I have come to the realization that I don't like Gothic books. I like the idea of them but I think they move too slow for me.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Very atmospheric and a totally different take on the gothic novel than I've ever read before. Really looking forward to seeing what Kris produces next!

Robert Highstead is a post-mortem photographer that discovered his calling after the untimely death of his wife Cressida. Three years after her death, he is still haunted by her and often feels and sees her close to him. After the death of a long-lost family member, he is called in to help satisfy the will by taking a post-mortem picture with the corpse in a glass memorial next to where the man's spouse is buried. The experience hits very close to home to his experience losing his wife. This book is very gothic and is based on a fairy tale and history that is often grimm and just incredibly breathtaking. all at the same time. I loved how atmospheric this book and how well written. it was. The blend of genres was well done and I would love to read more from this author. I will definitely be recommending this book to others and will remember this book for a long time. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

This is not my typical read in that I don't love ghost stories, but I was intrigued by this one! It's partially ghost story, part mystery, and part historical fiction, and I really enjoyed it!

Famed poet Hugh de Bonne is dead following his wife, Ada sixteen years earlier. From this, Hugh was thrown into a melancholy that produced some of his most famed works published in The Lost History of Dreams as well as a stained glass chapel where he buried his wife.  With Hugh's death,  distant cousin Robert Hightstead is charged with carrying out Hugh's last wishes- to be buried next to his wife and have a daguerreotype taken with his corpse in the chapel next to Ada's niece, Isabelle Lowell.  Robert is the perfect person for the job since he is currently a post-mortem photographer.  However, Robert is dealing with a ghost of his own and doesn't want to leave London for long.  Upon arriving to Hugh's home in Shropshire, Robert finds that his task is made much harder by Isabelle who will not let anyone open the glass chapel.  Robert and Isabelle finally make a deal where Isabelle will open the glass chapel if Robert will record Ada's story over the course of five nights.  

The Lost History of Dreams creates a haunting by hopeful story and a mystery that patiently waits to be unfolded and solved.  Every character, object and place has been created with a story and a secret that made we want to keep digging in deeper and deeper.  From meeting Robert at the beginning of the story I was very curious about and his past and how that led him to be a post-mortem photographer. As the setting moves to Shropshire in Victorian England, a weight settles upon everything that gives the book a distinctive Gothic, atmospheric feeling.  The ghosts in the story are created as characters just as much as Isabelle and Robert.  I loved the device of a story within a story as Isabelle tells Robert of Ada and Hugh; through the story some mysteries are solved and others arise.  The romance entangles not just the dead, but the living as well as two lost souls untangle death to learn how to live.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

I'm a sucker for historical fiction that features ghosts. I absolutely love gothic fiction, and I saw some refer to this as a mixture of Wuthering Heights and Penny Dreadful -- two of my favorite pieces of media. I very much so enjoyed the tale! As it stands, it does have some of the same quirks as Wuthering Heights and Penny Dreadful that -- though I love them -- have an impact that disrupts the flow. That is, it was a bit slow. It's not a long book at only just over 300 pages, but in a way it felt longer than that. Which can be a little trying when what you're reading is a mystery, haha. However, I still very much so enjoyed the story and I'm looking forward to checking out other stories by the author!

"If there was one thing he’d learned over the past weeks, it was that the truth was only a fabric to be sewn into a garment to suit the wearer’s fancy."

The Lost History of Dreams is a gothic story centering around Robert Highstead – “a historian turned post-mortem photographer” – who is in charge of bringing his deceased uncle Hugh de Bonne – a famous Byronesque poet – home to rest in the chapel de Bonne built for his beloved wife, Ada, sixteen years previously. However, Ada’s niece will not let de Bonne rest in the chapel until Robert will listen to Isabelle’s story of Hugh and Ada’s marriage. Part ghost story, part love story, part mystery.

The author was really good at setting the scene of this gothic ghost story, reminiscent of one of my favorite classics Wuthering Heights. I really like reading gothic stories like this, especially gothic ghost stories, because I think it’s really interesting how many paranormal events are described before science was well-understood. I really liked not knowing who Isabelle really was, and even though she was lying about her true identity, I couldn’t help but like her.

Overall, I did enjoy this story. 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

Thank you to NetGalley and Touchstone Books for a copy of this eBook in exchange for an honest review.

This book tells the story of Robert, a post-mortem photographer who is tasked with transporting his late cousin's remains to a chapel for buriel. There he meets a woman who refuses to open the chapel doors for Robert unless he listens to and transcribes the story of his late cousin's marriage. This in turn leads to him discovering secrets about his own life and marriage.

I greatly enjoyed many aspects of this book. The writing was simply gorgeous, and I was fascinated by the setting. I have never read a book about post-mortem photography before, and I loved this depiction of it.

However, I found that the story sadly fell short for me. I didn't find it as fascinating or gripping as it should have been, which left me feeling let down. If a reader is a fan of historical fiction and grim love stories, then I would recommend they give this one a try!

This story was gothic and atmospheric very much like the tone of Wuthering Heights. I read somewhere that it was Wuthering Heights "without the melodrama", and I have to disagree. This story of grief, lost love, & family secrets is told with the drama of ghosts and superstitions and compelling twists and turns. And I loved it. .
I do recommend it if you liked Wuthering Heights (and maybe even if you didnt) or The Thirteenth Tale. The drama and atmospheric writing also reminded me of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, minus about 39 characters to try to keep track of.

This book just wasn't my cup of tea. I couldn't get into the story. It seems to have great reviews, so please don't let my opinion hold you back! Just disappointed.

The Lost History of Dreams is a beautiful, haunting story about love and loss. Robert Highstead is a daguerreotypist who takes pictures of the recently deceased. He is informed that a relative, the famous poet Hugh de Bonne, has recently passed away and is tasked by his brother to take his remains to be buried in a beautiful glass stained chapel. The chapel, called Ada'a Folly, was created for Hugh's beloved wife, Ada Lowell, and also stands as her final resting place. It is also a popular place for avid fans, calling themselves pilgrims in search of the dream, which is based on Hugh de Bonne's last novel, The Lost History of Dreams. However, Ada's niece, Isabelle Lowell, refuses to open the chapel for anyone. Robert and Isabelle strike a deal, she will spend 5 nights telling him the story of Ada and then she will allow him to photograph to chapel.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm still reeling over this novel! The Lost History of Dreams is a gothic style novel that reminded me a lot of The Thirteenth Tale and Rebecca. Things are not as they seem in the novel and just when you think you have everything figured out, there is another twist. I expected as much because of the comparison to The Thirteenth Tale, but I was still surprised by the ending! At times, I could not put this book down! It was just that good!

If you are a fan of gothic literature then I highly recommend you read this book!

The Lost History of Dreams was my first book by Kris Waldherr. I was captivated by the synopsis and the comparison of Wuthering Heights and The Thirteenth Tale. Gothic and dark this story is set in the Victorian era and follows Robert Highstead as he journeys to the home of his cousin who has just passed to daguerrotype him with his only living relative, a niece who is now in charge of the estate.

The story is told in Robert Highsteads point of view. He is a widower and a daguerrotypist who is sent by his brother John to photograph his dead cousin, poet Hugh de Bonne. Hugh de Bonne has left his inheritance to his neice, Isabelle Lowell, however in order for Miss Lowell to receive her inheritence, Hugh must be laid to rest in the glass chapel (also know as Ada's Folly) where his wife Ada is buried. When Robert arrives with Hugh to Weald House, Isabelle is very cold with him and refuses to unlock Ada's Folly. She will only agree to do so if Robert listens to her story about Ada's life.

Kris Waldherr weaves a gothic story that focuses on obsessive love, secrets and ghosts. I was very interesting in this story from the initial description and was very excited to receive an ARC of this book, but I found the beginning of the story to be very slow paced. I wasn't really invested in the characters all that much and just found the story anticlimactic. It wasn't until a little after halfway that I got engaged in the story with a mystery plot twist about one of the characters identity that peaked my interest. I also wanted to figure out why Isabelle refuses to unlock the glass chapel. If you want a dark fairytale like story this is the one for you!

3.5 stars? I honestly don't even know what to think of this story. It was intriguing enough to keep me reading and reading quite quickly, but I don't even know what I just read. A Gothic Love story within a ghost story? I mean the cover is beautiful which is probably what drew me to it in the first place, I'm a sucker for a pretty cover. The part in the description that really drew me is what the fact that there was a daguerreotype, but the way I read it was that he would take a picture and "find" a clue in said picture not that by him being this he uncovered something in his own family history that really has nothing to do with his said profession. I have a weird obsession with death and things that surround it, I was probably more psyched for a murder mystery vs. what I got. *shrugs*

The Lost History of Dreams
Actual rating 4 stars

What a perfectly morbid tale that blends romance, death, and the imperfect human condition. I truly can’t tell if I loved this book or hated it, and for that reason alone I love it (if that makes any sense). The tragic story of Hugh de Bonne and Ada, as well as the tale of Robert Highstead s enough to drive you to sorrow and despair and yet within the loss there is a mysterious hope and haunting light that forces you to keep reading even when you are emotionally drained and ready to quit.
The only fault I had with this book was the slow middle. The beginning was perfect, the ending was magnificent. But the middle was at times slow and monotonous. Besides this tiny flaw I can find no fault with this masterpiece of a novel. What can I say, I enjoy a good hauntingly heartbreaking novel that makes you question your views and beliefs.

4.5 stars

This book has been on my radar for months. I basically stalked the authors Twitter page waiting to see when there would be ARC’s available and hoping that I would get picked to be an early reader!

To say that this book has my name written all over it is an understatement. I love all things Victorian and Gothic and this book couldn’t have been more intriguing to me if it tried. It had everything I was looking for in a great Gothic read.

I was beyond thrilled to get picked as an early reader and patiently waited to start the book so that I could savor every single aspect of it! The hype around this book has been pretty real, it’s been all over social media for a while now and I couldn’t be more excited to be part of the hype!

Summary

A post-mortem photographer unearths dark secrets of the past that may hold the key to his future, in this captivating debut novel in the gothic tradition of Wuthering Heights and The Thirteenth Tale.

All love stories are ghost stories in disguise.

When famed Byronesque poet Hugh de Bonne is discovered dead of a heart attack in his bath one morning, his cousin Robert Highstead, a historian turned post-mortem photographer, is charged with a simple task: transport Hugh’s remains for burial in a chapel. This chapel, a stained glass folly set on the moors of Shropshire, was built by de Bonne sixteen years earlier to house the remains of his beloved wife and muse, Ada. Since then, the chapel has been locked and abandoned, a pilgrimage site for the rabid fans of de Bonne’s last book, The Lost History of Dreams.

However, Ada’s grief-stricken niece refuses to open the glass chapel for Robert unless he agrees to her bargain: before he can lay Hugh to rest, Robert must record Isabelle’s story of Ada and Hugh’s ill-fated marriage over the course of five nights.

As the mystery of Ada and Hugh’s relationship unfolds, so does the secret behind Robert’s own marriage—including that of his fragile wife, Sida, who has not been the same since the tragic accident three years ago, and the origins of his own morbid profession that has him seeing things he shouldn’t—things from beyond the grave.

Kris Waldherr effortlessly spins a sweeping and atmospheric gothic mystery about love and loss that blurs the line between the past and the present, truth and fiction, and ultimately, life and death (summary from Goodreads).

Review

Like any good Gothic novel, this one start off a little on the slow side. It takes its time building up the creepy factor and creating uneasiness for the reader. Admittedly the first third of the book was a little slow and boring for me. I was eager for the pace to quicken, but Victorians aren’t known for their speed. The author clearly tries to maintain the classic Victorian gothic feel of this book and like a classic writer of the genre, takes her time building up to the story itself.

It had everything that a classic Gothic novel should have—a crumbling family estate, a love story, mysterious dark characters, uneasy or damaged protagonists, and of course ghosts. I absolutely loved this book. It was a thrilling read and after the first third, the rest of the book progressed nicely and the unfolding story was interesting, sensual, and creepy. I loved taking a journey into the unknown with this one!

For me, this wasn’t a fast read. There was a lot of lush prose, historic details, and elegant descriptions that made me want to slow down and enjoy as a reader rather than rush through it to see what the ending was. I like books that move, but having this one be a bit more of a slow burn for me worked.

I was intrigued by the setting, plot, and the characters so needless to say this was a home run for me! I loved it and am excited to read more by this author. What a wonderfully a live Gothic novel!

WOW. What a whirlwind of a book. I don’t know how to sum everything up because I’m just that punched in the head by it. The plot twists completely blindsided me, and Kris Waldherr weaves a damn good story with some gorgeous language. My only complaint is that there was a good deal of lagging in the middle part with a lot of unnecessary details about Ada and Hugh’s honeymoon, which just didn’t add anything to the plot or to the characters in my opinion, but other than that, The Lost History Of Dreams is a stunning meditation on death, love, grief, and acceptance. Highly recommend.

I enjoyed this historical fiction/ love story set in Victorian England with the mystery centering around post mortem photography a different twist to be sure. The story dragged a little bit in the middle but had a satisfying conclusion

The aspects that fascinate me the most about Victorian era are the macabre and the morbid stuff Victorians were so into, like the post-mortem photography and their obsession with death in general. So when I saw the blurb of The Lost History of Dreams, of course I wanted to read it. And it was exactly what I was looking for. I enjoyed it very much. So if you love ghost stories, gothic mysteries, and poetry make sure to pick up this gem.

Thank you to #NetGalley and to the publisher for providing me with an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Kris Waldherr's debut novel The Lost History of Dreams is a beautifully woven tale of love, loss and family secrets. This novel transports the reader back to Victorian England with the assistance of a bleak, but beautiful captured setting that Waldherr uses to take the reader on a journey, This novel is filled with characters, who are haunted, we discover so much about them through the beautiful prose that accentuates their interwoven stories.