This is the kind of book that keeps surprising you with its twists and turns. Our heroine is in to the dramas of gothic romances. She also has a deep love of the boy next door. He has been her friend forever but when she is ready to move the relationship from friend to lover, he comes home with a wife. What's a gothic romance girl to do? She skips from Austen to Bronte. Now she is the tortured woman watching her true love with his new wife and child. But...is the child natural? Is the wife human? Can this couple of star crossed lovers find happiness together? Or will the intense passion she feels explode?
Good book with interesting characters. Didn't end like I expected.

This was absolutely not what I expected. I wanted Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters, but I think I missed the part about a possible changeling.

I had high hopes for this book, but it didn't seem to have a clear direction. It bounced around too much and the varying points of view were confusing, especially when they were introduced quite a bit into the book. The book is descriptive and I could imagine myself in some of the scenes, but overall, it just didn't work for me. Thank you for the copy.

I stopped reading the description of the book on net galley after the words "Jane Austen" because I have always enjoyed Jane Austen stories. That was my mistake, as this book is not just a period romance like Jane Austen would write it. There is that aspect and then there are fairies and ghosts mixed in.

What is it about?

I stopped reading the description of the book on net galley after the words "Jane Austen" because I have always enjoyed Jane Austen stories. That was my mistake, as this book is not just a period romance like Jane Austen would write it. There is that aspect and then there are fairies and ghosts mixed in. 

Basically, Caroline "Caro" Fyfe is the eldest daughter in a busy 1930's household. She is in love with her childhood best friend, Tom Daley, who recently married a girl from a different town. While Caroline does her best to accept this, Tom discovers he is unhappy in his marriage and wishes he could go back and choose Caroline instead. 

Was it good?

It was okay. There is a lot that happens in the story to keep you interested and wondering about the characters, but I didn't like the writing style. We get to see perspectives of all the major characters (Caro, Tom, her sister Maryanne), and hear all of their secret inner thoughts as well. This method left little to the imagination and took some of the "oooh I wonder what will happen" mystery out of the book. Some of the writing was very poetic, and I did enjoy the references and quotes from Jane Austen and popular poets in that day. 

I also thought that most of the relationships in this book felt toxic, and there were very few happy people. Everyone was manipulative or selfish, and even sensible Caroline makes horrible decisions. 

Finally, I wish the Fairy/Ghost things would have been the focus of the story, rather than just a mechanism for making things happen. 

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What an interesting book.
Caroline Fyfe is a modern women in a not-so modern time. She struggles with her sexual desires in a very buttoned up society.
Tom Daley is a handsome, popular man who deep down is very insecure and has used his personality and looks to get by.
Maryanne is Caroline's sister and looks at people and life with a different point of view.

This is a good book, a nice first attempt by Juliet Valcourt. There are strains of Jane Austen with a sci-fi/fantasy twist and that works for some people.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Caroline once loved a village boy named Tom Daley. But Tom has married another woman, who is pregnant with their child. Yet he can’t let go of the love and connection he and Caroline had. Though no one in the village approves, and convinced that his wife and child are changelings, Tom pursues Caroline harder than even the more available Stephen does. Caroline must choose a pursuer, and decide if she believes Tom that his wife is poisoning him. Mostly romance with a hint of magic, Dreams and Reason is a story about desire and wishes.

I honestly am at lost for words on how to contemplate this story let alone review it. The story is told in a linear format (beginning to end) from three main POVs and the writing was formally simplistic, but I felt like that the plot of the story was missing in-depth details in most of the chapters. 

"It's always the fault of the woman. Isn't that what they teach us right here in this very room?"
 
This is a quoted example from the many examples from the book that shows how allusive certain parts of the writing is which was annoying. Parts of the story will have a moment like this when the story feels like it's about to go somewhere(like talk about women issue or something) but instead of continuing the thought it veers off back into the romance story of Caro and Tom. And, then there was some development I wished had more details like Emily being a witch or who/what Gareth, the mysterious man in Caro's dream, is. I felt that this story could have been so much more, but it was not leaving me disappointed.

'He gave me broken promises and chocolates… disappearing tokens from a disappearing man.'

It is the 1830’s and Carolyn Fyfe is a weaver of tales for her family and deeply heartbroken over her childhood friend and beloved Tom Daley, who has married another. He confides that he doesn’t think his wife is human, of course Carolyn being of sound mind doesn’t believe him until she he becomes ill, as if wasting away. What if it’s true?

Tom isn’t the most honest man, going from woman to woman, betraying his wife, disappointing Carolyn. Carolyn herself is either a creative young woman or a wilting dupe. Through the story she makes choices that cost her family their social standing, makes a rash decision for ‘love’s sake’ because she needs to be selfish for once, and maybe her innocence should excuse her blindness in matters of love, but come on! I was intrigued by Tom’s wife Emily and Caro’s dalliances with her dream man (real or not) Gareth (which I won’t explain as not to spoil anything). I thought this was perfect for a ‘fairytale’ meets Jane Austen literature but it didn’t really go where it could have. Tom is put upon by Emily, which you never really understand why as she seems to be far more interesting than him. Tom is a complete arse, so it’s hard to imagine any woman losing her wits or throwing caution to the wind to be in his arms. Gareth… well that would be a seduction to succumb to, and it could have been one hell of a twist in the story but instead it fizzles out. Emily vanishes conveniently, things happens that had me scratching my head.

It’s fantastic that Caro comes into her own later in the novel, but it no longer felt mysterious nor did it veer into the fairytale folklore that’s promised. The story is supposed to be about some sort of possible ‘darkness’ with Emily, but it’s incredibly brief, then it gets the reader excited about Gareth, surely here is the fairytale aspect and it is but then it all goes awry. Chaos too is fine, but it never really makes much sense what happens with him. When I think of the possibilities this author could have created between Caro and Gareth, I am surprised by the turn she chose.

I was excited to read about a woman that’s bewitched another’s beloved, but is it bewitching when he is willing with anything that comes along? Is there anything mysterious there? Even doing her ‘worst, most evil’ to Tom, I thought ‘eh’. Caro is supposed to be upstanding instead she comes off as meddling and irritating, like it or not Tom chose to marry Emily, so how exactly is he a victim here?

There were enjoyable moments, and I imagine as the author continues to sharpen her writing skills maybe she will take more risks with her characters. Maybe too she will write a fairytale themed book that delves into the truly mysterious. It came off as more a romance rather than folklore. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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Riona Press

Dreams and Reason, by Juliet Valcourt, is a bewildering book. A lot of the book feels like the inverse of a Jane Austen novel, but there are also supernatural elements that further complicate the already tangled relationships in this book. While we do get interesting stories about two girls who receive a crash course in the downsides of love, I think the book should have either gone more supernatural or dropped that element entirely and embraced its take on the Regency comedy of manners.

Caroline Fyfe has always loved Tom Daley. Consequently, she is devastated when he comes back to town with a new wife. Tom regrets his hasty marriage and continues to pursue Caroline, even though the morals of 1830s rural England are strictly against it. Caroline tries to resist, but her love for Tom leads her to live with him after his wife leaves and Caroline turns up pregnant. Life gets worse and worse for Caroline until two devastating events give her a chance to start over. Given the many allusions to Austen, reading about Caroline and Tom’s relationship feels a bit like spying on Lydia and Mr. Wickham after their marriage.

This is enough for a novel but, for some reason, supernatural characters and events are shoehorned into story. These elements are almost completely gone by the end of the book, leaving me to question why they were even there in the first place. I was kind of enjoying those and leaving them undeveloped was a let down. I also had issues with the way Dreams and Reason was written. Until I was told that this book was set in 1830s England, I had no idea where or when I was. I suspect that this time and place was picked because that’s when Austen wrote and because the fairy plot worked a little better then and there. Further, this book is written mostly in wincingly anachronistic dialogue and features weirdly forgiving secondary characters who look past all of Caroline and Tom’s adulterous shenanigans. I finished it, but Dreams and Reason read like a rough draft to me, not a finished novel.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.

<b>2.5 stars</b>
I had high hopes for this book, envisioning it to be a supernatural-touched Jane Austen tale but it unfortunately fell short and suffers from not having a clear direction. Caroline's stories and her writing to me are to me the most developed part of the book's plot, but isn't really central to the plot (nor the book's description) other than providing Caro with inspiration to draw from in her writing. The characters are a little under-developed, but I did really enjoy the closeness that Caroline and Maryanne have with their siblings. While the book is choppy at times, overall the writing is descriptive and the book is well edited.

The story suffers from the jumping of POV (<i>and</i> introducing new ones mid-book was not the best choice). There are a lot of interesting elements of the book, I just wish that it had been a bit more polished and tied together, as none of them individual elements really coalesced in a meaningful way. There was just simply too much going on: tight family relationships which reminded me of <i>Little Women</i>, historical romance and courtship, a female main character that appears to have desires beyond what society deems appropriate (travel), the supernatural and allusions to <i>Midsummer Night's Dream</i>, witches, female authors of the era (and allusions to Jane Austen) and even men's "sowing of wild oats."

I found myself most engaged with the last 20% of the book. While I still was not fond of the switching POV narrative, the developments in Caroline and Mary's lives were fun to read and I was happy enough with the ending. I was disappointed with the Emily/Gareth sub-plots as they were the most jarringly and out of place, but I was equally disappointed that there was not a resolution to those threads.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher, Riona Press, for the copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.