Is your fantasy life better than your real life? Who hasn’t imagined being queen or a sex symbol? Images of limousines, bowing servants and gorgeous specimens of beefcake anxious to grant your every wish: sounds like the perfect life. The only problem is eventually waking up and finding out you’re not the star of your own erotic fantasy. Instead you’re a working drudge without much more to look forward to than a foamy latte. Sound familiar? It certainly does to Rhiannon, the heroine of Gwen William’s debut novel, Fantasy Daze.

Rhiannon Rogers is a librarian. Single, no lover, not even a hint of one on the horizon, plus a creeping fear that she might become a cliché like her fellow worker, Agnes, surrounded by cats and good books. It’s not that she doesn’t like books, but instead of reading about adventures and hot sex, she’s ready to have some of her own. The only problem is meeting the perfect partner, someone with a hidden wild side. She doesn’t bump into gorgeous single guys everyday, well, almost never, so she simply fantasizes about them.

Tall, broad shouldered Sam Jacobs is in town to attend tax law classes when he spots the flame-haired beauty, Rhiannon. He doesn’t usually strike up conversations with strange women, but there is a definite pull between the two of them. Underneath, Rhiannon’s prim librarian exterior, he’s hoping, no he knows, there is something very exotic, no make that erotic. The strange thing is Rhiannon doesn’t seem that interested in getting better acquainted once she finds out he’s a tax lawyer. His job is to convince her that there is much, much more than numbers and legal briefs to him, just maybe he’s her fantasy man.

Fantasy Daze opens with a hot sex dream sequence that should melt your hard drive. From there it segues into the life of Walter Mitty, if Walter Mitty were female and horny. Rhiannon’s moments of drifting off to fantasyland are both steamy and amusing. Sam Jacobs plays off Rhiannon very well. Having Rhiannon discount Sam because of his profession is a nice twist.

Fantasy Daze is a dynamite premier novel. It’s fun, bouncy and spicy—even the chapter titles are clever. Gwen Williams is a brand new author well worth reading. Do not miss this brilliant debut novel. I can’t wait for the next one.

Reviewed by Morgan Wyatt
October 2007