Dreamland by Nancy Bilyeau

Dreamland

Author: Nancy Bilyeau

Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery & Suspense

Publisher: Lume Books

Release Date: 2020

Pages: 291

Source: Publisher/Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: The year is 1911 when twenty-year-old heiress Peggy Batternberg is invited to spend the summer in America’s Playground.

The invitation to Coney Island is unwelcome. Despite hailing from one of America’s richest families, Peggy would much rather spend the summer working at the Moonrise Bookstore than keeping up appearances with New York City socialites and her snobbish, controlling family.

But soon it transpires that the hedonism of Coney Island affords Peggy the freedom she has been yearning for, and it’s not long before she finds herself in love with a troubled pier-side artist of humble means, whom the Batternberg patriarchs would surely disapprove of. Disapprove they may, but hidden behind their pomposity lurks a web of deceit, betrayal, and deadly secrets. And as bodies begin to mount up amidst the sweltering clamor of Coney Island, it seems the powerful Batternbergs can get away with anything… even murder.

Extravagant, intoxicating, and thumping with suspense, bestselling Nancy Bilyeau’s magnificent Dreamland is a story of corruption, class, and dangerous obsession.

My Review: Peggy is a member of one of America’s richest families. Her family is on a summer holiday at the Oriental Hotel, which is a mile from Coney Island. Peggy is forced to leave her job at a bookstore and join her family. Shortly after her arrival, a woman is murdered at Coney Island. Can Peggy find the killer while also falling in love with an artist?

Peggy is a fun character. She is feisty and bold. She is a young woman that yearns to break out of her wealthy social circle and become an independent woman. Throughout the novel, she struggles to find her own happiness. She wants to make her own choices rather than let her family define her. I also love the relationship between her and her sister. She cares for her and helps her a lot. I also found her to be a smart, capable heroine who could solve the crimes around Coney Island. Thus, Peggy was the best character in the novel and a person to root for!

Overall, this novel is about finding one’s place in the world. Aside from Peggy, I found the characters to be very stereotypical. The romance between Peggy and the artist was undeveloped and mostly felt like an instant romance. The novel was also focused more on political issues in the early 1900s, which tended to distract me from the main plot. The mystery was predictable, and I guessed the killer pretty early in the story. Still, the novel is very well-written, and the author did an excellent job of making Coney Island come alive! I recommend this book for fans of The Museum of Extraordinary Things, Murder on Astor Place, and Cartier’s Hope! Dreamland is an enjoyable cozy mystery for a hot summer afternoon!

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars

Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer by Samuel Noah Kramer and Diane Wolkstein: A Book Review

Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer Author: Samuel Noah Kramer and Diane Wolkstein Genre: Nonfiction, History, Biography, Religion, Mythology Publisher: Harper Perennial Release Date: 1983 Pages: 256 Source: Personal Collection Synopsis: With the long-awaited publication of this book, we have for the first time in any modern literary form one of the most vital and important of ancient myths—that of Inanna, the world’s first goddess of recorded history and the beloved deity of the ancient Sumerians. The stories and hymns of Inanna (known to the Semites as Ishtar) are inscribed on clay tablets which date back to 2,000 B.C. Over the past forty years, these cuneiform tablets have gradually been restored and deciphered by a small group of international scholars. In this groundbreaking book, Samuel Noah Kramer, the preeminent living expert on Sumer, and Diane Wolkstein, a gifted storyteller and folklorist, have retranslated, order...

Olympias: Mother of Alexander the Great by Elizabeth Carney: A Book Review

Olympias: Mother of Alexander the Great (Women in Antiquity) Author: Elizabeth Carney Genre: Nonfiction, History, Biography Publisher: Routledge Release Date: 2006 Pages: 240 Source: Personal Collection Synopsis: The definitive guide to the life of the first woman to play a major role in Greek political history, this is the first modern biography of Olympias. Presenting a critical assessment of a fascinating and wholly misunderstood figure, Elizabeth Carney penetrates myth, fiction and sexual politics and conducts a close examination of Olympias through historical and literary sources, and brings her to life as she places the figure in the context of her own ancient, brutal political world. Individual examinations look at: the role of Greek religion in Olympias' life literary and artistic traditions about Olympias found throughout the later ancient periods varying representations of Olympias found in the major ancient sources. ...

Interview with Melanie Dickerson

Today, I have the honor to host Melanie Dickerson, who is not only the author of The Healer’s Apprentice , but also of her latest novel, The Captive Maiden . She is a young adult author that spins classic fairy tales into a historical and Christian perspective. I have all of her books. I am still in the process of finishing her series, but the books that I have read, I love them. I even went to her book signing to get her to sign my copy of The Healer’s Apprentice . This interview gives readers a good insight to her writing and style of her novels. I would like to thank Mrs. Dickerson for her time and cooperation with the interview and generosity to give my readers a book giveaway. 1. Can we learn from fairytales, and why do they appeal to you? Fairy tales have amazing themes, and I think we can learn from them. Most of them have some sort of moral or takeaway, a lesson we can learn. I like them, but it's hard to say what it is about them that ap...

History from a Woman's Perspective- A Book Blog

Search This Blog