This is a great thriller that had me hooked from the beginning! Ashley and Roman live with son, Mason who is four. But after a party at Ashley's friend, Bella's house, Ashely is discovered dead in a ravine and a baggie of pills is found in her pocket. Roman is shocked as he'd never known her to use drugs, but he's even more concerned about Mason as he's become somewhat catatonic after his mother's death. The police are investigating but something feels "off" to Roman so he begins his own quiet inquiry into things and discovers some fascinating things he never knew. It's a fast-paced and riveting novel and I'll read more of Dahl in the future!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Wow! I loved this! I couldn’t put it down and read during every free second I could spare. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

My first Julia Dahl book but definitely not my last! This was an interesting take on what our post covid world has become. There were great characters that kept me flipping pages long into the night. Packed with tension, lies and oodles of secrets. All round great read.
Thank you NetGalley, Julia Dahl and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Too many characters were introduced in the beginning. I didn't connect with the characters and I kept forgetting who was who. The story was not interesting enough to keep me engaged.

When Ashley's body is found, the police assume it was an OD. However, one of the officers has his doubts and
wants to discover why Ashley was where she was, Her relationships with Roman, boyfriend and father of their four year
child, his mother Tara , on and off again friends and other acquaintances are presented both in the past and the present.
Secrets revealed and the truth of Ashley's death come to light.
Interesting characters.
#IDreamofFalling #StMartinsPress #NetGalley

Oh my goodness. I feel like I am an emotional wreck. I have laughed but cried several times reading I Dreamed of Falling.
So many plot twists and turns, but fascinating storyline.
Where does love cross the line between families and friends? Why does a mother often feel like she is in charge when her grown child's family lives with her? Sometimes with deadly results.
Julia Dahl is a phenomenal writer and it comes shining throughout I Dreamed of Falling.

#IDreamedOfFalling
#JuliaDahl
#NetGalley

Roman is a young reporter in a small town where the newspaper covers local events and strives not to offend anyone, which stifles Roman's instinct to dig into the secrets of a local power broker. He and his partner Ashley, with their young son, live with his mother and her boyfriend in a house that needs work for their AirBnB business but money is tight. Roman and Ashley have an open relationship and both have had affairs, but lately they've kept secrets from one another. When Ashley is found dead, those secrets eat away at Roman while his mother smothers their child with love that he struggles to provide.

I've enjoyed Dahl's previous work. This one is a little harder to sink into thanks to characters who need a good talking to and a pace that is a bit sluggish. After the blistering pace of her previous standalone, The Missing Hours, this was quite a different reading experience. That said, I appreciate the author's willingness to write about families in difficult financial situations realistically, when so many mysteries somehow evade the reality so many are experiencing, her focus on a part of the country that is far from glamorous, and the complexity of the emotional lives of the characters and their relationships.

Review of Uncorrected Digital Galley

Ashley Lillian, mother of four-year-old Mason, has vanished. She’s not answering text messages and her partner, Roman Grady, sole reporter for the “Adamsville Advocate,” has no idea where to find her.

When he learns that Ashley had been at a party, he heads for Bella’s house. He hadn’t known that the two women had patched up their differences. But he doesn’t have any idea what he’s about to discover . . . .

Ashley is lying on the cliffside . . . dead.

=========

Secrets abound in this tale of murder and mystery. The revelation of back-room dealings and the exposing of lies work together to put events into a different perspective, but the mystery of Ashley’s death is central to the telling of the tale. As the unfolding narrative reveals long-held secrets; grief [and the struggles to deal with it] confound the efforts of the characters to find a way to move on with their lives.

Sadly, most of the characters in this dark, tempestuous tale are thoroughly unlikeable. Sometimes the death of the young mother seems to take a back seat to the supremely dysfunctional family shenanigans, on-going substance abuse, questionable decision-making, and outright lying.

Peppered throughout the telling of this tale is an overused, particularly offensive expletive that adds nothing to the story and is likely to offend many readers; it lowers the rating for this book.

I received a free copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press / Minotaur Books and NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
#IDreamedofFalling #NetGalley

Honestly I don’t have much to say about this book because it was just too ordinary and blah for me overall. I couldn’t get invested into any of the characters and quite frankly I found most of them to be annoying and frustrating.

Roman is the sole news reporter in his small town where not much happens… until his girlfriend Ashley is murdered and he starts the search of who and why. This is a family going through a tragedy, but I couldn’t find the sympathy for them. Secrets of family, friends, and the unknown. This book was also too slow for me and I guessed the killer early on. This was just a very typical story for me.

Thank you to the Author, Netgalley, and St. Martins Press for the ARC!

Unlike some readers, I enjoyed this book greatly. Dahl paints a beautiful picture of a not so beautiful family and town. It takes a certain talent to do that and I thought the characters were unique and interesting. I came close to guessing the conclusion, but was slightly off, so that pleased me as well. The story holds together, but it truly is grit lit and you have to appreciate that genre to immerse in this book. I felt caught up in the book, but it was the setting and characters that really shone through. The ending was spot on.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. The writer is skillful and I'd definitely read more from her.

I kept wondering what the point was, was it a mystery, a family drama in particular with lots of mental health issues and trauma, a story of grief over the unexplained death of his partner.? In this attempt to do too much, it didn't do anything justice and felt superficial and somewhat predictable. The constant talk of covid was too much.

A tearjerker! I was crying every few pages. This is a mystery, but it’s more of a family drama that happens to include a mystery! Ashley is found dead and her family has to figure out how to live forward. Great character development and a strong story that kept me turning the pages.

2 stars

I Dreamed of Falling immediately captured my interest. The blurb sounded like it would be right up my alley. But right from the start, it fell flat. Once the book started, I felt like I was reading a list of what the characters were doing. I wasn't experiencing it, I was being told what was happening. And that is one of the most frustrating things to experience when reading a book.

Roman was boring, he was the most boring character to ever exist. Ashely, I honestly did not care about her at all. The twists and secrets didn't feel like secrets. And don't get me started about Roman's mother, she was so overbearing. Not a single likable character in this book.

The constant covid/pandemic talk was unnecessary. Once or twice, sure, I can live with that. But this was constant. There is no need to remind everyone about it.

This book had so much promise and sounded so intriguing, but the execution just did not work for me. The book was confusing in what it was trying to be. It was trying to go into to many directions and I found myself lost and disconnected from the story. The ending also fell really flat for me.

This is a poorly crafted mystery about very dysfunctional characters. The murder is solved but poorly described and revealed. The characters are so unlikable; boozing, vaping, lying, popping pills and lamenting about their shortcomings. The author added a lot of extraneous people to the plot that I lost interest. I guess that’s my review.. I totally lost interest.

This was a great book. It has it all. A great story, a great plot, great characters. Pick it up on publication day.

“I Dreamed of Falling” takes place in a small town riddled with drugs, poverty and a sense of hopelessness. As the town is slowly being “gentrified” by post-COVID professionals attracted to the idyllic setting on the Hudson River, the division between the haves and have-nots widens.

When Ashley, a young mother with her share of problems, is found dead, the possibilities surrounding her murder are endless. Was it drugs, partying, depression, family squabbles, a possible affair, or was it something more insidious like a government cover-up? I was hooked from the moment Roman, Ashley’s partner and the father of her child, started asking questions. I felt it completely plausible that he would start digging around as he was a reporter himself.

I loved that Dahl created such flawed characters. It felt like these people would absolutely inhabit this world. No one was particularly likeable, and they didn’t need to be. I had an idea who the killer was about halfway through, but there were enough red herrings that I doubted myself until the very end.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Less of a thriller than a slow burn small town Gothic, but satisfying enough for a few hours’ diversion 3.5 rounded up.

I’m a fan of Julia Dahl’s other books and this one is no exception. This is a well thought out well written mystery. It focuses on a multi generation family living together in present time. At first it’s not obvious how one of the characters has died. They don’t know of it was an accident or murder. There are a lot of twists, ones you don’t see coming. I like the pace that things are reviewed and that mom and son join together to figure things out. I look forward to the authors next book.

As a parent myself, I found this book somewhat frustrating to read. No one was really likable, and everyone was incredibly selfish. But of course, that's true to real life. Roman was the hardest character for me to like. Despite being a father with a career in his mid-twenties, he had the personality of a bratty teenager. Thankfully though, most of the characters showed growth by the end.

The mystery of who killed Ashley was enough for me to look past the characters' terrible choices. I guessed who it was early on but then questioned myself because there was enough doubt put in place. I enjoyed that aspect of the book the most.

Covid lockdown wasn't that long ago, so I know a lot of people aren't interested in reliving it, and there were a few times I wanted to roll my eyes when it was mentioned, but I would stop myself because I think it was very important to this story.

Not my favorite, but still a worthwhile read with plenty of examples of what not to do as a parent.