Cover Image: In The Sleep of Death

In The Sleep of Death

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Member Reviews

I loved the use of historical novel with supernatural elements, I loved that it was a Old Western setting and that the characters worked for the time period. It was a lot of fun to read and I enjoyed going on this series.

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From the opening chapter that kept me guessing until the final pages, I found myself rooting for Bo and Lorena throughout. This book drew me in, I frequently found myself wanting to slip away to read another chapter! As a baby boomer- I was also pleasantly entertained with so many references to the time period- many that I had heard about as a young girl! The author does a great job with imagery of the time period and leaves you wanting more! A great read!

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I received a free copy of this book. I am leaving my honest review.

The plot was interesting and kept me guessing until the end. The dream sequences were detailed and well depicted.

My problem is with the main character. Initially she is intelligent and spirited with no intention of marrying. Once she ends up married and in the clutches of her sinister husband and his servant, she ends up losing her most of her spirit. Despite her intelligence she remains meekly loyal to her husband. I realize that due to the time and strictures of society, her choices were limited but I still wanted her to regain her independent spirit.

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A southern belle gets caught up in a witch hunt Western.

Lorena is on the verge of spinsterhood when her lover from her midnight dreams walks into her father's mansion. The only catch is, he is about 40-50 years older than her, a hunched over and shrivelled old man. She marries him and discovers just how they have been meeting up in her dreams decades apart. But as he hypnotizes her to fall asleep, she fears he has a hidden motive for walking dreams together. Because not only do they walk in her dreams, but they explore the dreams and memories of others. To what end? Lorena secretly copies her husband's German journal in order to discover why.

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4 stars.

In 1886 Pennsylvania Lorena Whittaker is a spirited young debutante, one of several girls that her parents are desperate to marry off to wealthy husbands. Though pretty and outwardly calm, Lorena is well-read and speaks her mind to any potential young suitors, resulting in one after another quickly retreating. Eventually her father invites Diedrick Adalwolf to call and much to everyone’s surprise, Lorena marries him six days later.

Lorena, you see, has a secret – every night she dreams of a passionate young lover. Who just happens to be called Diedrick Adalwolf. But when she marries the real Diedrick her dreams change for the worse. No more does she meet the ardent young lover, now it’s her cold, calculating husband who seems to be manipulating her dreams. And Lorena must find why, and how to stop it before it’s too late.

This book was a pleasant surprise; the blurb, although engaging, did make me wonder if this book was going to go down one of several predictable paths. And it didn’t. At all. Well done, author, you got me good! Instead, I found an extremely unusual tale that soon had me engrossed, trying to work out what was going on. Even knowing that one character clearly was doing something dodgy, I was still puzzling how he was going to do it. My attention was honestly held to the very end – and I should add this story’s ending produced a wry chuckle from me.

Two things I particularly appreciated about this book were the detailed dream descriptions, particularly of the mansion Lorena originally visited in her dreams and the characterisation. Although I occasionally found Lorena’s loyalty to her husband hard to credit, I still found her a likable protagonist I wanted to come through all her trials. And while I rapidly wanted Colquoit to take a shotgun to the face, Bo was an absolute sweetheart and I loved his relationship with Lorena.

This is a fairly modest (just over 300 pages) standalone novel. It may not have the engrossing detail of an epic fantasy, but it isn’t trying to. What it is is a dark romance fantasy set in the west that tells an unusual and gripping story. Recommended if you like plots with romance and magic in the old west, or are looking for a palette cleanser between shelfbreaker fantasy tomes.

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