More Than You Dreamed

Kathleen Gilles Seidel

Her father was the man who saved the second best Civil War romance movie ever. Weary Hearts was made shortly after World War II. Jill Casler grew up with the movie and had her teen crush on the dead star of the movie. A couple years after her father died a man shows up in her Hollywood residence. He looks exactly like the man who starred in the movie 45 years earlier. Doug Ringling is the dead actor's nephew. He wants to know if Jill knows about an alternate, better version of the famous movie.

Jill is appalled to think that her father may have ruined an excellent movie rather than improving a mediocre movie. She tells Doug to return to Shenandoah Valley. After he is gone, she cannot forget his beliefs. She starts her own investigation only to find he has already been there. Her search takes her to her father's family home in Virginia. Perhaps there is something there to tell her the truth.

She joins Doug in the search for the original movie. Doug had had his life fall apart the past spring when his basketball coaching job was taken away from him. Now the search for the first version of Weary Hearts has taken all his attention. Jill is fighting her own demons of co-dependence issues. Together they search for the truth about the movie and about themselves.

This is a fair romance. I enjoyed the movie line for Weary Hearts. The book itself is average. The only part that comes to life is the movie itself, not the characters searching for the real movie. I didn't get a feel for the Shenandoah Valley or Jill's emotions as she deals with her past and attends her group. Doug's problems became believable to me. It's the type of romance book that is expected when the genre is generalized. It's readable.

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Notice: Strong sexual content

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