Dreamland: An Evening Standard 'Best New Book' of 2021

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Lani is joining Dara’s firm, and the timing is impeccable for undermining the years of cutthroat efforts and ludicrous hours she’s sunk into her job trying to secure a partnership. She tells her best friend, Amaka, in hopes they can dig up some dirt on the guy and figure out what to do. This author has written a variety of historical fiction novels that I have enjoyed over the years. And when I say variety, I mean variety. She’s written books about Tudor era mysteries with nuns and eighteenth century porcelain collectors and now here we are moving across the pond to Coney Island in the early 1900s. 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.

For a historical young adult murder mystery, it was okay. I will admit that I found the story boring but it also wasn't the story that I expected to read. If others are going into this novel expecting the setting to be a huge factor in the story, they may be disappointed as well.

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However, the books can also prove confusing for some people. In fact, the biggest Dreamland fans will tell you that they have a basic understanding of the military, its structure, and operations, not to mention military vehicles and planes.

Overall it was a compelling mystery story, with some interesting comments on class and prejudice in the early 20th century.

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Thank you to @endeavour_media for sending me a copy of Dreamland to review! This historical mystery set in 1911 in Coney Island is one to read if you enjoy being whisked away to a different time period! Bilyeau excels at writing atmosphere and setting, and for much of this novel I really felt like I was wandering around Dreamland, one of Coney Island’s amusement parks, seeing the bright lights, hearing the pitches of the people working the booths, smelling popcorn, hotdogs and fried onions - loved that! No. Peggy has been working at the Moonrise Bookstore, and she dislikes nothing more than rubbing elbows with fellow socialites.

This book was received from the Author, and Publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own There aren’t many books set in Coney Island and for me, it conjures romantic, carefree, and quirky images of by gone days so I was absolutely on board with reading this book!Such fans do not really have to work that hard to put all the pieces into place and make sense of all the jargon that Dale Brown throws around. For most normal readers, though, the Dreamland series can feel like a chore to read