REVIEW: 'We Met in Dreams' by Rowan McAllister
Title: We Met in Dreams
Author: Rowan McAllister
Published: February 27, 2017
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Anna Sikorska
Genre: Historical Romance; Erotic Romance
Length: 268 Pages
Tags: M/M; Gay; Thriller: Psychological; Comfort/Hurt; May/December; Mental Illness; HFN
About We Met in Dreams In Victorian London, during a prolonged and pernicious fog, fantasy and reality are about to collide—at least in one man’s troubled mind.
A childhood fever left Arthur Middleton, Viscount Campden, seeing and hearing things no one else does, afraid of the world outside, and unable to function as a true peer of the realm. To protect him from himself—and to protect others from him—he spends his days heavily medicated and locked in his rooms, and his nights in darkness and solitude, tormented by visions, until a stranger appears.
This apparition is different. Fox says he’s a thief and not an entirely good sort of man, yet he returns night after night to ease Arthur’s loneliness without asking for anything in return. Fox might be the key that sets Arthur free, or he might deliver the final blow to Arthur’s tenuous grasp on sanity. Either way, real or imaginary, Arthur needs him too much to care.
Fox is only one of the many secrets and specters haunting Campden House, and Arthur will have to face them all in order to live the life of his dreams.
5 HEART READ
REVIEW:
Insanity and deception, societal manners and chicanery blur in Rowan McAllister’s We Met in Dreams, creating a deliciously suspenseful Victorian atmosphere.
"When the whole world seems mad, a madman is as sane as anyone.”
Arthur Middleton, Viscount Camden, was ten when fevers left him with hallucinations. Four years later, his parents died. After a fit in which Arthur reportedly bit a maid, he was voluntarily confined, locked on the third floor of the family home, “for my own good,” only his books, pianoforte, and a rooftop greenhouse to engage him.
Though generally alone for the last ten years, a cook, maid, footman, and beloved butler tend to Arthur. His only other contacts are a correspondence with his book seller, and a conflicted relationship with his doctor, who prescribes laudanum and complete isolation. Arthur is grateful for his Uncle, who manages the estates, visiting every fortnight to report on transactions. “He could have long ago had me declared non compos mentis, had me locked in an asylum…and taken over everything,”
When Arthur encounters a thief in the greenhouse, Arthur decides the handsome silver-haired stranger, who calls himself “Fox,” is merely another illusion.
“How ridiculous I was in my own rooms, with only an apparition for company.”
Fox, whose world has held little meaning, is disturbed to find someone with a more meager existence. Despite the danger he will be discovered, Fox keeps visiting, his heart touched by Arthur’s endearing authenticity.
Convinced Arthur is sane (especially since Fox also hears one of the alleged hallucinations) he encourages Arthur to ask for more freedoms. “The lord and master of the manor should not be kept in the dark in his own house.”
When a bond develops, Arthur asks why Fox returns. “Why do I wish you happy? I may not be a very good man by society’s standards, but … I’m not without feeling…. Yes, when I first came here, I thought I might receive some sort of absolution by helping you, easing your loneliness. But … you are unlike anyone I’ve ever met, and I was charmed every minute we spent together. Your sweetness, your talent, the way your mind works, your passions, all of them are refreshing and magnetic.”
“No one else ever dared tease me,” Arthur realizes, in turn, noting it’s the first time he’s been treated as an equal. “And he made me laugh. It was such a simple thing, but I’d forgotten how good it felt to laugh.”
But is Fox to be trusted? And how sane is Arthur? Are Arthur’s Uncle, Doctor, or even Fox taking advantage of Arthur’s innocence?
As she ratchets up tension, McAllister conjures a mood as thick as the winter fog. We are left on pins and needles. As the love story deepens, our hope and dread increase in equal measure.
McAllister’s language is brilliant, whether conveying threat or lightheartedness. For example, when Arthur first finds Fox, “My words were met with silence, but a spot of darkness, deeper than the rest, detached itself from the far end of the conservatory and moved toward me. Instinctively I retreated.” And later, when Arthur drinks too much, “I would never had made it through choking down even a bit of egg without tossing up my accounts.”
Only the men’s tender, considerate exploration could offset McAllister’s sinister aura, enticing readers with a glimmer of optimism. And Arthur, pressed forward into a scary new world, gives us courage to read on.
I was so entranced by We Met in Dreams I couldn’t have stopped reading if I tried.
A copy of We Met in Dreams was provided to Kimmers’ Erotic Book Banter, by Dreamspinner Press, at no cost and with no expectations in return. We offer our fair and honest opinion on behalf of our readers.
About the Author
Rowan McAllister is a woman who doesn’t so much create as recreate, taking things ignored and overlooked and hopefully making them into something magical and mortal. She believes it’s all in how you look at it. In addition to a continuing love affair with words, she creates art out of fabric, metal, wood, stone, and any other interesting scraps of life she can get her hands on. Everything is simply one perspective change and a little bit of effort away from becoming a work of art that is both beautiful and functional.
She lives in the woods, on the very edge of suburbia—where civilization drops off and nature takes over—sharing her home with her patient, loving, and grounded husband, her super sweet hairball of a cat, and a mythological beast masquerading as a dog. Her chosen family is made up of a madcap collection of people from many different walks of life, all of whom act as her muses in so many ways, and she would be lost without them.
