Dreams Entangled

by Sophia Kell Hagin

Both Pirin Basamendi and Gracie Olwyn have way too much to hide, not to mention a virulent contagion to avoid. Which is why they'd have preferred to never meet each other. But Gracie has what Pirin is eager to retrieve and Gracie is desperate to get rid the lightning stone. So, reluctantly, they do meet—and discover an instant attraction that's impossible to resist.

Soon, despite themselves, they begin to reveal their secrets—and become deeply entangled in each other’s lives. For Pirin, this means immersion in Gracie’s unsettling, scary-vivid episodic dreams about two women, Analergin and Kaldi, and events that somehow eerily echo her own ancestral past. For Gracie, it means helping Pirin confront the very real threat of a man determined to kill her.

Amid self-doubt, cyberstealth, a pandemic, fear of attack, and attempted murder, their attraction turns to love—and their lives will never be the same.

Genres: Fantasy

314 pages, Paperback

Published September 9, 2025

About the author

With her fifth novel, Dreams Entangled, Sophia Kell Hagin continues exploring cross-genre speculative fiction, this time combining action/cyber thriller elements with magical realism, mythopoeia--and a running streak of badassery.

Dreams Entangled follows Not All A Dream, which won a 2022 Golden Crown Literary Society Award in General Fiction. Sophia’s first three novels comprise the Jamie Gwynmorgan series, beginning with Whatever Gods May Be (a Golden Crown Literary Society Award winner in 2011, for Dramatic General Fiction); next came Shadows of Something Real (2013), then Omnipotence Enough (2017).

Reviews

[Cherie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a difficult read for me. It was 60% fantasy and 40% real life. The fantasy portion is from dreams that Gracie has. Gracie is given a quartz stone in a wooden box to keep safe from her friend Jessica who is hospitalized after catching an illness. Everyone is in lockdown from a virus that has spread throughout the country. One day lightning strikes while Gracie is working from home and it comes through her house and hits the stone and zaps Gracie. From then on she has these fantastical dreams that she writes down on an iPad immediately afterwards. Pirin is the owner of the stone and tracks Gracie down to get it back.Pirin comes from an ancient family line connected to the stone.

I liked the action scenes and with Pirin fighting off the bad guys and all the tech sleuthing she does to monitor them. The romance was a slow build but decent. Pirin was a mysterious character and we didn’t get to know her well until the last chapter of the book.

All the fantasy scenes were too much for me, I skimmed them. I probably lost out on connecting the dream world to the real world but….

This was a long book and to really enjoy it I think you would need to really like fantasy world building.

Thanks to Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[JAYNE · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up

[Carol Hutchinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing!

Pirin and Gracie agree to meet because Gracie is desperate to get rid of the lightening stone she has that Pirin is desperate to get so she can investigate it further. Upon meeting they are sharing more than just an instant attraction. Gracie’s immersive unsettling dreams draw Pirin in and they find themselves in a dream that eerily connects to real life for Pirin.

I really enjoyed this story. It was something completely different, exploring the connection between a real and dream world that were both very real in the sense of the affect they had on Gracie and Pirin. It was really intriguing how they were instantly connected on a deeper level that lead to adventure and thrills, but real threats. The dreams seemed to hold warnings and clues that would help Pirin deal with what was really happening to her, but she could only do that with Gracie’s support and guidance. It was really spooky how much their reality mirrored the ancestral past Pirin could link Analergin and Kaldi’s story too.

I loved how neither of them took to this immersion into the dreams straight away. There was a lot for them to talk through and figure out to really work out what was happening to them both. In supporting one another through everything, it really built their relationship into something deep and meaningful, so it was just logical they were going to fall in love with one another. To experience something so unique together, only they were going to understand exactly what the other had been through.

A great fantasy, mystical, romance cross over that had another couple’s story cleverly intertwined. It really got me thinking but took me on a fascinating journey into something powers and things beyond any logical understanding.

[Henriette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bold and powerful tale of women surviving
What if those women of the Motherhood at the beginning of time could speak to us? How would they perceive the world, how would that shape their language, their relation with the world and each other? „Dreams Entangled“ is a bold and powerful tale - eloquently told - of those times where women were literally in tune with the world and the world in tune with us.
When Gracie takes by chance an ancient heirloom of Pirin‘s family, a rock of quartz, home - she is suddenly connected over generations with those times of old. And through Gracie we get glimpses of these ancient women and their struggle against evil. This was a magnificent endeavor to transport us readers back - back in time, but as well back into a different system of viewing the world. I loved how Sophia Kell Hagin wove e.g. ancient Polynesian lore about traveling the oceans into the rich tapestry (te lapa!).
These flashbacks are intertwined into a modern storyline where Gracie meets Pirin and we slowly learn about Pirin‘s contribution to re-establish female empowerment against the „hallowed bastions of male privilege“. Another powerful storyline which is told with a lot of passion and with a good dose of hightech cyber warfare.
In our challenging times where women and women‘s rights are again a bloody battleground I‘d wish that we could find as well a new Motherworld with the essential freedoms: to go where you wish, to refuse what does not suit, to choose with whom you associate.

I received an ARC. The review is left voluntarily.

[Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not a huge fantasy reader but this intrigued me. A virus is sweeping the country and when Jessica catches it and needs to go to the hospital she entrusts a wooden box to Gracie for safe keeping. While working from home Gracie’s house is struck by lightning zapping her and the stone in the box. Gracie’s world is now filled with visions or dreams of powerful ancient women and their battle against evil. Gracie meets Pirin who has been looking for the stone. She is involved in her own way fighting modern day evil.

The story is a mix of modern cyber thriller and ancient story lore. And Gracie and Perin are a combustible duo as they connect together. If you like fantasy and speculative fiction, this is a great read. I think I was ready for something that was out of my normal reading range. Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for the eARC and I am leaving an honest review.

[Aleana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.


Gracie is ask to keep a quartz stone in a wooden box to keep safe for her friend Jessica who is hospitalized after catching an illness. One day while at home lightning strikes and hit the stone and Gracie and since then she get glimpses of ancient women and their struggle against evil. She decided to write down each vision in her iPad. She meets Pirin who is the owner of the stone she and her family comes from an ancient family line that connected to the stone. Gracie and Pirin slowly connect as they confront the threat that may end their lives.