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Dream Awake
Serafim finds herself caught in a web of sibling rivalry. Her jealous sister, determined to ruin her life, deliberately set out to entrap her partner.
In a state of exhaustion, travelling home from work one day, she falls asleep on the train and wakes up to find herself in Bridgton Valley, an idyllic place she has never heard of, and, as she later discovers, neither has anyone else. Following this, she experiences a series of strange phenomena prompting her to question her grasp on reality, made all the more difficult by the unrelenting drama in her life caused by her sister.
In her turmoil as the events unfold, Serafim finds it increasingly difficult to distinguish dreams from reality; where does one end and the other begin?
Some quests take us to unexpected places, where truth is not what it seems, where dreams are our reality.
In a state of exhaustion, travelling home from work one day, she falls asleep on the train and wakes up to find herself in Bridgton Valley, an idyllic place she has never heard of, and, as she later discovers, neither has anyone else. Following this, she experiences a series of strange phenomena prompting her to question her grasp on reality, made all the more difficult by the unrelenting drama in her life caused by her sister.
In her turmoil as the events unfold, Serafim finds it increasingly difficult to distinguish dreams from reality; where does one end and the other begin?
Some quests take us to unexpected places, where truth is not what it seems, where dreams are our reality.
261 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 15, 2023
1 person is currently reading
5 people want to read
About the author
Jane C.R. Reid
11 books47 followersJane is a British novelist who is passionate about writing. Her aim is not just to entertain but also to inspire and provoke thought about life’s dilemmas and challenges through fiction. Spanning multiple genres, including contemporary, historical, fantasy, romance, paranormal, and alternate dimensions, her works are renowned for their layered characters, immersive worlds, drama, intrigue, and lyrical prose.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 31, 2025
Dream Awake is the tale of Serafim, a teacher at a school who is dealing with family stress and emotional wounds, including a fraught relationship with her sister and a mother with dementia. One day she falls asleep on a train and wakes up in an unfamiliar, idyllic place called Bridgton Valley. With its beautiful smells and "Free Fridays," she can't fathom why she has never heard of it. It feels real, but when she goes out, no one else seems to have heard of it either. She questions whether it ever was or whether she dreamed the whole thing.
There is a surreal quality to this story with its references to classic literature like Lewis Carroll and William Blake. Some scenes have a very Alice in Wonderland-inspired quality to them. The setting, the characters, even the dog Beowulf, are all so steeped in literary symbolism that occasionally works but also can come across as a bit too much for my taste. It reads like a crutch at times, yet I will forgive it because of the genre and what I think the author is attempting to do.
The book deals with interesting themes of memory, forgiveness, and how the past impinges on our understanding of reality. It's an ideas and feelings book more than a page-turning plot novel. The head-hopping between chapters bothers me, as do the point of view switches, but not enough to take away from the work. It's a slow narrative that's appropriate to the dream-like mood. Readers who enjoy quiet, reflective fiction that combines real life and fantasy will enjoy it.
There is a surreal quality to this story with its references to classic literature like Lewis Carroll and William Blake. Some scenes have a very Alice in Wonderland-inspired quality to them. The setting, the characters, even the dog Beowulf, are all so steeped in literary symbolism that occasionally works but also can come across as a bit too much for my taste. It reads like a crutch at times, yet I will forgive it because of the genre and what I think the author is attempting to do.
The book deals with interesting themes of memory, forgiveness, and how the past impinges on our understanding of reality. It's an ideas and feelings book more than a page-turning plot novel. The head-hopping between chapters bothers me, as do the point of view switches, but not enough to take away from the work. It's a slow narrative that's appropriate to the dream-like mood. Readers who enjoy quiet, reflective fiction that combines real life and fantasy will enjoy it.
January 10, 2026
“Dream Awake” by Jane C R Reid engages with the fertile crossroads of romance and fantasy, inviting readers into a liminal world where dream and waking life blur and the promise of transformation hangs tantalizingly in the air. Serafim, a young woman caught between emotional abandonment in the waking world and the seductive pull of Bridgton Valley, a dreamlike, fantastical realm that offers escape. As romance, rivalry, and longing intertwine, the novel traces her attempts to make sense of love and identity when reality itself feels negotiable. Reid leans into mythic potential even as the narrative remains anchored in very human heartbreak and rivalry.
Reid’s prose has an assured, literate cadence that often feels more attentive to emotional nuance than many in the genre achieve, and her atmospheric descriptions of the fantastical world hint at a richness that could be the novel’s greatest inheritance. Yet the book’s ambitions are undercut by protagonists who lack compelling interior force. Serafim, the ostensible main character, drifts through events rather than shaping them. Her passivity blunts the stakes of her journey, leaving the book’s psychological shifts oddly weightless. Likewise, Isolde, drawn as an antagonist, is sketched with such unmodulated cruelty that her motivations feel implausible even within the story’s heightened reality. Even her internal dialogue is entirely sociopathic, a caricature of the “evil sister” trope.
The romantic dynamics show a similar impatience. Relationships veer so swiftly between obsession and abandonment that it’s hard to track the emotional logic. The fantastic setting of Bridgton Valley, so promising in Reid’s early pages, remains curiously peripheral, more a backdrop than a meaningful part of the narrative. The ending tries to reconcile these disparate elements, but it didn’t work for me. It felt too convenient and didactical.
For readers who savor lyrical writing and dreamlike conceits, “Dream Awake” offers plenty to enjoy. Those seeking fully embodied characters and narrative gravity might go unfulfilled. Ultimately, this is an accomplished debut with clear strengths and limitations, a novel whose aesthetic intrigue doesn’t quite cohere with its character work.
Reid’s prose has an assured, literate cadence that often feels more attentive to emotional nuance than many in the genre achieve, and her atmospheric descriptions of the fantastical world hint at a richness that could be the novel’s greatest inheritance. Yet the book’s ambitions are undercut by protagonists who lack compelling interior force. Serafim, the ostensible main character, drifts through events rather than shaping them. Her passivity blunts the stakes of her journey, leaving the book’s psychological shifts oddly weightless. Likewise, Isolde, drawn as an antagonist, is sketched with such unmodulated cruelty that her motivations feel implausible even within the story’s heightened reality. Even her internal dialogue is entirely sociopathic, a caricature of the “evil sister” trope.
The romantic dynamics show a similar impatience. Relationships veer so swiftly between obsession and abandonment that it’s hard to track the emotional logic. The fantastic setting of Bridgton Valley, so promising in Reid’s early pages, remains curiously peripheral, more a backdrop than a meaningful part of the narrative. The ending tries to reconcile these disparate elements, but it didn’t work for me. It felt too convenient and didactical.
For readers who savor lyrical writing and dreamlike conceits, “Dream Awake” offers plenty to enjoy. Those seeking fully embodied characters and narrative gravity might go unfulfilled. Ultimately, this is an accomplished debut with clear strengths and limitations, a novel whose aesthetic intrigue doesn’t quite cohere with its character work.
November 20, 2024
In "Dream Awake", we follow Serafim, a primary school teacher living a quiet life in a charming yet slightly run-down cottage. Despite the appearance of normalcy, she’s still grappling with the lingering pain of a lost love that her heart refuses to let go of. Her world is turned upside down once again when fate brings her face-to-face with the very people responsible for her deepest wounds.
But this story is not what it seems at first glance. At its core—or at least as I interpreted it—it’s about a theme that eventually touches us all: the power of forgiveness. It shows how past actions that caused pain have a way of coming back, gnawing at the souls of both those who suffered and those who inflicted harm. It’s a journey that reminds us of the importance of making peace with the past, with our wounds, and with the things we long for but cannot have, so that we may finally find peace within ourselves.
But this story is not what it seems at first glance. At its core—or at least as I interpreted it—it’s about a theme that eventually touches us all: the power of forgiveness. It shows how past actions that caused pain have a way of coming back, gnawing at the souls of both those who suffered and those who inflicted harm. It’s a journey that reminds us of the importance of making peace with the past, with our wounds, and with the things we long for but cannot have, so that we may finally find peace within ourselves.
November 14, 2024
I love this book, the story is captivating, enabling one to always remember family is important ........ Highly recommended
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews