SLEEPING TOGETHER is the story of Vanessa Brown, a pharmaceutical company employee who begins taking an experimental sleeping medication to help herself cope with her ongoing relationship problems. During her drug-fueled dreams, she bonds with her co-worker, Alton Young. The two of them quickly fall into a mind-melding romantic affair that tests the boundaries of science and the human psyche—at least until Nessa’s skeevy boss starts to notice that pills have gone missing from their most promising drug trial.
SLEEPING TOGETHER’s protagonist, Nessa, is a wonderfully flawed main character–fleshed out and very human–who is trapped in an unhappy marriage and is willing to lie and cheat to avoid confronting their failing relationship. She turns to drug use to help herself get away from her living situation.
Nessa’s romantic struggles are the backbone of SLEEPING TOGETHER. Nessa is pulled between her husband, Pete, and Alton. Pete is a “hopeless romantic” that has his eyes set on the American dream (including children!). But while Nessa loves Pete dearly, she’s not certain she’s ready to settle down, and the change that Alton could offer her is more than a little tempting. Nessa constantly struggles with the need to pursue a life of adventure while also craving stability—a sympathetic, universal conflict.
Many of SLEEPING TOGETHER’s core themes focus on the dark side of passion: obsession, covetous behavior, risky decisions, etc. At its center, author Kitty Cook uses the novel to address the damage caused by sexual assault and the terrifying nature of workplace harassment. Cook captures the dangers of being a woman in a male-dominated society, then tackles those dark themes with an earnestness and insight that strengthen the story making SLEEPING TOGETHER the perfect novel for a reader that’s looking for something a little deeper than the standard romance.
SLEEPING TOGETHER is an entertaining and evocative marriage of romance and thriller that turns a modern-day love triangle into a thought-provoking story about humanity’s need to seek stability while avoiding stagnation.
~Stephani Hren for IndieReader