It's the summer of 1911 and it's sweltering in the city. We meet Peggy, a shop girl in a local book store, but as you continue to read you find out that she comes from one of the wealthiest families in America. She's been summoned home to accompany her family to the beach for the next two months to help her younger sister ensure that her fiance will finally pick a date for their wedding. Peggy is not exactly thrilled to be whisked away and told what is to be expected of her but when the family calls, you can't say no.
The Batternbergs are to call the Oriental Hotel home for the next two months. But as soon as they get there, they find out that young woman drowned; the cause is unknown.
Peggy finds her way to Coney Island and Dreamland. In Dreamland she finds an artist whose work speaks to her and has an amazing first date with Stefan, the young artist. And then another young lady is murdered.

Truths come out about her family, her sister's finance, his family and happenings at Coney Island and Dreamland.

This is a well written book and I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in this genre of books.

Thank you to the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review. What makes this novel great is the backdrop of Coney Island. I liked learning bits and pieces about what it used to be like. I would recommend for anyone that enjoys Historical Fiction. I enjoyed the mystery in the book as well.

Terrific book. Absolutely loved it. Compelling characters and story line. Kept me interested the entire time.

Historical Fiction has been a new found love of mine when it comes to reading so I was excited to be able to read this novel, by an author that I wasn't familiar with. After finishing this tale, the rest of her books have jumped to the top of my TBR list. I wasn't very familiar with the era or location, so while reading the author did a very good job of transporting me back in time. Both the plot and character development held my interest throughout.

While I enjoyed the historical setting of 1911 Coney Island, the story itself was more mystery than suspense. There were a lot of unlikable characters and much of the story revolved around the privileged elite. I suppose that's why I was never really invested in them, not really caring how the story ended. And it was pretty easy from the beginning to figure out who the bad guys were. For me, it was just okay so I probably won't recommend it.

I really wanted to love this -- since I loved Bilyeau's Joanna Stafford series -- but I didn't. I don't know if was the time period (1911) or the setting (Coney Island), but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

It's a great historical story that transports you to Dreamland from a perspective of a person who had no business being there to begin with, but that fate thought otherwise.

Thank you Netgalley, Endeavour Media, Endeavour Quill and Nancy Bilyeau for free e-Arc in return of my honest review.

A wealthy young American heiress, Peggy, prefers quite and working life to pompous social events and trips that her family is privy to. She succumbs to her family demands to spend whole summer in Coney Island with them along with the family of her sister's fiancee. They all are staying in luxurious hotel overlooking water and neighbouring few attraction parks. Peggy does not know what adventures and what changes this trip might bring.

I enjoy the set up of the novel and the descriptions of the land and attraction parks. I think Nancy Bilyeau succeeded in creating a beautiful atmosphere for the love story between a young wealthy girl and poor artist whom she met in one of the parks. Though, I quite disliked Peggy as a character but it seems her behaviour was appropriate for her upbringing.

I was quite disappointed in the mystery side of the story as I guess about the murderer from the start.

Apart from that, it was a fine book for me.

There are bits of this book that I really liked.

The recreation of the Coney Island amusements and the Edwardian hotels is wonderful. There is a real feeling of stepping back in time.

The decadent lifestyle of the millionaires and their lavish 4th July picnic, the hotdogs and delight at the fairground is all brilliant.

Peggy is conflicted as a character and that could explain while I was ambivalent towards her. On the one hand she is rejecting her family’s wealth and status and on the other hand she uses it all the time. She’s independent and working one day and sulking and drinking Coca-Cola in her suite the next. She’s sulky and rude and causes unnecessary arguments with her family.

I preferred her sister, Lydia. She is beautiful and seems to be conforming to society’s expectations, but she is actually more determined and courageous than Peggy.

The male characters are all quite unappealing! They maybe rich and good looking but they are entitled and misogynistic.

I didn’t find myself particularly rooting for any of the characters.

That said, I did enjoy this book. Dreamland is a snapshot of a time and place that’s long gone. It’s atmospheric and vivid and feels like stepping back in time.

Thank you Netgalley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

So I totally fell in love with this book. It is mysterious, suspenseful, and opens with a darkness from the start. Set in Coney Island, Peggy is determined to set off on her own, working in a bookstore. Of course she meets a struggling artist who in turn takes her on a journey of her own, away from her snobbish life that she is apart of. She finds herself falling for this young artist, while he gets swept up in the murders. Will she be able to clear his name or will the secrets come to light? I love the writing style of Bilyeau. I love how this is set in 1911 on Coney Island, which makes you feel a more relaxed, relatable sense of excitement. The murder, thrill and suspense of the story then adds a whole other layer that Bilyeau transcribes perfectly.

I thought Dreamland was a good read. I thought it was a little different than I expect from this author and took a little bit to get used to it. I give it three stars.

I love the setting of this book. I read a lot of historical fiction but not a ton from this particular era. Being a New Yorker I'm always fascinated to read about Millionaire's Row and things that we can no longer see here but that make up our history. The protagonist had a fun and humorous voice; I don't get to read a lot of recent books that have a likable narrator, for whatever reason that's not the style of the day but I enjoyed our main character right from the start. Overall a fun look back on the Coney Island and NYC of yore, and a good family mystery/drama.

Peggy might be working in a bookstore but she is from old money and when her powerful family insists that she spend the summer with them on Coney Island she is powerless to say no. The request is at the behest of her sister's fiancee, an ex of Peggy herself. Frustrated during the long hot summer of 1911 Peggy finds herself drawn to the public end of Coney Island and the amusement park known as Dreamland. When she meets an aspiring Serbian artist she falls hard but as he is a murder suspect Peggy finds herself torn between love and family duty.
I thoroughly enjoyed much of this novel as it pushes itself beyond the simple historical romance. The undercurrents of racism and prejudice between classes and between different immigrant populations give the story an edge. Whilst the final few chapters lurch a little too far into melodrama the rest of the book is great.

Covering everything from rich American families with deep, disturbing secrets to unrest between the immigrant population and police in New York to Coney Island in all it's tawdry glory, this book was an entertaining ride from start to finish. Peggy of the Batternberg family is a willfull 20 year old who wants nothing more than to keep playing shop girl at a small bookstore and continue avoiding her family. Her Uncle, the patriarch of the family whisks in and basically kidnaps her from work one day as her presence has been made mandatory as a condition of the engagement between her sister and Peggy's old one time flame. Yea, you read that right. Weird. They all cavort off to the Oriental Hotel, down the boardwalk from Coney Island where a series of increasingly strange murders leads right to Peggy and the young Serbian man she's met and fallen head over heels for in a matter of days. The police toss him in jail so Peggy makes it her mission to clear his name and continue their fateful love story. At times draggy, the story covers class issues, deep family secrets, and young love. Entertaining, richly woven story.

Confession time: I'm a book cover judger. Always have been. Always will be.

When I saw the cover Dreamland, I fell in love. I barely read any of the synopsis before asking to read the book, probably because it was giving off some serious Night Circus vibes and I needed more Night Circus in my life.

While this is a very good book in its own right, I want to be clear from the beginning that Dreamland is not Night Circus and isn't even close. These are completely different books in different genres and I don't want anyone going into the book thinking they are remotely related the way I did. Silly me.

I'm a big fan of murder mystery books, and though I'm not sure what that says about me, the genre seems to only be growing, so at least I'm not alone. Dreamland is the perfect amount of historical fiction and mystery with a protagonist that I was immediately drawn to.

I read a lot of reviews for this book after writing my notes for my own review, mostly because I'm always curious to see if people are thinking the same things I am. I have to say I was surprised by the complaints about Peggy. It seems that the reviewers who didn't like her (and the book in general) seemed to find Peggy to wishy washy and indecisive. I feel like that's an unfair assessment.

Peggy was raised in one of the richest families in America and stands to inherit millions of dollars. When the book opens, she has taken a job (unpaid) in a bookshop simply because she has issues with her pampered, unfocused lifestyle. When she is manipulated into vacationing on Coney island with her family, she meets an immigrant whom she is immediately attracted to. From this point on she's supposed to be entirely sure of her future?

Peggy is fighting engrained behavior, family expectations, society in just trying to figure out what she wants out of life. Of course she isn't whole heartedly determined in her pursuit of anything, because at the most basic level, she still isn't sure what she wants. Why can't she question things, change her mind, be apprehensive about what is the right thing for her? I have trouble ordering in a restaurant, but people expect a character to me single minded about their entire lives??

I argue the Peggy was written honestly and realistically.

The best parts of the book were the observations made about immigration and class. I would say it was a dark portrayal of the way immigrants used to be treated, but given today's political climate, Dreamland is more accurately described as a cautionary reminder of how far we haven't come.

With a great mystery and amazing character development, Dreamland is a romantic whodunit with some coney island flare.

Lives of the very wealthy and the working class meet when Peggy and her family summer in Coney Island.

Peggy is headstrong but still of her time, and naive about some things that might surprise a reader.

The story reaches a tense climax and the details of time and place are well done. The overall effect left me perhaps slightly colder than the writer may have wished but the characterisation was believable and the writing deft.

This one started off so well, then it go so slow that it just couldn’t keep me interested. The same with the characters - I started to like Peggy but there just wasn’t enough to keep me going so I DNF.

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.

That’s a pretty impressive spread! All of her books have been well researched and incredibly detailed so I was more than happy to check this one out as well.

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!

Summary
The year is 1911 when twenty-year-old heiress Peggy Batternberg is invited to spend the summer in America’s Playground.

The invitation to the luxurious Oriental Hotel a mile from Coney Island is unwelcome. Despite hailing from one of America’s richest families, Peggy would much rather spend the summer working at the Moonrise Bookstore than keeping up appearances with New York City socialites and her snobbish, controlling family.

But soon it transpires that the hedonism of nearby Coney Island affords Peggy the freedom she has been yearning for, and it’s not long before she finds herself in love with a troubled pier-side artist of humble means, whom the Batternberg patriarchs would surely disapprove of.

Disapprove they may, but hidden behind their pomposity lurks a web of deceit, betrayal and deadly secrets. And as bodies begin to mount up amidst the sweltering clamour of Coney Island, it seems the powerful Batternbergs can get away with anything…even murder.

Extravagant, intoxicating and thumping with suspense, bestselling Nancy Bilyeau’s magnificent Dreamland is a story of corruption, class and dangerous obsession. (summary from Goodreads)

Review
This book was fantastic! I can’t even begin to tell you how pleased I have been lately with all of my new historical fiction releases! I had been hearing great things about this book but when I went to pick it up, I was just not in the mood for anymore historical fiction, but as soon as I cracked it open, I could hardly put it down!

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.

The only thing that I struggled with in this book was the murder mystery. The story starts to kind of get derailed from the murder mystery pretty early on, but then the murder mystery returns in later chapters so I kind of started to wonder if this book could maybe have done without the murder mystery all together? In the summary I felt like the murder mystery was going to be the focus but when I actually got into the book it wasn’t as focused on as I had expected so that said if you are going into this thinking it’s going to be a murder mystery, you might be disappointed.

As a historical fiction novel though, I thought it was wonderful and really enjoyed reading it. This is a seasoned historical fiction writer who continues to showcase her historical knowledge and writing skills!

Book Info and Rating
Paperback, 386 pages
Published January 16th 2020 by Endeavour Quill
ISBN 1911445774 (ISBN13: 9781911445777)
Free review copy provided by publisher, Endeavour Quill in partnership with Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and in no way influenced.
Rating: 4 stars
Genre: historical fiction

This one wasn't for me. Although the characters were interesting, the story started off slow and did not pick up enough to keep my interest. Good setting and premise, but it didn't work for me. DNF.

Rating: 3.5 rounded down

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.

Dreamland takes place in 1911—Peggy Battenberg, a twenty year old girl belonging to one of the richest families in America is forced to spend the summer with her family in Coney Island. Living at the luxurious Oriental Hotel, Peggy only occasionally gets the chance to slip away from the scrutiny she is under and one such time she wanders into Dreamland, an amusement park, where she meets and falls in love with a Serbian artist, Stefan. During her stay, two women are murdered in Coney Island. Between the police investigating the case and Peggy's own disagreements with her family members, Dreamland is a story of mystery, love and courage.

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!

The focus on the mystery was much lesser than I'd expected which was disappointing. Most of the story focuses on Peggy's family and just a bit at the start and a bit at the end truly focuses on the murders (the reveal wasn't surprising at all). Having said that, I did enjoy the family drama and I feel the character development was commendable.

The book didn't have any 'Wow' moments but overall, it was a fun read. So if you're looking for a book that you can read at a leisurely pace and be able to put down whenever you need to because it isn't very gripping, this one will work well.