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Ebook Details
  • 04/2024
  • 978-0-9973339-9-2
  • 376 pages
  • $9.99
Norah Woodsey
Author
The States
Tildy Sullivan is the middle child in an elite yet fading Manhattan family. Her quiet practicality hides her deep, profound longing for childhood summers in western Ireland. She also carries a secret regret. After her mother’s death 8 years ago, she was persuaded to abandon Ireland and the love of a local boy. Now she believes happiness is lost to her. When Tildy volunteers for a lucid dreaming experiment, it gives her all she wants – a life lived for her family during the day and a secret, perfect Ireland of her own at night. Will she face reality, or succumb to the ease of her dreams? THE STATES is a modern reimagining of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, a story of love, obligation, and second chances.
Reviews
What if you could experience your heart's secret desires, the hopes and dreams that might have been, if you'd only been brave and strong enough to act upon them? That opportunity comes to Tildy Sullivan, the introspective daughter of the irresponsible owner of a cosmetics company. Facing family and business obligations that are crushing Tildy's spirit, and still grieving the loss of her mother years before, Tildy finds herself powerless to claim her own life. Years ago, Tildy left her grandmother and the man she loved, Aidan, back in Ireland to follow her family to "the States.” After seeing an ad looking for participants in an experiment in lucid dreaming, Tildy is drawn to the "what if": what if she could dream her way back and get a glimpse of what life could be if she had chosen herself over obligation?

A contemporary reimagining of Jane Austen's Persuasion, this lovely novel from Woodsey (author of When the Wave Collapses) is rich in romance, fantasy, and a tender yearning to make the best of a do-over. Not that this is easy for Tildy: she soon straddles the line between dreams and reality, the desire to stay in dreams—at the farm, with her Nana and Aidan—versus her real life, plus the tricky question of which exactly is the reality. Meanwhile, in the (apparent) real world, she is being wooed by an unlikely suitor, a man with a family grudge against Tildy's father.

Tildy is a sympathetic heroine, a woman made to feel small by everyone in her present but who enjoys warm and sympathetic friends in her cozy dream life. Readers will feel invested in her story and her happiness. Some supporting characters edge toward the one-dimensional, especially her shallow, insensitive family, presented without much insight into how they got this way. Still, the storytelling satisfies, and readers will be cheering for her to find her happy ending.

Takeaway: A dream experiment gives an unhappy heroine a touching second chance at love.

Comparable Titles: Melissa Pimentel’s The One That Got Away, Debra White Smith’s Possibilities.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

Formats
Ebook Details
  • 04/2024
  • 978-0-9973339-9-2
  • 376 pages
  • $9.99
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