emtees's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
In Dreams Begin takes place in the same world as and Falling, Fly. The connections between the two books are loose, and really only become clear towards the end, but I think they are important enough that it makes senes to read and Falling, Fly first, so you’ll be (slightly) less confused by some things that happen in the climax of this book.
Laura is a modern woman. She has a stable, normal life, a practical career in graphic design for an advertising agency, and she has recently married Amit, a man she loves in a down-to-earth way. She doesn’t know if she truly believes in forever love, and she definitely knows she doesn’t believe in crazy love. In a world where people change whether they want to or not, where a promise can be made sincerely and yet be broken, where is there room for that kind of all-consuming passion? But on the night of her wedding, Laura finds herself dreaming her way into another life, that of Maud Gonne, the famously beautiful actress and Irish revolutionary who inspired the poetry of William Butler Yeats. Maud’s world is one of bizarre occult practices and sexist limitations, but also sincere emotion, passion and love. Through Maud, Laura meets Yeats and finds herself drawn into a love affair very different from anything she’s experienced in the modern world. Every night in her dreams, she returns to Maud’s life, but when her glimpses of the past begin seeping over into her waking life, she has to question how innocent these fantasies really are.
Ida Jameson is a Victorian medium of minimal training. Channeling a spirit from the future into the body of her friend Maud was an accident. But Ida, living in a world where women are too easily repressed and abused by men, is desperate for the power the occult can give her, and as Yeat’s passion for the spirit he can only glimpse through Maud’s eyes grows, Ida wields increasing power over the souls of some of her era’s most famous artists and revolutionaries. But Ida’s own dreams go beyond simply channeling spirits or the ideals of revolution; she wants to use Laura and Yeat’s love for her own dark purposes in a scheme that could destroy all of them.
Like the first book in this series, In Dreams Begin is an experience to read. The language is sensuous and overwhelming and it sweeps you along through the story. The themes of passion, commitment and infidelity are all explored through an erotic tale of love across time that questions what of ourselves we really share with those we love and why that matters. The fictional story of the time-traveling Laura is brilliantly woven into the real history of W.B. Yeats, Maud Gonne and their contemporaries. If you aren’t familiar with those historical figures, I’d recommend at least a quick google search before you read this book. White does a good job of outlining the basics of their lives as Laura moves in and out of them, but the story is definitely enhanced by knowing more about them. Yeats and Gonne’s relationship was pretty weird to begin with; in some ways, this fantasy makes more sense of it than reality did. The supernatural elements are intriguing and have a distinctly Victorian feel to them that still manages to feel like the same world as the more contemporary and Falling, Fly.
As in the last book, White here is more interested in exploring themes than she is in laying out a coherent fantasy world, and so there are a lot of questions that are never answered, and aspects of the magic system that seem to run on vibes rather than rules. Personally, I really enjoyed the approach to magic, more than I did in and Falling, Fly. Unlike in that book, here all the main characters are humans who, despite their studies of the occult, can only grasp at the edges of a world of magic, gods and damnation, so it makes sense that everything wouldn’t be neatly wrapped up. And actually, this book answered one of my big questions from the previous one, so that’s nice.
Considering how long it’s been, I don’t think there will be more books in this series, which is too bad. I really enjoyed this world and the style of writing in this series.
Laura is a modern woman. She has a stable, normal life, a practical career in graphic design for an advertising agency, and she has recently married Amit, a man she loves in a down-to-earth way. She doesn’t know if she truly believes in forever love, and she definitely knows she doesn’t believe in crazy love. In a world where people change whether they want to or not, where a promise can be made sincerely and yet be broken, where is there room for that kind of all-consuming passion? But on the night of her wedding, Laura finds herself dreaming her way into another life, that of Maud Gonne, the famously beautiful actress and Irish revolutionary who inspired the poetry of William Butler Yeats. Maud’s world is one of bizarre occult practices and sexist limitations, but also sincere emotion, passion and love. Through Maud, Laura meets Yeats and finds herself drawn into a love affair very different from anything she’s experienced in the modern world. Every night in her dreams, she returns to Maud’s life, but when her glimpses of the past begin seeping over into her waking life, she has to question how innocent these fantasies really are.
Ida Jameson is a Victorian medium of minimal training. Channeling a spirit from the future into the body of her friend Maud was an accident. But Ida, living in a world where women are too easily repressed and abused by men, is desperate for the power the occult can give her, and as Yeat’s passion for the spirit he can only glimpse through Maud’s eyes grows, Ida wields increasing power over the souls of some of her era’s most famous artists and revolutionaries. But Ida’s own dreams go beyond simply channeling spirits or the ideals of revolution; she wants to use Laura and Yeat’s love for her own dark purposes in a scheme that could destroy all of them.
Like the first book in this series, In Dreams Begin is an experience to read. The language is sensuous and overwhelming and it sweeps you along through the story. The themes of passion, commitment and infidelity are all explored through an erotic tale of love across time that questions what of ourselves we really share with those we love and why that matters. The fictional story of the time-traveling Laura is brilliantly woven into the real history of W.B. Yeats, Maud Gonne and their contemporaries. If you aren’t familiar with those historical figures, I’d recommend at least a quick google search before you read this book. White does a good job of outlining the basics of their lives as Laura moves in and out of them, but the story is definitely enhanced by knowing more about them. Yeats and Gonne’s relationship was pretty weird to begin with; in some ways, this fantasy makes more sense of it than reality did. The supernatural elements are intriguing and have a distinctly Victorian feel to them that still manages to feel like the same world as the more contemporary and Falling, Fly.
As in the last book, White here is more interested in exploring themes than she is in laying out a coherent fantasy world, and so there are a lot of questions that are never answered, and aspects of the magic system that seem to run on vibes rather than rules. Personally, I really enjoyed the approach to magic, more than I did in and Falling, Fly. Unlike in that book, here all the main characters are humans who, despite their studies of the occult, can only grasp at the edges of a world of magic, gods and damnation, so it makes sense that everything wouldn’t be neatly wrapped up. And actually, this book answered one of my big questions from the previous one, so that’s nice.
Considering how long it’s been, I don’t think there will be more books in this series, which is too bad. I really enjoyed this world and the style of writing in this series.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming
Minor: Pregnancy, Child abuse, Child death, Medical trauma, and Racism
Period-typical racism and sexism. Slight mentions of child abuse, including sexual abuse, in a character’s backstory. Minor plot lines around pregnancy and child death. A main character is placed into an abuse mental health system. In addition to these warnings, the main plot revolves around characters having sexual relationships while inhabiting someone else’s body, and the ethics of that is not touched on at all.eilatan's review
2.0
I hated this book for erasing and silencing Maud Gonne. NOT COOL.
The only reason it got two stars instead of one is because all the details about Yeats and Gonne's lives were correct, except for the part where apparently the real Maud Gonne wasn't interesting enough for Yeats to possibly fall in love with and had to have her body possessed by someone from our era instead. Someone who felt like an authorial insert character, to be absolutely blunt.
The only reason it got two stars instead of one is because all the details about Yeats and Gonne's lives were correct, except for the part where apparently the real Maud Gonne wasn't interesting enough for Yeats to possibly fall in love with and had to have her body possessed by someone from our era instead. Someone who felt like an authorial insert character, to be absolutely blunt.
bibliotropic's review
4.0
Where do I start with how enjoyable this book was? Really, where do I start? There was so much that I really enjoyed about it that it’s hard to pick one thing to hone in one first of all.
Let’s start with the plot. In Dreams Begin weaves together two stories: the first of Laura, a modern-day newlywed graphic artist; and the second of Maud Gonne, W. B. Yeats, and Ida Jameson, figures from Victorian-era Ireland, fighting in their own ways for various kinds of freedom. Through her growing obsession with mysticism and the occult, Ida channels the spirit of Laura through time and into Maud, where Laura almost immediately falls “ass-over-elbows in love” with Will Yeats, and him with her. Laura struggles to come to grips with her incredibly realistic “Victorian dreams”, as well as her love for another man. Ida’s power-hungry personality drives the plot forward more and more as she searches for ways to gain all that she ever wanted in life, while Will and Laura must reach their conclusions about a love that transcends time.
If it sounds a little cheesy at first, just give it 50 pages. The writing style is beautifully poetic, stunningly erotic in places, and above all else paints a vivid picture of two very different times, each other them wonderful in their own way. The little details that White threw in, such as references to the semi-obscure erotic Victorian magazine, The Pearl, thrilled the history buff in me, and did wonders for making everything come alive.
This book is more than a troubled love story, or a cookie-cutter paranormal romance. (“Cookie-cutter” is probably the last term I would use to describe this book, actually.) White’s characters talk at length and in depth about difficult subjects: religion, spirituality, love, the nature of humanity, good and evil. Far more than just a fluff read, this is the sort of book I would recommend to those who enjoy a good intellectual paranormal romance, the sort that are few and far between.
If this book suffered anywhere, in my opinion, it was in the sex scenes. That’s not to say they weren’t sexy, or were inappropriate, but my goodness, was the word “cock” ever thrown about! I know, I know, it can be hard to find good euphemisms for the penis without turning in the direction of purple prose, but at times, it seemed that the word was overused.
But when that’s my only complaint, and I admit it’s entirely a subjective one, that isn’t much of a deterrent.
If you’re a fan of good intelligent paranormal novels, you should definitely check this one out. You’ll close it after the last page wishing that the story had never ended.
And maybe it never really did.
Let’s start with the plot. In Dreams Begin weaves together two stories: the first of Laura, a modern-day newlywed graphic artist; and the second of Maud Gonne, W. B. Yeats, and Ida Jameson, figures from Victorian-era Ireland, fighting in their own ways for various kinds of freedom. Through her growing obsession with mysticism and the occult, Ida channels the spirit of Laura through time and into Maud, where Laura almost immediately falls “ass-over-elbows in love” with Will Yeats, and him with her. Laura struggles to come to grips with her incredibly realistic “Victorian dreams”, as well as her love for another man. Ida’s power-hungry personality drives the plot forward more and more as she searches for ways to gain all that she ever wanted in life, while Will and Laura must reach their conclusions about a love that transcends time.
If it sounds a little cheesy at first, just give it 50 pages. The writing style is beautifully poetic, stunningly erotic in places, and above all else paints a vivid picture of two very different times, each other them wonderful in their own way. The little details that White threw in, such as references to the semi-obscure erotic Victorian magazine, The Pearl, thrilled the history buff in me, and did wonders for making everything come alive.
This book is more than a troubled love story, or a cookie-cutter paranormal romance. (“Cookie-cutter” is probably the last term I would use to describe this book, actually.) White’s characters talk at length and in depth about difficult subjects: religion, spirituality, love, the nature of humanity, good and evil. Far more than just a fluff read, this is the sort of book I would recommend to those who enjoy a good intellectual paranormal romance, the sort that are few and far between.
If this book suffered anywhere, in my opinion, it was in the sex scenes. That’s not to say they weren’t sexy, or were inappropriate, but my goodness, was the word “cock” ever thrown about! I know, I know, it can be hard to find good euphemisms for the penis without turning in the direction of purple prose, but at times, it seemed that the word was overused.
But when that’s my only complaint, and I admit it’s entirely a subjective one, that isn’t much of a deterrent.
If you’re a fan of good intelligent paranormal novels, you should definitely check this one out. You’ll close it after the last page wishing that the story had never ended.
And maybe it never really did.
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