3.5 ⭐️

After 15 years of traveling the world as a photographer, Campbell returns to his small hometown—the black sheep everyone loves to talk about. With his stepmother gone, he’s finally ready to build a relationship with his younger half-brother, Kit, and plans to take him back to Atlanta. What he didn’t expect? Fontana—Kit’s close friend and Campbell’s tenant—who’s not about to let that happen without a fight.

The tension between Campbell and Fontana? Electric. Both are shaped by difficult childhoods, giving them a deep, unspoken understanding of each other. Campbell starts out closed off and kind of a jerk, but Fontana matches him beat for beat—tough, fiery, and impossible to ignore.

I also loved the 90s song titles at the beginning of each chapter—total nostalgia.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tracy Sumner for the free advanced copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I enjoyed this book, it gave me nostalgic vibes, the author is a great story teller and I can’t wait to read her other works

True Dreams, is the second book in the True Men series, and is a steamy ’90s-set enemies-to-lovers romance. Campbell True, a photographer who’s returned to his hometown of Promise to help his brother, and Fontana Quinn, a fiercely independent small‑business owner supporting her teenage sister, spark with tension from their first meeting. She soon discovers that Campbell is her landlord, and she wants nothing to do with him as he plans to sell the house.

There is plenty of witty banter intertwined with heartfelt emotion. I found Fontana to be such a resilient, strong woman who cares for everyone around her. Campbell’s love for his brother and the complexity of his relationship with his father, adds a layer of emotional complexity I found compelling. The slow-burning romantic tension is fuelled by chemistry and then friendship and respect.
I really enjoyed the ’90s backdrop as it gave the story a unique charm. This is a heartfelt romance with just the right mix of emotional heft and lighthearted charm.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Who wants some romance 1990’s style- when everyone was afraid of HIV/AIDS, we listened to our love songs from a boom box, non-consensual touch was not frowned upon, and nobody had social media or air tags for stalking each other!! **disclaimer: @smuttybookreviews does not condone stalking and I have never placed an air tag on anyone, though I have considered it.

Campbell True has returned home to his family estate to care for his brother after his evil step-mother dies. She was a real dick, so he stayed far away. Now that he’s home, he’s having to confront his past and his present…especially when he meets the hottie who lives in the cottage on his property, Fontana Quinn. These names are so 90’s soap opera perfection. Campbell and Fontana initially butt heads, but soon enough they are bumping uglies because they are both attractive, single, and love a good aggressive romp.

This book had a lot of 90’s soap opera campiness- everyone had big feelings and pasts from which they were both hiding and running. Fontana has big hair. Campbell has a big D. Overall I had a great time zipping through this throwback romance and remembering the good old days of the late 20th century.

Smut- 2.69 stars
Romance- 4.87 stars
Story- 4.46 stars
Air tags and dating- 13.50 stars…er I mean NEGATIVE 13.50 stars as in they are bad. I mean it.

Fontana has settled in the small town of Promise and finally feels like she’s safe and is making a home for herself there. She works her butt off as a landscaper to support her little sister through college and doesn’t have a lot of time for romantic relationships. Her fragile sense of security is upended when Campbell True reluctantly comes back to town and immediately clashes with Fontana.

These two have a stormy connection from the beginning, with an electric attraction that both of them fight against, for their own reasons.

Campbell had a fraught relationship with his father but he’s always loved his little brother, Kit, and done the best he could to be there for him. Unfortunately, Kit’s mother (and Campbell’s stepmother) made that as difficult as she could, forcing Campbell to keep his distance until she unexpectedly dies. Campbell hides his feelings and vulnerabilities behind an almost impenetrable facade as a playboy photographer. As this is stripped away by Promise and all it entails, Campbell was breaking my heart a bit with his loneliness and the way he was torn between his past and future.

Fontana has steel defences in place, though she has formed close friendships with some of Promise’s residents - including Kit. She bristles at what she sees as Campell’s arrogance and high-handedness with Kit and his future. At times I found Fontana pretty frustrating - I thought she was quick to judge Campbell and then as their relationship developed I found her a bit hypocritical. The more we learn of her past, the clearer it is why she reacts the way she does though. She struggles to trust, but the closer she gets to Campbell, the more he strips away her own defences.

This was a pretty angsty read with a lot of push and pull between Fontana and Campbell. Their pasts mean that their HEA is hard fought for but their chemistry couldn’t be ignored. The writing was so evocative and the setting of Promise was almost a character in its own right. I’m intrigued to see where the rest of the series will take us, with more stories to come from the other True men.

*I received a review copy from the publisher - this is my honest opinion.

True Dreams was my first Tracy Sumner. It had a lot to recommend it, but a blind spot I struggled to get past.

Let’s start with the great. The writing, my goodness, so lyrical and beautiful. Sumner renders the world of Promise, South Carolina in gorgeous, vivid images of the landscape, the old buildings and flora, the light and the sky. I loved the way that Campbell’s photography and Fontana’s garden brought a visual lexicon, a hazy, lush ambience.

I also love how each mc has a creative outlet, a passion that is both a security blanket and a catalyst for growth. Campbell’s camera was effectively positioned as both the thing he hides behind but also the lens that can reveal emotional truth when turned on the right subject, a window to the soul. And Fontana’s garden is a place all her own to let her walls down but also to lay low and play it safe.

These MCs have a palpable connection.
Sumner captures the synthesthetic experience of seeing a person whose presence stops you in your tracks, when the sight of them hits you like a wave. She shows the way this sensation evolves: their awareness of each other deepens and their understanding of each other grows more familiar but, it’s no less breath-stealing. Campbell’s descriptions of how it feels to let Tana in after being closed off for so long are especially lovely, as is his very endearing grand gesture at the end of the book. Their intimate scenes were excellent: kinetic, hot, and intensely emotional.

Finally, from Fontana’s sister and best friend to Campbell’s high school girlfriend and grandfather, side characters were mostly fully formed with clear voices and perspectives. They added comfortable humor and pathos, a texture and lived in depth to the town and to our mc’s lives.

Now. All of this is fantastic. But here’s the snag. Campbell’s family has lived in Promise and owned their land for generations. There is a reference to his great grandfather riding away from “the war,” another to his mother’s side starting the cotton mill in 1887. Other than a reference to “the stories of his ancestors,” that’s all we get. The book does not address the history that would likely have been part of his family’s legacy farming cotton in the south- ie slavery or at the least share cropping. There’s another moment that performs a similar obscuring/distancing, referring to Cam’s cousin Will’s journalism as covering “some conflict” and referencing bombs in Croatia or Cambodia, “one of the C’s.” It’s so self centered, so detached, so othering. I had a really hard time with it, it took me out of the story.

Race might as well not exist in this world of baseline whiteness , except for a teen in Campbell’s photography class who inexplicably identifies his multiracial background when introducing himself. While the text addresses this in that Campbell notices the idiosyncrasy of Luca immediately sharing such personal information, we never get more insight into why he did so. On its own, that might just be a question mark in my head. But Luca is the only nonwhite character. He has been removed from his mother and placed in foster care, but we get very little on his thoughts and emotions about this other than his budding connection to Campbell. That Luca is eventually adopted by Cam and Tana, a development referenced in retrospect in the epilogue, only strengthens my suspicion that he exists as a token.

This is a world of funny, warm characters and well meaning busybodies and flawed people falling in love like magnets caught in the pull of an ever-present and relentless attraction. A world where malignant history is a misty watercolor, where the politics of the outside world can be avoided, where documenting suffering in farflung places is merely a sign of emotional repression and running away. I don’t really know how to reconcile my views on this romance into a coherent rating. I loved what was there, but the gaps were glaring.

Oh to be living again in the 90s, what a generation it was. Tracy Sumner knew what she was doing with the song titles, it took me back to moments in my own life and I truly loved that touch.

Campbell is a famous photographer who returns home to take care of his little brother. Fontana is struggling to keep her business afloat and get her little sister through college. I thought it was interesting how both the MMC and FMC were trying to take care of a younger sibling. Each also has their own baggage of a past but they seem to grow together from it really well as the story progresses.

Campbell and Fontana are at each other immediately and push each other's buttons, but the "enemies to lovers" for this book is not true because it doesn’t take long for the chemistry to take over.

Thank you Tracy Sumner, NetGalley and Victory Editing for the advance copy. All my opinions are my own.

This was one of those books that you think you'll just open to see what it's about and it so quickly becomes your guilty pleasure that you're trying to wake up before everyone else in the house, just to finish another chapter.

It's seductive and positively intoxicating.

I loved how real the small town vibes felt. And how well-developed the characters were. And their half-wit dialogue was spot on for two people who develop an instant attraction. It really keeps you wanting to see more and more how it'll develop in the future.

Every next interaction feels more and more electrifying and sensual.

A lovely summer read!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

His stepmother has died and now Campbell True will return to his family home, for his eleven-year-old half-brother Christopher Ryland aka Kit. Decisions must be made, but he doesn’t want to remain in a house or town where the memories are tainted by a father who wanted to rule his life and disapproved of his photography. What to do with his family home, the Rise, the property and especially the renter in his mothers’ old studio? A developer is interested in acquiring the home and property for a B&B, but what about Fontana Quinn, his renter? She has turned her area of the property into a haven of thriving plants and a place for Kit, who has become attached to her. She surprises him with her request, for time spent with him, for something for herself. He is entranced by her, but he doesn’t plan on staying…he can’t! Fontana is running her own gardening business and wants to purchase the studio as it is the only home she has known while caring for her younger sister. He and his cousins once had plans for the land, for Promise Cotton, but has too much time passed, for all of them? Will he come to realize that home is not always just land and buildings, but where love can grow and flourish? A beautifully descriptive story of love that was meant to be. I received an advance review copy at no cost and without obligation for an honest review. (paytonpuppy)

This is cute and falling back into a book set in the 90s was refreshing and enjoyable. The book is told in alternate points of view with Fontana and Cameron giving their side and, importantly, their emotions as things progress. The odd incursions of another voice threw me a little and weren't needed necessarily. Cameron and Fontana are not straightforward and things get messy and the reactions are sometimes odd and don't necessarily fit with what I thought of the characters. A good read with lovely sexy bits too.

ARC REVIEW (thanks NETGALLEY!)


Uhh idk I didn’t get it? Everything was written so vague and flowery it just hurt my brain. The pull for this book is that it’s set in 1995 but honestly besides slapping a soundtrack to each chapter and throwing in a reference to vans or converse sneakers there’s really nothing about this that can’t be just a plain ol contemporary romance. There’s more telling than showing, they’re on the phone for hours becoming closer and becoming friends but we get none of that. Campbell is back in town to reconnect with Kit there’s never a scene with them together bonding. Weird ass suspense scene out of nowhere in 3rd act. This book was like a dream in where it made no sense. This is my first book by Sumner maybe I’ll try her historicals but this was definitely not a good introduction to me from her as a writer.

Such a great and cute read - I actually felt like I was reading a Hallmark movie, you know the cliche ‘small town meet-cute, where the hero/heroine moves back to the small town they fled after they fell in love with the hero/heroine” but even better as the author has fully fleshed out the characters and story. Small town romance isn’t really my favourite trope but I really enjoyed this book thanks to the author’s ability to create great chemistry between the main characters.

I usually gravitate toward historical romance but when I noticed this 90's themed series by one of my favorite authors I had to give it a chance. I started with True Fate, a novella that is free on Amazon (grab it now, you won't be disappointed!) and it was such a fun, spicy snack I knew I wanted to read more about the True men. So I leapt at the chance to read and review True Dreams and it rocked my socks off. Fun setting, hunky guys, great story, very steamy. It hits all the high marks for me.

The True Men series is set in a quiet little southern town in Promise, South Carolina where everyone knows each other. Campbell True & Fontana Quinn meet on the side of the road when Campbell pulls over to help Fontana with her broken down Jeep. They have instant chemistry, but they both are carrying heavy baggage from seriously messed up childhoods. As a result they dance forward and back with their attraction, and frequently lock horns. The fight or flight response is strong with these two. They also freeze at trusting each other. Campbell is only in Promise temporarily. He wants to sell the True land, pack up his half-brother Kit, and his grandfather and move back to Atlanta where he can be a carefree photographer and to try to ignore his childhood memories of Promise. Fontana lives in a cottage on the True property and wants to remain. Promise has become a sanctuary to her. She's giving her best at running her own landscape business, sending every spare dollar she can to her younger sister Hannah who's in college.

Once Campbell & Fontana gave into their feelings, the story became even more interesting. The spice was off the charts for sure. I was drawn into the emotional tug-of-war of whether they'd listen to their hearts and allow things to progress, or allow the fear to rule and keep their romance to a casual liaison that would quickly end. It was a tear-jerker at times seeing them struggle, and I cheered at their character growth. It was a heartwarming tale that made me smile.

I enjoyed True Dreams and am looking forward to the next in the series, True Ruin. You learn a little about Dallas True in True Dreams, that he's a journalist following wars around the world and the other True men are concerned for him. I hope he'll find his happily ever after in True Ruin, I can't wait to read it.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I jumped at the chance to read True Dreams and absolutely loved it. The setting was charming, the chemistry sizzled, and the story was both emotional and steamy.

The book is set in the small town of Promise, South Carolina, where Campbell True meets Fontana Quinn after stopping to help with her broken-down Jeep. Their connection is instant but complicated by their troubled pasts. Both are guarded and unsure if they can trust love.

Campbell wants to leave Promise behind, while Fontana has made it her home. Their push-pull romance was gripping, with plenty of heartfelt moments. I was rooting for them the whole way.

This story had me smiling and fully invested. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.