Dragonflies at Night
More than a Love Story
Dragonflies at Night is a novel about love so strong that it lasts, even after death.
In Anne Marie Bennett’s romance novel Dragonflies at Night, a lovestruck couple works through their emotional blocks and career challenges to create their dream life together.
Savannah has planned the perfect getaway from her busy party-planning business: a weekend full of yoga and meditation at Kripalu. The trip is meant to simplify her life. Instead, the weekend brings more complications. She meets an international rockstar, Ben, on the yoga mats and falls head over heels in love.
The good news is: Ben feels the same way. The bad news is: not only do Ben and Savannah live on opposite coasts, but their fast-moving relationship has their friends on high alert. Meanwhile, Ben’s enthusiastic fans, and the privacy-busting paparazzi, force the couple’s relationship into the public eye. With honesty, creativity, and support, Savannah and Ben do everything they can to build their once-in-a-lifetime love.
Savannah—an introvert facing Ben’s world of screaming groupies, intrusive reporters, and controlling publicists—is also passionate about her career, which is imparted in conversations with her coworkers and friends. Her backstory includes the loss of her mother to cancer, and she has a lingering fear of illness that keeps her from committing to Ben. Ben’s character is more built up around his career; he interrupts conversations to write down song ideas in a notebook. These lyrics are featured at the beginning of each chapter, connecting his love of Savannah with the music it inspires.
Savannah’s mother’s spirit lingers close to her daughter; the narrative’s perspectives include hers, and she is tender and sentimental. Moments with Savannah’s mother often involve dragonflies, which become an important, repeating representation of guidance from beyond. But it’s Ben and Savannah’s relationship that guides the novel and its characters most.
The speed and intensity with which the couple’s attachment forms are addressed in direct ways to diffuse concern around the unrealistic elements of their romance. Still, the speed with which they move dampens the excitement of their coupling. Though they face initial resistance from friends and family and struggle with their own insecurities, these issues are resolved with speed and ease. There’s little tension involved, and their story becomes predictable.
Ben’s assistant, with whom he has humorous conversations, and Savannah’s business partner, whose bold, open personality contrasts with hers, also feel attraction to one another. Their relationship is an opposing mirror of Savannah and Ben’s: though Savannah and Ben are ready to drop everything to be together, their friends are hesitant to do the same. Still, their romance has a neat resolution in the novel’s rushed ending.
Dragonflies at Night is a novel about love so strong that it lasts, even after death.
Reviewed by
Delia Stanley
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
