Sarah Adams returns to her beloved Rome, Kentucky, with In Your Dreams, the fourth installment in her When In Rome series, delivering a story that feels less like fiction and more like a warm embrace from someone who truly understands the weight of feeling perpetually inadequate. This isn’t just another small-town romance—it’s a meditation on what it means to rebuild yourself when the world has convinced you that failure is your defining trait.
Madison Walker has always been “The Failure” in her accomplished family. While her siblings excel at everything they touch, Madison’s life reads like a greatest hits compilation of good intentions gone spectacularly wrong. Her latest catastrophe? Barely scraping through culinary school in New York, where an abusive internship left her with crippling anxiety and the certainty that she’ll never measure up. When an unexpected job offer brings her back to Rome as head chef of a new farm-to-table restaurant, it seems like the perfect escape—until she realizes the offer comes from James Huxley, her brother’s best friend and the last person she wants to disappoint.
James Huxley has spent a decade quietly loving Madison from a distance, watching her shine even when she couldn’t see her own light. A farmer who shoulders the weight of his family’s legacy with silent determination, James is everything Madison thinks she isn’t: steady, reliable, and seemingly unshakeable. But beneath that calm exterior lies a man who’s been holding his breath for years, waiting for the chance to show Madison what he sees when he looks at her.
The Architecture of Becoming
Adams crafts Madison’s journey with remarkable sensitivity, refusing to reduce her struggles to simple self-esteem issues. Madison’s anxiety isn’t a character quirk to be cured by love—it’s a genuine mental health challenge born from workplace abuse and years of internalized failure. The way Adams depicts Madison’s panic attacks and her complicated relationship with perfectionism rings achingly true, never minimizing the reality of these experiences while still allowing space for growth and healing.
The narrative structure mirrors Madison’s internal journey beautifully. Each chapter heading counts down the days until the restaurant opening, creating a ticking clock that amplifies tension while simultaneously tracking Madison’s transformation. This isn’t about whether she’ll succeed or fail; it’s about watching her redefine what success means on her own terms. The dual perspective between Madison and James allows readers intimate access to both the person learning to believe in herself and the person who’s always believed in her, creating a beautiful counterpoint that enriches both character arcs.
What elevates this beyond typical romance fare is Adams’s refusal to present James as Madison’s savior. Yes, he creates an opportunity for her, but the real work—the menu development, the staff training, the creative vision—belongs entirely to Madison. James provides the space; Madison fills it with her own brilliance. This distinction matters enormously, transforming what could have been a problematic “man fixes woman” narrative into something far more nuanced: a story about how being truly seen can help us see ourselves.
The Chemistry of Conversation
Adams has always excelled at dialogue, and In Your Dreams showcases this talent at its finest. The banter between Madison and James crackles with both wit and genuine affection, their conversations feeling lived-in rather than performed. These aren’t two strangers finding their footing; they’re longtime friends discovering new dimensions to a relationship they’ve been building for years. The progression from platonic comfort to romantic tension feels organic precisely because it’s rooted in authentic friendship.
The secondary cast brings Rome, Kentucky, to vivid life without overwhelming the central romance. Madison’s sisters—particularly Emily, the hyper-competent oldest sibling—provide both comic relief and emotional depth. Their dynamics ring true to anyone who’s ever loved family members while simultaneously feeling crushed by their expectations. The town itself becomes a character, with its meddling residents, generational connections, and the particular intimacy of a place where everyone knows your history.
Tommy Huxley, James’s charismatic younger brother, deserves special mention. He could have been a one-dimensional obstacle, but Adams gives him complexity and genuine motivation. His pursuit of Madison and his fraught relationship with James add layers of conflict that feel grounded in real family dynamics rather than manufactured drama.
Where the Recipe Could Use Refinement
Despite its considerable strengths, In Your Dreams stumbles occasionally under the weight of its own ambitions. The pacing falters in the middle section, where the restaurant preparation montage, while rich in culinary detail, sometimes slows the romantic momentum. Readers eager for the next significant development between Madison and James may find themselves wishing Adams would trim some of the menu-planning sequences, however lovingly rendered they might be.
The conflict resolution, while emotionally satisfying, arrives somewhat predictably. Seasoned romance readers will anticipate the major revelation about halfway through, and the path to happily-ever-after follows a fairly conventional trajectory once that truth emerges. This isn’t necessarily a flaw—romance readers often find comfort in familiar patterns—but those seeking substantial plot surprises may feel the story telegraphs its moves too clearly.
Additionally, Madison’s journey from crippling self-doubt to confident chef, while beautifully executed, occasionally feels accelerated. The timeline from her arrival in Rome to the restaurant opening spans only a few months, and while Adams earns Madison’s growth through specific moments and realizations, some readers might wish for a longer timeline to make the transformation feel even more authentic. Mental health recovery rarely follows such a neat trajectory, and the book sometimes glosses over the messier, more inconsistent reality of healing.
The subplot involving Madison’s year of celibacy provides interesting context for her emotional growth but occasionally feels underdeveloped. While it speaks to her desire for deeper connection and her need to break unhealthy patterns, the mechanics of this decision and its resolution could have been explored with greater depth.
The Essence of Excellence
What In Your Dreams does exceptionally well is create space for emotional truth. Adams writes about failure, shame, and the fear of disappointing others with unflinching honesty. Madison’s internal monologue—her constant awareness of her family’s low expectations, her tendency to catastrophize, her struggle to accept compliments—will resonate painfully with anyone who’s ever felt like they’re one mistake away from confirming everyone’s worst assumptions about them.
The romance itself unfolds with patience and care. Adams understands that the best love stories aren’t about grand gestures but about small, consistent acts of seeing and being seen. James doesn’t sweep in with solutions; he provides Madison with chamomile tea when she can’t sleep, carries heavy boxes without being asked, and most importantly, refuses to accept her negative self-talk as truth. Their intimacy builds through shared word search puzzles, late-night conversations, and the particular comfort of being with someone who knows your worst qualities and values you anyway.
The culinary elements ground the story in sensory pleasure. Adams’s food writing is evocative without being overwrought—you can taste the jalapeño cornbread, smell the herb-roasted chicken, feel the satisfaction of a perfectly seasoned dish. The farm-to-table restaurant concept becomes more than a setting; it’s a metaphor for Madison’s journey of taking raw, unprocessed parts of herself and transforming them into something nourishing.
For Readers Who Crave
In Your Dreams will particularly resonate with readers who love:
Friends-to-lovers romances with genuine friendship foundations
Heroines overcoming mental health challenges
Small-town settings with tight-knit communities
Food-centric narratives that celebrate culinary creativity
Slow-burn romances that prioritize emotional intimacy
Stories about redefining success on your own terms
If you enjoyed In Your Dreams, consider these similar titles:
The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren (enemies-to-lovers with self-discovery)
Beach Read by Emily Henry (writers finding themselves and love)
The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon (workplace romance with vulnerability)
Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez (small-town doctor romance with career conflicts)
The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun (reality TV romance with anxiety representation)
The Final Verdict
In Your Dreams offers exactly what Sarah Adams fans have come to expect: genuine warmth, laugh-out-loud humor, and characters who feel like friends by the final page. While it may not revolutionize the contemporary romance genre, it doesn’t need to. Its power lies in the familiar—in capturing those universal feelings of inadequacy and the transformative experience of being loved exactly as you are.
Madison’s journey from culinary school failure to confident chef mirrors a truth many readers will recognize: sometimes the version of success we’ve been chasing isn’t the one that will make us happy. Sometimes coming home, both literally and metaphorically, is the bravest thing we can do. And sometimes the person who’s been quietly believing in us all along is exactly the person we need.
Adams writes with compassion for her flawed, funny, deeply human characters. She understands that healing isn’t linear, that confidence wavers even as it grows, and that happily-ever-after doesn’t mean the end of challenges—just the beginning of facing them together. For readers seeking romance that balances sweetness with substance, humor with heart, In Your Dreams delivers a satisfying feast.