In Your Dreams
by Sarah Adams
3 out of 5 stars
There is a particular reading mood for which *In Your Dreams* is the perfect book: when you want something gentle, warm, and easy to sink into without any emotional turbulence. Sarah Adams has built the When in Rome series around exactly that feeling, and the fourth installment delivers it consistently.
Madison Walker returns to Rome, Kentucky, after years of chasing a culinary career in New York, taking a head chef position at a new restaurant owned by her brother's best friend, James Huxley; a man she's spent years seeing as nothing more than an annoyance. As they work together toward opening night, their dynamic shifts in predictable but satisfying ways.
Adams's great strength is atmosphere. Rome, Kentucky, feels genuinely lived-in, and the food elements of this book add a sensory richness that I loved. The scenes in the kitchen are warm and specific in a way that elevated the romance considerably.
My slight reservation is that the conflict driving the second half felt a little manufactured compared to the organic tension of the earlier pages. The sibling subplot needed more development to land the weight it was asked to carry. And while Madison is likable, I didn't feel I fully understood her inner life by the end.
For readers of the series, this is a satisfying addition. For new readers, any of the first three books is a stronger entry point.
🫖 Tea Pairing: Lavender lemonade; herbal, easy, light, summery
🎵 Soundtrack: "Back Home" by Andy Grammer
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In Your Dreams is exactly the kind of comfort romance the When in Rome series has always done well — warm, small-town, and genuinely sweet, even if it doesn't push beyond that.