Oh my, this was so much more than I imagined it would be. It was filled with temptation, lies, deception, and a touch of darkness. The tension abounds, and I was hooked into Peggy’s story from the start. The actual mystery itself was also intriguing. Our protagonist, millionaire heiress Peggy Batternberg, is invited to spend her summer at America’s Playground to spend it with some of America’s richest families, as her family attempt to set up her younger sister with a mega rich playboy. But when local women begin turning up dead, the web of deceit and betrayal grows ever more tangled and Peggy begins to suspect her own family... Nancy Bilyeau does a fine job surrounding this storyline with all things Coney Island. The setting provides just the right amount of who done it and why. She's done her research and her atmospheric descriptors are spot-on. Her character of Peggy reflects women of the time period who ached for something more in life while being plagued with social mores and limits. This one is a winner with no prized Kewpie Doll necessary.....just a very satisfying read. One day her uncle shows up and tells her she must join the family for the summer at the Oriental Hotel near Coney Island. Her sister is engaged to a wealthy man and the marriage is important as their father squandered their money away and they need the money that their marriage will bring. While out one evening at Dreamland at Coney Island Peggy meets an artist, Stefan, and she soon falls for him. He opens her eyes to the world outside her little bubble.

What I really enjoyed about this book was that the women in the story are smart and strong-willed. Set during the suffragette movement, when women weren't even allowed to vote, Nancy Bilyeau articulately describes the discrimination faced by women and immigrants as well as the orthodox mindset of the older women and men in the story who believe a woman's place is in the kitchen. A mindset that the main character, Peggy, has no patience for! While the system initially works, allowing the pilot to directly control multiple planes with his mind, he soon loses touch with reality and gives birth to a new nightmare. The cover of Dreamland is beautiful. It reminded me of Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus which I really liked and I requested for this one without reading the summary. It's a completely different genre—Dreamland being a historical mystery and The Night Circus being fantasy. I don't know if it's just me but the cover seemed to promise magic and it was a slight disappointment when I read the summary and realized there would be none. Above is the Oriental Hotel during the 1890's. This is the hotel that Peggy's family stayed at in the story. Read more about Coney Island Historic Luxury Hotels.

About This Game

First, I loved Colby. He’s a decent man at heart, who only wants a simple life, and doesn’t believe he deserves the love of such a pretty young woman. Morgan is just what Colby needs. She supports and loves Colby just the way he is, and wants him by her side as she pursues a music career. She’s young, and her questions and some of her decisions are that of a younger character, but I thought that was a realistic portrayal.

The first Dreamland book came out in 2001. Ever since then, Dale Brown has written one Dreamland series novel every single year, and most of them have been received well by his fans.there is one thing I do know. Women of my family, and all others like us, cannot behave the same as men do.Set in 1911, Peggy Batternberg (yes, she's one of those Batternbergs) is ready to spend the summer playing bookshop keeper far away from her rich, snobbish family. The introduction of OxyContin into the American medical industry might have been the literal cause of addiction, but the origins of the American opiate epidemic are based in a drastic transformation of the way the medical industry viewed and treated pain. Prior to the 1970s, opiates were highly stigmatized in America. Doctors who prescribed opiate painkillers were seen as “outlaws,” as opiate painkillers were highly addictive. The stigmatization of opiates, though somewhat warranted, resulted in the suffering of many patients in legitimate need of pain relief. For decades, researchers and medical professionals searched, in vain, for a “Holy Grail,” a drug that would allow for pain relief without the undesirable side effect of addiction. In the latter half of the 20th century, attitudes toward pain and its treatment began to change with the introduction of palliative care, or “treating the pain and stress of the seriously ill.” One influence of palliative care was the work of Cicely Saunders. Saunders, an English nurse and researcher, treated cancer patients with opiates. Saunders believed “that death should be dignified,” and that patients were entitled to pain relief in their final days. For her Genevieve Planche novels--"The Blue" and "The Fugitive Colours"--she drew on her own heritage to create her Huguenot heroine. Nancy is a descendant of Pierre Billiou, a French Huguenot who immigrated to what was then New Amsterdam (later New York City) in 1661. Pierre's stone house still stands and is the third oldest house in New York State. I have to be honest, this story turned out to be totally different than what I thought it would be. From the summary and the cover, I thought this novel's setting would have a huge impact on the story. I expected the novel to have an atmosphere that would be fantastical and magical, set in a historic Coney Island. I thought the setting would be something similar or akin to "Water for Elephants" or "Caraval" where it made the whole story feel somewhat whimsical and fascinating.

Thank you to Hannah Groves from Endeavor Media for providing me with an advanced copy. Opinions are my own. Dreamland by Nicholas Sparks is a very emotional story of a farmer who enjoys music, an aspiring singer, and a woman escaping an abusive marriage with her young son. Nicholas Sparks writes very emotional books, and Dreamland was no exception.But when he meets Morgan Lee, his world is turned upside-down, making him wonder if the responsibilities he has shouldered need dictate his life forever. The daughter of affluent Chicago doctors, Morgan has graduated from a prestigious college music program with the ambition to move to Nashville and become a star. Romantically and musically, she and Colby complete each other in a way that neither has ever known. I adored Peggy and thought she was so likable and I really felt all of her struggles when it came to class and expectations from her family as well as her other social constraints during that time. The author made her come alive and I acutely felt her struggles which for me is a hallmark of a great characters and story. No. Peggy has been working at the Moonrise Bookstore, and she dislikes nothing more than rubbing elbows with fellow socialites. It was not only VERY rushed, but didn’t really make that much sense. When they told us the murderer I thought it must have been a red herring, because it was so obvious that it was surprising. I don’t understand this character’s motivations for what they did. It was almost suggested they had some form of mental illness, which I did not appreciate. Dreamland is a techno-thriller. The name ‘Dreamland’ refers to a testing facility in the Nevada desert. The facility plays host to the most advanced aerospace technology in the world.