Only In My Dreams

Rhonda Empson

4/27/2003

This review is by Molly

It is 1141 when Lord Bayard is surprised to find a drowning woman in a pond. Lea, who entered the pool in the twentieth century, is just as surprised to realize Bayard is a knight with horse, sword, medieval dress and all. Thus begin the misguided adventures for modern Lea and medieval Bayard. She meets Richard of the lovely smile, Sara who causes her much jealousy, and Logan who claims to be Bayard’s father.

When captured by the lecherous Logan Lea is held in a dark, dreary old farmhouse, guarded by thugs. She determines to escape. Fearing that Bayard is dead, Lea manages to kill Logan, escape the hovel where she has been held and make her way back to the pond where she entered this world. Returning to modern times and her former job as a secretary holds little appeal, however, without Bayard. Lea figures life in this world is as bleak. A raging whirlpool is the conduit between the two worlds. Richard and Bayard leap into the water in an effort to rescue Lea. One of them returns to modern times, while the other two remain in an earlier day.

I like this type of ‘from here to there and back again tale’.

In Only In My Dreams writer Empson has produced an estimable tale filled with dynamic characters, sure fire attention grabbing dialogue, setting and intrigue. The notion that we might be able to move from time to time, space to space is an intriguing one. Some writers are able to pull it off more convincingly than others. Writer Empson’s Only In My Dreams is a dandy read.

Only In My Dreams is a pleasantly puzzling account at times filled with Lea and her modernistic slang, profanity and reasoning resonating off of Bayard and his medieval methodology, palaver and thinking. The premise might have proven difficult to carry off. Writer Empson pulls it all together with aplomb.

Logan is a dastardly fellow, Lea a likeable gal who learns to make the most of situations and Bayard a hero of the old type. All together the book is a fun, entertaining romp to be enjoyed on a lazy afternoon.

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