Endearing characters and an enchanting tale.
If you’ve ever had a dream that was especially vivid and lifelike, one you can’t seem to shake, you might be able to relate to Emily Chandler. Only Emily’s dreams aren’t just realistic; in her sleep, she relives events in the lives of people who lived and died decades ago. While it sounds like it might be a fun escape, this unique gift can be a curse for a teenage girl. Not only does it affect her concentration at school, but since many of these dreamlike experiences result in deaths, Emily is often left feeling troubled and despondent. When her nighttime visits shift to Lucy, a turn-of-the-century young woman radiating joy over her recent engagement, things in Emily’s life quickly begin to improve. Not only are her dreams looking up, but in her waking hours, she has caught the attention of a popular boy at school named Duncan, which is a dramatic change of pace from her usual social isolation. But will Emily’s good fortune come to an end when she is forced to make some life-or-death, history-altering decisions? And how will she handle the feelings that she is developing for a man whom she can only see in her dreams?
With a unique take on time-travel fiction, In Her Dreams tackles the paradox of altered timelines in a fresh and straightforward manner. While the premise of experiencing history through the eyes of others during sleep is intriguing, it is the character relationships that really propel the book’s addictive narrative. Emily’s high school drama, which deals with real-world topics like social rejection and suicide, will be relatable to modern teens, and the developments in Lucy’s life will appeal to those with more regal sensibilities. These two unpredictable storylines intersect at the corner of charming and suspenseful. Despite a century separating them, the connection between Emily and a Victorian-era man named Andrew is palpable and well-developed, and readers will be eager to discover whether these two can overcome the temporal gap keeping them apart. As the story progresses, what begins as simple but engrossing speculative fiction slowly escalates into layer upon layer of complexity, making for a rich storyline that is easy to become immersed in. You’ll fall in love with endearing characters and an enchanting tale in the exciting, time-spanning twist on a romantic adventure story, In Her Dreams.
