Tag Archives: P.B. Cannon

Gardening Woes: A Review of Tomato Dreams

Book cover for Tomato Dreams by P.B. Cannon. Image on cover is a rustic painting of tomatoes growing on a row of tomato plants in a garden. Oddly enough, there are several colourful fish swimming between the plants. Maybe they’re underwater? Title: Tomato Dreams

Author: P.B.Cannon

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: March 10, 2019

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Humour

Length: 34 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Red has planted her very first vegetable garden. She is tending it when she makes a surprising discovery: fish are growing on her tomatoes. With the help of friends that are… let’s just say they are as unusual as Red, she sets out to learn why this has happened – and why flocks of birds are trying to steal the fish.

(Set in the universe of Cady and Sam, a short story series about werewolves and other paranormals.)

Content Warning: Pregnancy

Review:

Even paranormal creatures need downtime.

Imagine finding fish swimming around your tomato plants! I chuckled at that image in the first scene and couldn’t wait to learn more about why this happened and how the characters were going to react to it. Gardening can be unpredictable for sure, but generally one doesn’t find such bizarre changes to their crops from one day to the next.  I don’t want to give away spoilers by going into too much detail about what was actually going on here, but I thought it was a great way to draw new readers in and help us care about these characters and the silly things they sometimes experience.

As much as I enjoyed the leisurely pace of Red’s life, I did find myself wishing for more conflict to keep my interest levels high. It could have been something as simple as a thunderstorm or a brief argument with a grumpy neighbour. High stakes are not necessary here, but I would have happily gone with a much higher rating if Red had faced a few more challenges as she tried to figure out where all of those fish came from.

Some of my favourite scenes were the ones that explore what magic is and isn’t capable of doing in this universe. This is something that can shift dramatically from one story to the next one in the fantasy genre, so I always approach these explanations with an open mind and with as few assumptions about what should be happening as possible. It was interesting to see how this author described the benefits and limitations of magic in her world, and I wouldn’t mind learning more about it in the future.

This was a standalone tale in a series.

Tomato Dreams made me smile.

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