Into the Dreaming (with bonus material) (Highlander Book 8)

I was desperate for this author to write more---so I eagerly bought this book. There was a short story or "novella" and a bunch of author's notes and outlines---unless you are fascinated with this kind of material---don't buy this expensive substitute for a book. I will hold off on purchases from this author in the future until I read the reviews carefully. Maybe there there was a lot of pressure from the publisher.

Karen Marie Moning delivers another great story here. It is much shorter than previous ones, but still packs the romatic punch of a whole novel into as few pages. The bonus material is great for people who are fans and new readers alike!

***NOTE MY REVIEWS OFTEN CONTAIN SPOILERS***

Before I begin this review with either I'll note this book is much more than just the novella Into the Dreaming. The book includes deleted scenes, numerous letters to readers from the author, unwritten book proposals and the original beginning of another work. Oddly I'd describe it as reminiscent of a writer's blog in hardcover format. Though I'm grateful to finally have chance to get the last part of the highlanders series in hardcover and complete my Moning collection it was kind of odd to read a blog in book format and my review will probably reflect that since I've never reviewed a blog before. I know this is published as a book, but read it and I'm certain you'll see the similarities between this novel and a well maintained authors blog.

Into The Dreaming

Jane Sillee has dreamed of the same dark Highlander her entire life. He was her guardian angel in dreams as a child and as she became a woman he was so much more to her. He was her one true love, he was her lover - he was a figment of her imagination. The reoccurring dreams since childhood convinced her to pursue a career as a novelist sure that if she could just write his story he'd be out of her head. But after numerous rejection letters it seems his story will neither get told nor will he leave her dreams. Until that is she receives a packages containing a tapestry of him and wakes up to find herself in the 15th century in a rundown castle with him. What should have been a dream come true becomes more like a nightmare. Her dream lover doesn't even know his own name or his own race let alone have any memory of her. When a mysterious voice tells her she has but one cycle of the moon to make him remember his life and his love for her or lose him to darkness forever the situation becomes more tenuous than ever. Can she remind Aedan MacKinnon of who is he is before he becomes the Unseelie King's Vengeance forever?

So my first thought is this doesn't really fit with the Highlander series. One the queen doesn't even have an actual name and wasn't there some sort of information in the Fever series which tells readers there's been more than one Seelie Queen? So if that's the case is this even Aiobheal we're reading about? It's listed as a part of the Highlander series, but really it seems more connected to the Fever series because none of the Highlander series characters are a part of this story. Well Aiobheal might be, but we don't really know that for sure. The story establishes the two courts of the Fae but again in the Fever series little is even mentioned of the Unseelie Court, it's the Fever series that delves into that part of the mythology of Moning's world. This story focuses a lot more on the Unseelie rather than the Seelie. Adam Black, my favorite former fae isn't even in the story. At least if he was there I might be able to see the connection. But nope he's not there and no druids either. My second thought is Jane Sillee? Umm I get where she created this character as a kind of shout out to her sister, but the last name is seriously distracting. And I think in some ways that pulled me out of the story.
The close third person narrative was interesting though and it was fairly fast paced. I think my major issue with it beyond what's listed above is that it's the bare bones of what looks like an interesting novel. There's so many ideas here and since it's a novella which was originally written for an anthology we as readers never get the chance to delve into them. There's not enough detail and I guess it's like it's too much happening for a novella length story. Because of the length we don't get to really go into or understand a lot of what's going on here. As a novel where we actually got to see Aedan and Jane in The Dreaming as well as Aedan's life in his Unseelie prison - now that would have been stellar. The story is good, but you can see where it could have been great if the time and space had been granted to expand upon the idea and that leaves me as a reader quite disappointed. Additionally a lot of the focus of the novella was on sex even though it doesn't really have a lot of detailed sex scenes, it's like Jane's convinced that sex with Aedan will remind him of his love for her and because of what we as readers are told about Jane's dreams and the Queens meddling we're just to accept that they are soulmates and are truly in love, not lust. The story did offer some hilarious scenes like for example when Aedan thinks his erection is some kind of rash because he can't remember what it means to be a man or even that he is a man. But reading this story I can't help but feel cheated because it leaves me wanting for so much more.

Moning's characterization in the novel was decent but not what I would call up to par with her usual works. None of the fae characters are even given names. They have personalities but the King is almost a stereotypical villain rather than a distinctive character and the Queen really doesn't have much to her either. All the villagers in the 15th century blend and none is really distinctive. Jane is in many ways quite naïve and we aren't really offered a chance to see her grow as a character. She's not given much in the way of character depth. The one truly interesting character is Aedan and while we're given tantalizing glimpses of what he was, is and will become it's just enough to leave you wanting more.

Overall it's a good story, I did like it, and would recommend it but I don't really see it as part of the Highlander series. Also having it finished it I don't feel all that fulfilled, but rather left wanting for that greater novel and story I could see not really being told. For me that's frustrating and I feel a little cheated, but still I think it's an enjoyable story that fans of Moning will like.

The rest of this novel I think would either be best on a blog or in some sort of memoir on writing. Moning writes letters to the reader where she discusses her career, how it began and changed. She discusses writing to a market and writing as a business. And while I found the letters interesting I didn't really feel they fit with a fictional novel.

After her letter the book offers a denied proposal for an unpublished story called Ghost of a Chance which connects to the first novel in the Highlander series - Beyond The Highland Mist. The male lead was Hawk's brother Adrian. Reading this was a lot like reading story notes which was a little odd to see in a novel. To be honest I don't remember Hawk's brother at all from the first series novel. Granted it's been a while since I've read it but I do remember quite a few of the characters in the story so if he was there, he definitely wasn't a memorable character. However the storyline of this proposal did actually interest me. I'm not sure if I like the idea of bring Valkeries into the mix and blending Norse mythology into what has been a dominantly Celtic series. However if Adrian was cursed instead by the fae with the Feth Fiada like Adam or some sort of twist to that and she offered some of the fae regulars I'd definitely be reading it. The story has a lot of potential and it seems almost a tease for Moning to tell us about it, but not write it.

Next in this odd novel is a deleted scene from Kiss of the Highlander. I've read and reread Kiss of the Highlander more than any other of Moning's novels. That was the book that made me a fan and with the purchase of this book I now have a hardcover copy of every novel Moning has released. However after having read those scenes my thought were kind of Thank God for good editing. The story would have been seriously lacking without Daegus as an actual character. Granted he's there in those scenes as a name living at another keep, but he's not actually there. Gwen's characterization in those scenes doesn't really fit with how she behaved in the book and the scene in the dining hall really paints a bad impression of the type of man Drustan is. Had those scenes been included I think it might have changed my opinion of the novel so I'm glad they weren't a part of the finished piece.

And no we're not done with all this book contains. We're offered more letters from the writer which actually had typos where she states that Kiss of the Highlander was released last year instead of over ten years ago. Followed by the original version of Dark Highlander, which I actually found quite interesting. Yes, I'm glad she changed Daegus and rewrote the story, but I like how in this version we see more of Gwen and Daegus and would have liked to have seen more of that transfer into the second version. Daegus however was a bland character in this version. He came across as weak and lacking instead of the badass he is in her published version. So I'm glad she rewrote Daegus, but honestly in some ways I liked Elisabeth better than Chloe. Some things about her were off putting but some of her character traits were appealing and I think Moning saw that as well because parts of Elisabeth, her better traits, and the more interesting parts of her history show up in other heroines in the Highlander series. Her lifestyle is almost the same as Jessi from Spell of the Highlander with the exception of major and college. Some of her personality traits can be found in both Jessi and Gabby from The Immortal Highlander. Elisabeth had potential as a character and I liked how Moning took the best parts of her and put them into other future series heroines.

From here Moning moves to an excerpt from Dark Fever followed by random pages from her upcoming Graphic novel Fever Moon. The pages offered at the end were kind of like random drawing that to me didn't make sense, however I've had Fever Moon on preorder for a while so I guess I'll see when it's released. Hopefully it graphic novel format with the whole thing there it will offer an interesting story, however to be honest I'm not really getting my hopes up because I'm really not one for graphic novels and as much as I'd love to stand on a soap box and tell you how frustrating it is when part of a novel series is a graphic novel this really isn't the place for that.

Overall the book was okay, it's one worth buying to complete the collection and offers some interesting tidbits, but like I mentioned above it's like reading a blog from an author where a bunch of random tidbits are thrown together to gain reader attention and increase sales for various works. Considering this is the only way to get the short story in hardcover I'd recommend it because I collect hardcover, however just based on content I wouldn't really call this one a must buy.

Karen Marie Moning delivers another great story here. It is much shorter than previous ones, but still packs the romatic punch of a whole novel into as few pages. The bonus material is great for people who are fans and new readers alike!

***NOTE MY REVIEWS OFTEN CONTAIN SPOILERS***

Before I begin this review with either I'll note this book is much more than just the novella Into the Dreaming. The book includes deleted scenes, numerous letters to readers from the author, unwritten book proposals and the original beginning of another work. Oddly I'd describe it as reminiscent of a writer's blog in hardcover format. Though I'm grateful to finally have chance to get the last part of the highlanders series in hardcover and complete my Moning collection it was kind of odd to read a blog in book format and my review will probably reflect that since I've never reviewed a blog before. I know this is published as a book, but read it and I'm certain you'll see the similarities between this novel and a well maintained authors blog.

Into The Dreaming

Jane Sillee has dreamed of the same dark Highlander her entire life. He was her guardian angel in dreams as a child and as she became a woman he was so much more to her. He was her one true love, he was her lover - he was a figment of her imagination. The reoccurring dreams since childhood convinced her to pursue a career as a novelist sure that if she could just write his story he'd be out of her head. But after numerous rejection letters it seems his story will neither get told nor will he leave her dreams. Until that is she receives a packages containing a tapestry of him and wakes up to find herself in the 15th century in a rundown castle with him. What should have been a dream come true becomes more like a nightmare. Her dream lover doesn't even know his own name or his own race let alone have any memory of her. When a mysterious voice tells her she has but one cycle of the moon to make him remember his life and his love for her or lose him to darkness forever the situation becomes more tenuous than ever. Can she remind Aedan MacKinnon of who is he is before he becomes the Unseelie King's Vengeance forever?

So my first thought is this doesn't really fit with the Highlander series. One the queen doesn't even have an actual name and wasn't there some sort of information in the Fever series which tells readers there's been more than one Seelie Queen? So if that's the case is this even Aiobheal we're reading about? It's listed as a part of the Highlander series, but really it seems more connected to the Fever series because none of the Highlander series characters are a part of this story. Well Aiobheal might be, but we don't really know that for sure. The story establishes the two courts of the Fae but again in the Fever series little is even mentioned of the Unseelie Court, it's the Fever series that delves into that part of the mythology of Moning's world. This story focuses a lot more on the Unseelie rather than the Seelie. Adam Black, my favorite former fae isn't even in the story. At least if he was there I might be able to see the connection. But nope he's not there and no druids either. My second thought is Jane Sillee? Umm I get where she created this character as a kind of shout out to her sister, but the last name is seriously distracting. And I think in some ways that pulled me out of the story.
The close third person narrative was interesting though and it was fairly fast paced. I think my major issue with it beyond what's listed above is that it's the bare bones of what looks like an interesting novel. There's so many ideas here and since it's a novella which was originally written for an anthology we as readers never get the chance to delve into them. There's not enough detail and I guess it's like it's too much happening for a novella length story. Because of the length we don't get to really go into or understand a lot of what's going on here. As a novel where we actually got to see Aedan and Jane in The Dreaming as well as Aedan's life in his Unseelie prison - now that would have been stellar. The story is good, but you can see where it could have been great if the time and space had been granted to expand upon the idea and that leaves me as a reader quite disappointed. Additionally a lot of the focus of the novella was on sex even though it doesn't really have a lot of detailed sex scenes, it's like Jane's convinced that sex with Aedan will remind him of his love for her and because of what we as readers are told about Jane's dreams and the Queens meddling we're just to accept that they are soulmates and are truly in love, not lust. The story did offer some hilarious scenes like for example when Aedan thinks his erection is some kind of rash because he can't remember what it means to be a man or even that he is a man. But reading this story I can't help but feel cheated because it leaves me wanting for so much more.

Moning's characterization in the novel was decent but not what I would call up to par with her usual works. None of the fae characters are even given names. They have personalities but the King is almost a stereotypical villain rather than a distinctive character and the Queen really doesn't have much to her either. All the villagers in the 15th century blend and none is really distinctive. Jane is in many ways quite naïve and we aren't really offered a chance to see her grow as a character. She's not given much in the way of character depth. The one truly interesting character is Aedan and while we're given tantalizing glimpses of what he was, is and will become it's just enough to leave you wanting more.

Overall it's a good story, I did like it, and would recommend it but I don't really see it as part of the Highlander series. Also having it finished it I don't feel all that fulfilled, but rather left wanting for that greater novel and story I could see not really being told. For me that's frustrating and I feel a little cheated, but still I think it's an enjoyable story that fans of Moning will like.

The rest of this novel I think would either be best on a blog or in some sort of memoir on writing. Moning writes letters to the reader where she discusses her career, how it began and changed. She discusses writing to a market and writing as a business. And while I found the letters interesting I didn't really feel they fit with a fictional novel.

After her letter the book offers a denied proposal for an unpublished story called Ghost of a Chance which connects to the first novel in the Highlander series - Beyond The Highland Mist. The male lead was Hawk's brother Adrian. Reading this was a lot like reading story notes which was a little odd to see in a novel. To be honest I don't remember Hawk's brother at all from the first series novel. Granted it's been a while since I've read it but I do remember quite a few of the characters in the story so if he was there, he definitely wasn't a memorable character. However the storyline of this proposal did actually interest me. I'm not sure if I like the idea of bring Valkeries into the mix and blending Norse mythology into what has been a dominantly Celtic series. However if Adrian was cursed instead by the fae with the Feth Fiada like Adam or some sort of twist to that and she offered some of the fae regulars I'd definitely be reading it. The story has a lot of potential and it seems almost a tease for Moning to tell us about it, but not write it.

Next in this odd novel is a deleted scene from Kiss of the Highlander. I've read and reread Kiss of the Highlander more than any other of Moning's novels. That was the book that made me a fan and with the purchase of this book I now have a hardcover copy of every novel Moning has released. However after having read those scenes my thought were kind of Thank God for good editing. The story would have been seriously lacking without Daegus as an actual character. Granted he's there in those scenes as a name living at another keep, but he's not actually there. Gwen's characterization in those scenes doesn't really fit with how she behaved in the book and the scene in the dining hall really paints a bad impression of the type of man Drustan is. Had those scenes been included I think it might have changed my opinion of the novel so I'm glad they weren't a part of the finished piece.

And no we're not done with all this book contains. We're offered more letters from the writer which actually had typos where she states that Kiss of the Highlander was released last year instead of over ten years ago. Followed by the original version of Dark Highlander, which I actually found quite interesting. Yes, I'm glad she changed Daegus and rewrote the story, but I like how in this version we see more of Gwen and Daegus and would have liked to have seen more of that transfer into the second version. Daegus however was a bland character in this version. He came across as weak and lacking instead of the badass he is in her published version. So I'm glad she rewrote Daegus, but honestly in some ways I liked Elisabeth better than Chloe. Some things about her were off putting but some of her character traits were appealing and I think Moning saw that as well because parts of Elisabeth, her better traits, and the more interesting parts of her history show up in other heroines in the Highlander series. Her lifestyle is almost the same as Jessi from Spell of the Highlander with the exception of major and college. Some of her personality traits can be found in both Jessi and Gabby from The Immortal Highlander. Elisabeth had potential as a character and I liked how Moning took the best parts of her and put them into other future series heroines.

From here Moning moves to an excerpt from Dark Fever followed by random pages from her upcoming Graphic novel Fever Moon. The pages offered at the end were kind of like random drawing that to me didn't make sense, however I've had Fever Moon on preorder for a while so I guess I'll see when it's released. Hopefully it graphic novel format with the whole thing there it will offer an interesting story, however to be honest I'm not really getting my hopes up because I'm really not one for graphic novels and as much as I'd love to stand on a soap box and tell you how frustrating it is when part of a novel series is a graphic novel this really isn't the place for that.

Overall the book was okay, it's one worth buying to complete the collection and offers some interesting tidbits, but like I mentioned above it's like reading a blog from an author where a bunch of random tidbits are thrown together to gain reader attention and increase sales for various works. Considering this is the only way to get the short story in hardcover I'd recommend it because I collect hardcover, however just based on content I wouldn't really call this one a must buy.

Save your money. Ms. Moning took an ego trip with this book. Better place for most of it would have been her website where she could have communicated with her fans. I wish I could get a refund.
Diana Kunka

Eh. This could have been an awesome novel about coming back to life and how love can help you conquer the darkness. But much the progress and changes that occur in the male protagonist character are done while he's "away". And then you are left with the female lead, who seems to think she knows what she's doing in bringing him back to the light. But he does a lot of self realization without her, and then comes back to report in on how he's doing. Even for a mini novella, I don't understand what the point of his being cold and icy was if we couldn't see his transformation more clearly. He was the interesting one, not her. It's a cute story, but I wish his tale had been a longer one: his character deserved it.

I purchased this "book" and was shocked that was just a short story. No where was the buyer informed of this pertinent information.
I was annoyed. I don't care how Ms. Moning struggled to get the stories, or the difficulty she had getting her books published. This story is a waste of my time and money. I would never recommend the purchase of this "book".

I love, love, love this author, so imagine my surprise at being so disappointed in this book. "Into the Dreaming" is a short story with a predictable plot. It does not near the intense and complex storyline in the Fever series. I got the Kindle edition and was surprised that the story ended at the halfway mark and then all these other exerpts and writers musings began. I kept hoping that if I plowed on, another new story would commence. It didn't. If the cost had been $2.99, I would not have felt so cheated.

Not a bad story (well, a little predictable), but $9.99? C'mon! I have read all of Moning's books and probably will continue to read them until I can't afford them - and that day is rapidly approaching. But she's not the only author writing for greedy publishing. I wish the store would let us rate publishers!

Karen, I hope you get at least 75% of that $9.99 for every e-book sold!

This "book" is another example of a disturbing new trend I've noticed. An author writes a successful series and gains a following and then gathers all the scraps of writing they can find on their shelves to publish as a "collection" or other misleading title. This is not a book, it is a collection of short stories and even admitted (by the author herself) faulty or low quality early attempts at storytelling. I am very sorry I bought it and disappointed in the author for exploiting my fondness for her books by picking my pocket. Easily remedied.

My impression was that this was to be a continuation of the previous books, and tell us more about what was going on with the Seelie and Unseelie courts. Boy, was I disappointed!! This was a **SHORT** story, followed up by what was basically a blog entry by the author. That was followed by a book proposal.... What a waste of $10. I have to say, I'll never pre-order books from this author again. The short story itself felt flat, like it was just a formula used to fill space. Hopefully we'll see better from Ms. Moning in the future.

I waited impatiently for this last book of Karen Marie Moning's and I was extremely disappointed. Compared to the previous books in her Highlander series, this book was short and the characters were undeveloped. I got the feeling that this was a rush job to finish the series. It was as if she just threw something together and added filler by rehashing exerpts from previous books and calling it "bonus material". I immediately returned this book because it was not worth the money I paid for it.