What do you think?
Rate this book
Crescent City #2
Elysian Dreams: Volume Two of Crescent City
Volume Two of the CRESCENT CITY Trilogy. 2004. Five years after the scandals of their college days, our heroines have settled down in New Orleans. Some are looking for love, some are searching for reconciliation, and others are trying to save their relationships. Happiness, heartache, and new friends are in the cards. Meanwhile, threats from the past are still lurking. And a monster appears on the horizon. With greater maturity come greater challenges, and the three friends learn it takes courage to seize happiness, especially in a place as magical and dangerous as the Crescent City. (AUTHOR’S ELYSIAN DREAMS is Volume Two of the CRESCENT CITY series. The story resumes five years after the end of Volume One, BOURBON STREET NIGHTS. The author suggests that story be read before this one.)
402 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 29, 2015
4 people are currently reading
25 people want to read
About the author
Jack Caldwell
36 books102 followersJack Caldwell, born and raised in the Bayou County of Louisiana, is an author, amateur historian, professional economic developer, playwright, and like many Cajuns, a darn good cook.
His nickname -- The Cajun Cheesehead -- came from his devotion to his two favorite NFL teams: the New Orleans Saints and the Green Bay Packers. (Every now and then, Jack has to play the DVD again to make sure the Saints really won in 2010.)
Always a history buff, Jack found and fell in love with Jane Austen in his twenties, struck by her innate understanding of the human condition. Jack uses his work to share his knowledge of history. Through his characters, he hopes the reader gains a better understanding of what went on before, developing an appreciation for our ancestors' trials and tribulations.
When not writing or traveling with Barbara, Jack attempts to play golf. A devout convert to Roman Catholicism, Jack is married with three grown sons.
Jack's blog postings -- The Cajun Cheesehead Chronicles -- appear regularly at Austen Variations.
His nickname -- The Cajun Cheesehead -- came from his devotion to his two favorite NFL teams: the New Orleans Saints and the Green Bay Packers. (Every now and then, Jack has to play the DVD again to make sure the Saints really won in 2010.)
Always a history buff, Jack found and fell in love with Jane Austen in his twenties, struck by her innate understanding of the human condition. Jack uses his work to share his knowledge of history. Through his characters, he hopes the reader gains a better understanding of what went on before, developing an appreciation for our ancestors' trials and tribulations.
When not writing or traveling with Barbara, Jack attempts to play golf. A devout convert to Roman Catholicism, Jack is married with three grown sons.
Jack's blog postings -- The Cajun Cheesehead Chronicles -- appear regularly at Austen Variations.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 12, 2017
4.5 stars rounded up to 5 stars
This story gives us the romantic pairings and various employment positions of the people we met in the first book. We do have our bad guy and the man who opened the door to the college ranks for him so that his drugs could be peddled there. As we read about the pairings we also read of how Elizabeth and William revisit and learn of all that was part of the history that separated them so bitterly five years ago. Mari has become a singer, Emma sees what has been in front of her eyes all along and Elizabeth and William find themselves working together as their two companies join forces.
But we also find the beginning of hurricane season affecting the story...slowly...surely and with lasting affects. It was so apropos for me to be reading this as Hurricane Harvey and then Irma were blasting the states that border the Caribbean.
This story gives us the romantic pairings and various employment positions of the people we met in the first book. We do have our bad guy and the man who opened the door to the college ranks for him so that his drugs could be peddled there. As we read about the pairings we also read of how Elizabeth and William revisit and learn of all that was part of the history that separated them so bitterly five years ago. Mari has become a singer, Emma sees what has been in front of her eyes all along and Elizabeth and William find themselves working together as their two companies join forces.
But we also find the beginning of hurricane season affecting the story...slowly...surely and with lasting affects. It was so apropos for me to be reading this as Hurricane Harvey and then Irma were blasting the states that border the Caribbean.
February 8, 2026
Unputdownable!
This book has everything one could ever want for in a book... Thrilling plot, romance, passion and humour, not to forget the historical aspect. I always wanted to visit New York if I ever got to travel to the States but now I am voting for New Orleans instead...
Continues the stories of the characters from the first book (Bourbon street nights), 5 years has passed, in addition to some new characters that you also will recognise from Jane Austen's world.
After an introduction to Wentworth, we are flies on the wall in the Bingley's and Buford's rather happy homes as Emma and George meet some challenges in their marriage. Mari and Chris get more familiar but the love story of Elizabeth and Will takes precedence. To know how it fares you will have to read the book though...
Wickham is sinking deeper with Richard hot on his heels...
Lydia gets herself into trouble...
It left off with kind of a cliff hanger as Katrina the hurricane is closing in and that's why this is a short review... I am off to the third book in this series.
Heartily recommend this book!
This book has everything one could ever want for in a book... Thrilling plot, romance, passion and humour, not to forget the historical aspect. I always wanted to visit New York if I ever got to travel to the States but now I am voting for New Orleans instead...
Continues the stories of the characters from the first book (Bourbon street nights), 5 years has passed, in addition to some new characters that you also will recognise from Jane Austen's world.
After an introduction to Wentworth, we are flies on the wall in the Bingley's and Buford's rather happy homes as Emma and George meet some challenges in their marriage. Mari and Chris get more familiar but the love story of Elizabeth and Will takes precedence. To know how it fares you will have to read the book though...
Wickham is sinking deeper with Richard hot on his heels...
Lydia gets herself into trouble...
It left off with kind of a cliff hanger as Katrina the hurricane is closing in and that's why this is a short review... I am off to the third book in this series.
Heartily recommend this book!
October 13, 2017
Volume 2 of 3 (not a stand alone novel)
It's been five years of life moving on with Elizabeth, Marianne and Emma. Each are pursuing their dreams or trying to find them again. Each have challenges to deal with. How they deal with them and which friends assist them through these trials and joys kept me entertained. How Elizabeth and Darcy finally re-connect, how Mari and Chris gently work their way to each other and how Emma and George eventually turn up the heat in their marriage while living with Emma's father, Abe, and dealing with many of life's vagaries. All I can say is, be prepared to turn on some fans!
In this volume, we also get to meet more of Elizabeth's family and catch up on others. And, like Mother Nature gaining strength over warm waters, our villain continues to rear his ugly head. You can feel the day of reckoning looming just around the corner...
If I ever make it to New Orleans, I will be bringing this book! I learned so much more about this city that you would never get from a guide book!
It's been five years of life moving on with Elizabeth, Marianne and Emma. Each are pursuing their dreams or trying to find them again. Each have challenges to deal with. How they deal with them and which friends assist them through these trials and joys kept me entertained. How Elizabeth and Darcy finally re-connect, how Mari and Chris gently work their way to each other and how Emma and George eventually turn up the heat in their marriage while living with Emma's father, Abe, and dealing with many of life's vagaries. All I can say is, be prepared to turn on some fans!
In this volume, we also get to meet more of Elizabeth's family and catch up on others. And, like Mother Nature gaining strength over warm waters, our villain continues to rear his ugly head. You can feel the day of reckoning looming just around the corner...
If I ever make it to New Orleans, I will be bringing this book! I learned so much more about this city that you would never get from a guide book!
November 14, 2015
Elysian Dreams is volume 2 of the Crescent City trilogy of Austenesque novels by Jack Caldwell (I won the first two volumes in a giveaway). It’s possibly not fair to review it as a standalone novel since it’s the middle volume of a trilogy, but I was disappointed that there was no resolved story arc and the plot didn’t stand up when considered outside the context of the whole. (Hard to review it as a whole at this point, however, since I do not yet have access to the third volume.) The three-star rating reflects the vestigial nature of the book; other multivolume works do a better job at making each volume satisfying in its own right.
The series places Jane Austen characters from various of her novels in New Orleans in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Volume 2 picks up five years after the first book and covers the years 2004 and 2005. Like the first, it is centered on the Elizabeth-Darcy romance, with smaller roles for other Austen pairings. Though volume 2 is 384 pages long, there is a sense that it is all just setup for the climactic third volume; the action meanders and the narrative ends very abruptly just as Hurricane Katrina is bearing down on New Orleans. Volume 1 at least had a climactic event that drew the many characters’ threads together, though there were plenty of loose ends. But in volume 2, none of the story lines feels resolved.
As for the treatment of Austen’s characters, the contemporary reinventions of the Mr. Bennet and Lydia Bennet characters should be singled out as being shrewd and successful. More perhaps than any other character in the book, Mr. Bennet felt like an individual as well as a realistic product of his context. Mr. Caldwell is a competent writer, but to my taste sadly addicted to the stereotyping of people and situations. I felt as if I’d read about the rest of the cast many times over many decades in potboilers. In part this is a matter of personal taste; in a police procedural with a male protagonist I’m willing to read about a string of women who have no higher ambition than to cook for their man and surprise and delight him in the bedroom, but in a romance such characters feel out of place to me (and certainly don’t get my juices flowing).
I suspect that this trilogy will come into its own in the third volume, and have enough faith in Mr. Caldwell’s storytelling ability to believe that there will be a satisfying payoff for many or most of the characters. But for me at least, taking 750 pages to get there is a bit too much to ask.
The series places Jane Austen characters from various of her novels in New Orleans in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Volume 2 picks up five years after the first book and covers the years 2004 and 2005. Like the first, it is centered on the Elizabeth-Darcy romance, with smaller roles for other Austen pairings. Though volume 2 is 384 pages long, there is a sense that it is all just setup for the climactic third volume; the action meanders and the narrative ends very abruptly just as Hurricane Katrina is bearing down on New Orleans. Volume 1 at least had a climactic event that drew the many characters’ threads together, though there were plenty of loose ends. But in volume 2, none of the story lines feels resolved.
As for the treatment of Austen’s characters, the contemporary reinventions of the Mr. Bennet and Lydia Bennet characters should be singled out as being shrewd and successful. More perhaps than any other character in the book, Mr. Bennet felt like an individual as well as a realistic product of his context. Mr. Caldwell is a competent writer, but to my taste sadly addicted to the stereotyping of people and situations. I felt as if I’d read about the rest of the cast many times over many decades in potboilers. In part this is a matter of personal taste; in a police procedural with a male protagonist I’m willing to read about a string of women who have no higher ambition than to cook for their man and surprise and delight him in the bedroom, but in a romance such characters feel out of place to me (and certainly don’t get my juices flowing).
I suspect that this trilogy will come into its own in the third volume, and have enough faith in Mr. Caldwell’s storytelling ability to believe that there will be a satisfying payoff for many or most of the characters. But for me at least, taking 750 pages to get there is a bit too much to ask.
April 21, 2021
Wonderful book, but again another cliffhanger?! Why?!
Can't wait for book 3.
Can't wait for book 3.
June 12, 2019
Love Jack Caldwell
This three set book is one of his finest. I just finished Volumes One and Two. Awesome!! I cannot wait for Volume Three. What I absolutely love about Jack’s writing is it is intelligent, note-worthy in the geographical and historical value it gives the reader and the romance is wonderful....especially after Darcy and Lizzie ironed out all of their misunderstandings. I really love how he has thrown in Emma and George AND Marianne and “Chris” into the mix. Very creative, Mr. Caldwell!!
This three set book is one of his finest. I just finished Volumes One and Two. Awesome!! I cannot wait for Volume Three. What I absolutely love about Jack’s writing is it is intelligent, note-worthy in the geographical and historical value it gives the reader and the romance is wonderful....especially after Darcy and Lizzie ironed out all of their misunderstandings. I really love how he has thrown in Emma and George AND Marianne and “Chris” into the mix. Very creative, Mr. Caldwell!!
July 15, 2015
Although it's very silly of me to post a video for a review....for Lizzy and Darcy....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqRi_...
(fun fact.....growing up I thought they were singing "Poxy Train" not Pontchartrain)
Oh Jack, please be kind to the major characters in volume three.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqRi_...
(fun fact.....growing up I thought they were singing "Poxy Train" not Pontchartrain)
Oh Jack, please be kind to the major characters in volume three.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews