This book completely lived up to it's enticing cover and title. I loved everything about this book and I will definitely look for more to read by Bilyeau! I enjoyed the pacing and character development so much and completely got wrapped up in the story.

Okay, yes, I have to be honest. I requested this ARC because it was love at first sight. This cover made my cursor stop in its track and after reading the synopsis, I clicked on the button 'Request'.

Wow. This was a fun ride full of suspense. And I loved it.
Frankly, I loved Peggy the most. She was such an interesting character -- strong, independent with a fierce and loyal heart. I enjoyed reading about her rebellious nature -- an heiress who rejects social norms in order to live her life to the fullest. Peggy is someone I'd like to have as a friend, someone that takes your word for granted, and fights for what's right. What I really admired about her was her strong will. How she didn't crumble everytime she was called a black sheep or ignored by her family for being a New woman, who, you know, actually works. And I really applauded her in the scene where she was mocked by the lower-class for wanting to help Stefan. She radiated amazing self-confidence and didn't rise to the bait of her being just a pampered princess who has no idea what's really happening in the world.
Peggy was someone who didn't really fit in her world of glamour, money and comfort. She was also rejected by the outside world, being labelled as a naive heiress who didn't have to work a minute for a life of privilege. But what Peggy did was put on her designer clothes, used her expensive earrings and showed the world what it means to take a stand against everyone, and win.

So, Peggy was my favourite of the lot. But I think that Lydia was the one that had undergone through a major transformation as a character. She came a long way, from being a meek, pliable girl, engaged to a prosperous partner, to a reliable sister to Peggy and a bold woman, ready to take a stand against injustice. Still, this book wouldn't have been as great if it were told from Lydia's perspective. In my opinion, Peggy made all the difference between making this book a delight to read and a total bore.

Now, Stefan. I didn't ship him and Peggy. Honestly, I had another prospect in mind for Peggy and was hoping for the interest to blossom until the very end, but alas, nothing happened there. Nevertheless, Stefan was an interesting character. The sneers and unkindness he received for being a Serb immigrant only made this story all the more accurate. The time that we're living in right now is a strange time where there are a lot of immigrants crossing Europe. And the media portrayals only make us more judgmental. We see them as a threat instead of regular people in search of a better future. And of course, the public is more than ready to point fingers at them when something bad happens. Like with Stefan. Also, it was quite refreshing reading about Dalmatia and Serbia given the fact that I'm Slovene and my parents were living in the Ex-Yugoslavia.

And here comes the star. Benny Boy. Well, Ben, but I enjoyed his character way too much I started calling him that every time he blessed me with his presence. I don't know what that makes me, granted that he was twisted and cruel as the other Batternberg family members, but he was something else entirely. He was not quite like his father, David Batternberg, but neither was he as honest as Peggy. For me, Peggy and Ben made quite a duo.

I was really taken by surprise how much I enjoyed this book. I suspected who the real murderer was for a while but that didn't make the story lacking in any way. I really appreciated the way the author portrayed the social standings -- how being born in money didn't make you an evil person but also how much lower-classes had to work to make ends meet. This being at the beginning of the 20th century, there was a lot of discrimination -- discrimination against immigrants, people of colour, women and their rights.

I thought this was a very engaging read about the early 1900’s in Coney Island. I’m not sure if it was based on historical facts, but it is a mystery novel and I read it in one setting. I thought the writing was good and it kept me interested. Thank you to netgalley for the arc.

Peggy is a privileged heiress in an elitist American family. She’s always been a black sheep in the family – one of the only one to take a regular job despite already being worth a fortune – but she’s called upon to put differences aside and spend a summer with the family group at the exotic Oriental Hotel on Coney Island. Her sister, Lydia, is engaged to wealthy bachelor Henry, and the entire family must show a united front and spend time with Henry and his family at his request in order to seal the deal.

At first, she's a reluctant holiday maker, but she soon discovers more to her forced trip than meets the eye. She spends time alone in Coney Island amusement park Dreamland and meets a mysterious European artist, and soon finds herself embroiled in a murder investigation.

There’s a whole load of family secrets and tensions and social politics packed into this short tale, and it’s definitely an incredibly well-researched historical piece. This author knows her stuff. It’s just that, personally, I wanted a little more action and a little less politics. I was expecting more scandal and drama than stolen kisses on a theme park ride and someone rebelling by wearing a modified bathing suit and swimming for a large chunk of the novel. The final third does pick up considerably, but I did find myself second-guessing everything expecting more twists and turns which just didn’t come. Perhaps I’ve just become too accustomed to the modern thriller.

I was intrigued to read after about the inspiration behind this novel; the Battenberg family is not real but Peggy herself is inspired by Peggy Guggenheim. And Dreamland really did exist, enjoying its heyday in the early 1900s before dramatic events near the end of the novel took hold. The author does capture the atmosphere of the amusement park and the stifling tensions of upper class society perfectly.

It’s difficult to review a book with which I can find absolutely nothing wrong, but I just didn’t feel compelled to keep reading.The reader follows Peggy’s quiet rebellion from her family closely, and perhaps this should have been more empathetic than it was – but I just struggled to connect with her odd combination of rebellion and naivety or comprehend the restrictions of being a young woman in this sheltered, upper-class society. There are some glimmers of closeness between Peggy and her sister Lydia, but most of her family are quite unlikeable. So, a thriller this is not but it is an intelligent examination of social classes in the 1900s, with a little murder and intrigue thrown in.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately, I couldnt get past the first chapter. It is very rambling. I loved Bilyeau's Crown trilogy. I'll try to take this book up again after the holdiays.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC for an honest review.
Dreamland was diverting, but not deep. Nancy Bilyeau wrote a perfectly fine historical murder mystery, but it did not tantalize. The protagonist, Peggy, was not engaging, and the romance at the crux of the novel felt contrived. The plot was also fairly transparent and there was no surprise when the murderer was uncovered. Bilyeau wrote pretty prose, evoking lovely pictures of New York City and Coney Island, but her efforts were thwarted by a tedious story that took too long to unfurl and conclude.

A naive young woman from a wealthy family becomes embroiled in murder, set against the backdrop of Coney Island's heyday, workers' rights movements, and women's suffrage. The descriptions of the various amusement parks and their workers was interesting, but the characters were fairly one-dimensional and ultimately the plot was slow and predictable.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book and devoured it in less than 24 hours.
The writing completely transported me to the American playground. Some characters were unlikable but this was international

Dreamland takes place during 1911 at the famous Coney Island in New York. Peggy, the main character, is a young heiress and cannot stand to being forced to spend the summer with her family, who is pretentious and money hungry. She soon finds herself caught in a web of love, deceit, and...murder.

I have to admit, this was a pretty slow read for the first half of the book. I didn’t feel connected to the characters for some time but as I went on I rather liked the headstrong female portrayal of Peggy.

This book can be described as a historical fiction murder mystery with some romance thrown in. It had great descriptions of the “America’s Playground” set upon the seaside and the various attractions within Coney Island.

3.75 Stars (rounded up) https://kbbookreviews867789450.wordpr... (also on Goodreads/twitter )

Dreamland, by Nancy Bilyeau is a gorgeous historical mystery/thriller set in 1911 with a sprinkle of romance and sinister murders.

Synopsis: Peggy Batternberg, a member of one of the richest families in America, longs to be free of her controlling socially obssesed family but when her uncle shows up at the bookshop where she works and demands she return home with him, she has no choice but to obey.

During her journey and upon her arrival she learns her father died in debt, her mother is selling their home and the family are going on holiday to Coney Island at the request of Peggy’s sister’s (Lydia) soon to be mother-in law. The family insists that Peggy goes with them in order to help show a united front, Peggy refuses and is forced to accompany them anyway.

Soon after their arrival, Peggy falls in love with a small time artist, who also happens to be an immigrant in America – a man her family would not approve of. However, sinister occurences ruin this secret love and family holiday as multiple murders occur and the Batternberg secrets are laid bare.

How far can money and social status reach? Who is committing these awful crimes? And how is Peggy involved?

— Beautiful And Rich —
The Writing Style And Narrative. Nancy Bilyeau’s writing style is incredibly beautiful and rich, it efficiently draws you in and keeps you hooked. The descriptions used are gorgeous and immersive and the world is intricately woven, I couldn’t help but love it. The narrative perspective we have is that of Peggy’s, the main character, so we are only able to knowwhat she does, and it helps to maintain the mystery in the novel. It also adds another layer of mystery as Peggy slowly reveals things that occured in the past that now effects her relationships with people in the present, particularly Ben (her cousin) and Henry (her sister’s fiance), though Peggy has rocky relationship with the entire family, these two are the most significant. The narrativeallows for the murder mystery elemement to maintain some suspense throughout the book and maintain a level of intrigue that keeps you reading.

— Fun And Intriguing —
The Plot. So, the plot itself is a little inaccurate in terms of history, primarily the Dreamland fire having occured in May (I believe) and in the book it happens a few months after this, but it does not remove the enjoyment of the story and the Dreamland aspects. The plot itself is actually very interesting with Bilyeau exploring the divide of the social classes through her charaters and through the criminal justice system. A relationship is created between Peggy, our rich heiress, and Stefan, a poor pier side artist and Serbian immigrant, which allows an in depth exploration of social class structure, racism, and corruption – this was a wonderful addtion to the plot as it added a layer of sophistication to the story that I rather enjoyed.

The murder mystery aspect was also fun and interesting with a few potential suspects that, at the start of the story, makes it difficult to predict. However, as the story goes on you are quickly able to predict who is committing the crimes, personally I felt it was a little too obvious so the reveal wasn’t too shocking. On the contrary, I will admit that I was suprised at how they did it and what/who else was involved but overall there wasn’t much shock or suprise at the end.

The begininning and the end of the book had wonderful pacing, I was hooked from the start and loved how Peggy is whisked away to Coney Island. Similarly, the ending has a significant amount of action and suspense that creates a quicker pace that I enjoyed. The middle of the story did, at times, drag out a little for me and some elements I would have liked explored a little more, but on the whole the pacing was decent and allowed me to read it relatively easily.

Moreover, I also enjoyed how, as the story goes on, conflict between major and minor characters is created specifically in terms of Peggy and the Coney Island pier workers. Furthermore, the police element was interesting and well written with Bilyeau exploring the corruption and racism ingrained in the system, particularly during this time period. It was well written and shocking to see with Peggy’s naivety adding to the general horrific atmosphere.

— Complex And Well Crafted —
The Characters. Each character in the story is well developed and were complex and well-crafted but I will only talk about a few of them becuse the Batternberg family is relatively large!

Peggy. Peggy is determined to be independant from her family (though she intends to use her inheritance to do so) and cannot stand their uptight behaviour. She wants to be free from the social restraints that bind her family to a life of social politness and attemts to do so at every opportunity. However, since she has grown up in a high social class she is relatively naive about the real world and is shocked to see the true horrors the working class suffer from.

As an attempt to be independent, she goes to Coney Island’s Dreamland where she mmeets Stefan. She spends the day with him but hides the fact that she is a rich heiress. Eventually, however, he finds out but the relationship is quickly fixed and the two see each other on multiple occassions, though not without trouble as the police have their eyes on him. While I enjoyed reading about their dynamic and their differences, I felt that the love was that of the ‘insta-love’ type and I couldn’t get entirely on board with it, at times it felt more like an attempt at rebellion rather than a loving relationship (On Peggy’s part). But, I did love Stefan and his behaviour in the relationship and found the dynamic to be incredibly intriguing.

Stefan. An adorable, humble and gentlemanly artist, who is miles better than any of the Batternberg men. Stefan is clever, creative, peaceful and incredibly loyal to thos ehe cares about, and is selfless, particularly in his relationship with Peggy. He has a great dynamic with all of his friends/family and is just a decent person in general. His ending (and how his relationship with Peggy is at the end) was probably the thing that shocked me most but it was the perfect ending for many reasons.

Lydia. The pretty, quiet and conforming lady betrothed to Henry for the good of the family. Lydia was incredibly obedient to her mother and to Henry’s wishes in the book but as the story goes on we get to see more and more of her personality and it was brilliant. I loved Lydia’s character by the end and her independence and goas made her arc one of the most significant ones.

Henry. Oh how I hated this character. He had no redeeming qulities, was obseesed with female purity, was extremely controlling and just overall irritating. Henry’s character was a source of hatred and conflict throughout the novel and his ending was bitersweet, on one hand it was what he deserved but on the other he deserved so much more than what he got and got so much more than he deserved. Confusing I know, but once you read it you will see what I mean.

Ben. Ben kind of creeped me out, while simultaneously managed to be charming at times. Overall, I didn’t love his character he was questionable and as bad as all the other Batterberg men but was probably a little more redeemable than some of them.

— Interesting And Lovely —
Overall. The story was an Interesting and lovely one with gorgeous detail, beautiful writing and wonderful characters that I loved and hated. The mystery was fun, despite the predictability, and the pacing is mostly decent. The themes are the true gold of this story with a significant focus on society, class, corruption, sexism and racism and it made the story all the more intriguing.

If you love historical fiction and mystery then you will love this!

Content Warning: Violence (broad spectrum both direct and indirect), murder, implied/very brief discussion of rape, implied and brief/ non-explicit mentions of incest (not sexual), trauma, abuse.

*I received an eARC of #Dreamland by Nancy Bilyeau from #Netgalley @Endeavour_Media in exchange for an honest review*.

The year is 1911 and wealthy Peggy Batternberg is taken to spend the summer with her family in the more exclusive hotels along the beach from the Coney Island theme parks. Her sister, Lydia, is engaged to a man she has doubts about and Peggy is struggling with her status as one of New York's leading and high profile families. One night, slipping into the chaos of the Dreamland theme park, Peggy finds a world far from the brittle order and veneer of decorum of her family's existence. However, Coney Island is also experiencing a spate of murders and the unconventional Peggy is to be caught up in solving the crimes.

The setting of this novel is what drew me in; I loved the contrast of the Coney Island funfairs with the formality of the high class hotels. The sense of Peggy's claustrophobia in her ordered life was palpable and well drawn. Peggy herself was an appealing character with a sense of independence that was heartening, and Lydia became a much stronger character as the novel progressed. Furthermore, there was an engaging range of supporting characters, some woefully underused, I thought.

My main problem with the novel was its lack of clarity on genre. It kind of fell between being a clever crime novel (the denouement was not a huge surprise) and a love story defying class boundaries. Because it didn't commit to either, it became neither, which was a shame. It could so easily have picked a route and stuck with it, but instead I found myself unconvinced by the romance and wanting a more twisty crime investigation. I was disappointed in the ending, but wasn't really sure by this point what a satisfying ending would look like given the rest of the story.

I did enjoy this and it is clearly well-written, but it's not a five star review because of the frustrations detailed above. I could really have immersed myself in this beautifully drawn world, but instead I found myself distracted by the muddle of genres. A real shame, but four stars for some captivating writing and characters.

I personally found this book to be a bit meandering and dry. I really, really wanted to enjoy the book because the premise sounded amazing but there were too many points in the story that felt extraneous. However, I did enjoy the main storyline of the story enough that I would recommend this to people who are okay with longer, meandering stories.

Aside from a few historical inaccuracies (the biggest being that Dreamland burned down in May of 1911 but this story takes place months after that) I was drawn into the vivid time period and this wonderful place. The descriptions were lovely and the murder mystery was engaging. The young, unmarried Peggy Batternberg lives life according to her own wants and desires, despite the pressures of her prominent family and society expectations. These are always the best heroines. Peggy falls for a Serbian artist named Stefan who soon becomes the prime suspect for a string of murders that plague the boardwalk hotel area. She searches for the real killer to free her new love in a well-paced mystery. I enjoyed the book and the characters and would read more about them if they returned. Maybe it was the time period or the setting, but I was swept into the story with sadness when it ended.

Like most prominent families, the Batternberg family is full of scandal and secrecy. Peggy is forced to spend the summer with her family in Brooklyn, near Coney Island. While there, she sees several dead women’s corpses on the beach. She gets romantically involved with a foreign artist named Stefan. Stefan becomes the chief suspect for the murders. As the story unravels, the Batternberg family secrets are exposed.

I tried to enjoy this book, but there were too many problems. The first one is that the history of the book is incorrect. The story is centered around Dreamland at Coney Island in July of 1911, but the real park was destroyed and closed in May of 1911. I felt like the story had a lot of unnecessary and long situations. It felt choppy. The first 50% of the book was more enjoyable than the last 50%.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I expected to like this book based on my enjoyment of all previous books of historical fiction written by this author. I did not enjoy the book, however. The heroine possessed a very awkward combination of independence and naivety and her actions were simply impossible to embrace.
It was 1911; the young woman struggling to be free of her family edicts in New York City makes many poor/risky choices. Does that heighten the drama as it did in Bilyeau's last book? Yes, but in this case it is too implausible for me considering her position as unmarried young Jewish woman from socially important family under public scrutiny at all times.
I can get into young women seeking some higher goal, but it changes the game when the goal is essentially "lust" when the men of her family have already proven themselves to be moral wrecks themselves.
Lots of drama ensues in the setting of Coney Island of yore not dissimilar to Gothic tales of old. Here, though, there is no hero to the rescue.

Thank you to publisher for ARC through NetGalley.

2.5 stars


I was confused by this book. Was it trying to me a romance,or a murder mystery?
I was confused by our main character who proved to be independent,plucky and knew her own mind... So why then did she let her family bully her into going away with them?
Perfectly readable,but I feel I missed something somewhere.

I really enjoyed this book and it is a definite read for historical fiction readers of Coney Island. To read an in-depth review of this book i will be posting an article on my website on the publication date, www.zoesreadingcorner.com.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was a pretty good book and I enjoyed it but I did have a few issues with it, most notably the fact that the events happen in July 1911 at the Dreamland amusement park in Coney Island and Dreamland was actually destroyed by a fire in May 1911. Also, there was instalove of which I'm not a fan. Peggy's love for Stefan seemed more like an act of rebellion against her family and society, rather than actual love. She knew the guy two seconds. I did enjoy the time period and thought the class differences and privileges were well portrayed. The identity of the murderer was a little too obvious, but I love early New York City history and found the setting of the amusement parks, grand hotels, and Coney Island very fascinating. Overall, I really enjoyed this and would recommend for anyone who loves historical fiction focusing on the Progressive Era. Thank you to Endeavor for the DRC in exchange for an honest review.

Dreamland was fantastic! It was a little slow at first, but once I was fully emersed in the culture of the early 1900's and the plot, I couldn't put it down.

I loved the setting and I thought the author did a great job making you feel like you were in that time period. I just couldn’t connect with the characters.