another, instead you sit in the feelings she leaves you with. Romance readers looking for something different, particularly those with an interest in the fantastical, will enjoy While I Was Away.

ARC provided. ( )

4.4 stars

There is a reason that this author is one of my favorites. She is always thinking outside the box. This story might be the most outside the box though. It is definitely not a story that I have ever seen. It was refreshing and poignant.

The biggest complaint about it was the telling of more than one story in it. That isn't to say I didn't love the other story, I just wanted them to have their time in their own book. However, this is still another stellar book by one of my favorite authors. ( )