Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC of I Dreamed of Falling. This book was an interesting read; I don't mind a book with unlikeable characters; this one was a bit of a struggle, though everyone was unbearable (though maybe that's the point). The book definitely had a slow start and included many nuances that I thought were not necessary to the plot (gen-z character development didn't feel authentic, COVID storyline); I enjoyed the mystery element and thought the twist was well done.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

I will unfortunately be DNFing this one. I made it to page 75 but have struggled to get into the storyline. I was initially intrigued, but at this point, there’s been a lot of backstory and character introduction without much investigation into Ashley’s death. I know that will come, but I don’t feel like getting to know all the townspeople in the meantime.

I also didn’t love all the COVID talk since it’s still a recent occurrence and it doesn’t seem to have much relevance to the plot up to this point.

Having thoroughly enjoyed Dahl's Invisible City, I was eager to read her latest. This mystery is quite different, taking place in a suburban community on the Hudson River, and involving a pretty conventional dysfunctional family, dealing with financial woes, past mistakes, and loss. The main character is Roman, a small town reporter whose career was thwarted when his girlfriend Ashley became pregnant.. Four years later they are still together with their 4 year old son and living with his mother and her boyfriend. When Ashley goes missing and is then found dead, questions arise about the cause of death, whether suicide, overdose, accident, or murder. As Roman tries to uncover the truth, many secrets about Ashley, her friends, and their community are revealed. The ending was quite a surprise to me, and I actually found it unsatisfying and inconsistent. The chapters from Ashley's point of view, although revealing, were jarring, as if she were writing a journal after her death.

I had mixed feelings about I Dreamed of Falling. I thought the story line was good, and there was a lot that kept me interested and wanting to keep reading.

Ashley was found dead on the side of a cliff at her friend’s house, and rumors and suspicions started swirling around how it all happened. Everyone suspected an overdose while her boyfriend, Roman, insisted that Ashley was clean. As the investigation ensues, secrets come to light that paint Ashley differently than how Roman saw her. How many secrets was Ashley really harboring? Did some of those secrets lead to her early demise?

Overall, the book held my attention. I did find it a bit repetitive and felt like it dragged on at times. My biggest issue though was the incessant mentioning of Covid throughout the story and political views and comments dispersed in places that really added nothing of value to the story. I would have rated this book higher if covid and politics were not a factor; I’ve lived those things, I don’t want to read about them, especially in a book that is not marketed as political in any way.

3 stars from me, it was good, but it felt like it dragged on and was repetitive and could have been about 50 pages shorter.

This grabbed my attention from the start
Very good book with a great pace to the story
A bit annoying with the Covid talk. Just feel the author brought it up too much
Great quick read

A thriller that perhaps has too many threads and character's perspectives. I found myself wondering why Ashley and Roman were even together AND why they chose to have a child together, since they seemed mostly uninterested in both each other and in their child. At the same time, Tara was overly obsessed with their child - and it was strange to me how much his parents seemed to allow that to happen.

Mostly, this made me sad more than thrilled. It's a small town sad story - full of listless people, depression, various addictions, young parents, murder, etc. I will admit that I did not expect the ending, but even that ultimately made me sad more than anything! I wish we had gotten to hear more from Ashley. The few chapters that are from her perspective don't give enough insight into why she is making a lot of the choices she makes, and none of the living characters seemed to understand her at all. She seems to have been let down by every person that she knew, for her whole life.

Again, I think this is more of a character study and domestic drama than it ended up being a thriller/mystery, and I think it would have been nice to have that fleshed out more.

Ok this book had the blueprint for a good book, plot and characters but lord the pandemic talk was a lot as well as some of the story development lost me. I did love all the twists and turns because who doesnt love a good domestic thriller. maybe when it publishes I will give it another try.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the copy of I Dreamed of Falling by Julia Dahl. This is a slow starter and I didn’t get invested in the story or the characters until about halfway through. The story wasn’t focused enough and a lot of time was spent introducing the characters and their relationships and I still had trouble keeping them all straight. This book wasn’t really for me, even though the last half picked up and the big reveal was a surprise. 3 stars, because it was still a decent read after I got interested in the characters.

3.5 ⭐️ - thank you to NetGalley and SMP for providing me with this copy in exchange for an honest review!

Ok so as an avid thriller and suspense reader/critic, I’m traditionally harder on my reviews because I expect a lot. This one checked some of my boxes, but not all of them.

We had a:
Clear Plotline ✅
Unsteady Family Dynamic ✅
Great Twist at the End ✅

The main theming of this novel was clear and concise. I liked that we knew our FMC was missing and we got a little bit of a prologue from her POV before the story really began. I didn’t like how COVID was mentioned what felt like every other paragraph, just too repetitive for me. Every time it was mentioned I felt myself wanting to say ‘again?!’

The family dynamic in this novel is A+. You have an overbearing grandmother who doesn’t know she’s overbearing with a shady past, her fiancé who also has a shady past, her son and his partner who have an open relationship, and of course their 4 year old son who doesn’t really know who to go to for comfort. The open relationship was written about perfectly and again that fluidity was there to make it easily understandable.

Throughout the novel (A+ for it being set in Upstate NY), you were introduced to characters that could’ve possibly been the killer, and while I think the author did a good job at that, maybe eliminating 1-2 so that it wasn’t so confusing would have been ideal. Sometimes the fluff characters get too involved with the story and then you’re kind of left with the wonder of what the heck happens to them too- and that’s where I felt myself missing a few things.

Overall an enjoyable read- I took my time reading this but it was easy to get through and I would recommend this to anyone who wants to see an open relationship represented in literature well combined with the thrills of a suspense novel

Ashley and Roman had a son Mason, they were not married but lived with his Mom Tara and her boyfriend John. Lara had taken care of Hudson from birth as his mom was into drugs and dad was rarely involved. One day Ashley disappeared after being at her friend Belle’s party. When the body from found the chief of police blamed drugs, but one cop Felix felt it was suspicious. Roman was determined to find out what happened. The story is intense, riddled with intriguing, if not suspicious characters and keeps the reader highly involved. A great read.

I did enjoy this book, but I didn’t feel the characters were relatable and the details were a bit inscrutable. It was an entertaining read, but perhaps not my favorite.

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Ashley is a 20-something Mon to 4 year old Mason. She’s in a long term open relationship with Mason’s father Roman and all 3 live with Roman’s mother and her fiancé in a small town on the Hudson River in upstate New York. Roman and Ashley were each other’s best friend and lover since high school…sharing their troubled childhoods and dreams of moving to somewhere better. Roman wins a scholarship to NYU and Ash moves to Hawaii to prefect her yoga practice. Ash eventually returns home to nurse her dying, long-time absent father and she and Roman get pregnant. Roman graduates and instead of accepting a fellowship with the LA Times, he takes a poor paying, boring job with the local newspaper. Unfortunately, Mason’s birth takes place during COVID so Ashley must go thru her difficult C-section in the hospital alone. When she returns home. Ashley is depressed and stays in deb for months. Roman’s mom, who herself was an unwed, young mother and did a horrible job of raising Roman, takes over as main caretaker for baby Mason. The town is now made up of wealth folks who left NYC during the pandemic, poorly kept up houses of long term residents barely scraping by, predatory land speculators, and fentanyl. Ashley’s body is found on a ledge by the Hudson River with pills in her pockets…everyone in town thinks she either OD’d or committed suicide. Roman and one town cop, Felix think differently and they try to piece together Ashley’s last weeks to get to the truth about her death. The ending is shocking and heartbreaking and real.

I really didn’t vibe with this one. The premise totally drew me in with a reporter investigating his baby mama’s death. Would he exact vengeance? Get some much deserved justice?!

…nope 😪 I felt literally *no* investigating happened, aside from some social media stalking and frequent conversations between him and his mom.

The plot had my hopes high but the story crumbled a little due to the slow pacing. I kept reading because I was curious to see how it ended but should’ve DNF’d when I had the chance.

Roman is the sole reporter in his small community. He is still recovering from the trauma of Covid and works to raise his child with his best friend/girl friend while living with his mother who neglected him as a child. He has a lot of issues, but is not dealing with them! When Ashley, the mother of his child goes missing, he has to reconcile what he has done to address the obstacles in his life. The story was well written, but just far too sad for me. Maybe too many truths in one book. There wasn't any person that I could root for. Good story, but sad.

This story takes a while to get into. Most of the major characters come across as obnoxious and self-absorbed, making it harder to care about what happens to them. However, the story improves after a major character, Ashley, dies and there are reasons to believe that her cause of death is not the accidental overdose that was immediately assumed. Roman her longtime partner, who is also a small-town journalist, starts asking questions of friends, former friends, acquaintances, etc., and starts to uncover a secret side to Ashley. Roman has his own secrets that will be revealed, along with secrets of other characters. Fear will be a major factor in the actions or inactions of multiple characters.

This novel was extraordinary in its ability to take prickly characters and expose the softness within. Even with the characters you want to grab by the shoulders and shake, you easily have empathy for the life that lead them to their conclusions.

This advanced reader's copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review.

I received an early release version of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was my first time reading this author and they writing style was smooth and understandable. She did a nice job with character development and you found yourself invested in the main characters. With that being said, the content of this book was quite heavy. I found myself feeling pretty down every time I sat down to read it based on the events. Solid writing, solid plot, just a lot of heavy content.

A small Hudson Valley community rocked by the sudden death of a loved young woman from town who found success during the pandemic in online yoga posts. Was it an accident, suicide or murder?
I enjoyed this twisty novel that had me wondering and believing all three scenarios at different parts.
Will definitely read more Julia Dahl!
Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for this advanced readers edition. Save it now to your list of books to read when released in September.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I enjoyed this book and think you will to.

Julia Dahl’s new standalone, I Dreamed of Falling, is an absolute triumph that left me breathless and on the edge of my seat. Set in a small Hudson Valley town where every mundane event is newsworthy, this novel masterfully combines the gripping suspense of a thriller with the poignant exploration of family and loss.

Roman Grady, the sole reporter for the local newspaper, is thrust into a nightmare when his longtime girlfriend, Ashley, is found dead. The shocking discovery propels Roman into a dark and twisted investigation, revealing that he knew far less about Ashley’s life than he ever imagined. As Roman and his mother peel back the layers of Ashley’s last months, they uncover a web of secrets that threaten not just their understanding of her, but their own safety as well.

Dahl excels at creating an immersive atmosphere filled with tension and dread. The mystery surrounding Ashley’s death is intricately woven, with each revelation drawing you deeper into the labyrinth of deceit and hidden truths. The character development is exceptional; Roman’s journey from grief-stricken partner to relentless seeker of truth is both heartbreaking and inspiring. His relationship with his young son adds a layer of emotional depth that is both tender and raw.

The setting of the small Hudson Valley town is brought to life with vivid detail, making the town itself a character in the story. Dahl’s portrayal of the town’s close-knit yet secretive community is spot-on, capturing the duality of intimacy and suspicion that permeates small-town life.

I Dreamed of Falling also delves into profound themes such as love, regret, inequality, and forgiveness. Dahl’s unflinching exploration of these themes through the lens of crime fiction is both thought-provoking and deeply moving. This novel is not just a thrilling ride but also a compelling study of human nature and the complexities of relationships.

In sum, I Dreamed of Falling is a must-read for fans of crime fiction and anyone who appreciates a well-crafted, emotionally resonant story. Julia Dahl has once again proven her mastery of the genre, delivering an unforgettable novel that will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page.