This was a very different book by Michaels. Obviously written during the Bicentennial, the alternation between the past and present suffered by the really good story in the past juxtaposed with a weaker "present story." I'd have to be in the right mood to re-read this one. ( )

Patriot's Dream by Barbara Michaels centers around Jan Wilde, a young teacher who travels to Williamsburg Virginia to stay with her elderly aunt and uncle to help them in their declining years and escape some of the stress of New York City where she lives with her mother. When she arrives at the house, she starts dreaming about times long past, concerning the American Revolution and begins to follow her ancestors during the war for Independence and begins to find herself becoming attracted to one of the family friends, a man called Jonathan. She begins to question her sanity and wonders if she created Jonathan from her imagination or if he really was a real person.



Barbara Michaels is one of my favorite writers. I always enjoy her work and look forward to reading her books. I have to admit that this story was not one of my favorites, but I did enjoy it. The story line was very different and I thought she blended elements of history into the main storyline very well. I found her details of history to be accurate and interesting. I always admire her ability to write stories that walk the fine line between realty and fantasy so well and still keep suspense that make the story interesting without leading the reader to find it completely unbelievable. The only reason why I did not like this one as much as some of her other works is that as I have begun to read so much of her work I find that some of these characters are so smilier to ones from her other books. The hero always seem to have some of the same personality features and most of her heroines are the same. It is not a bad thing but I find it can be a bit distracting. ( )

Summary: Jan Wilde is visiting her aging aunt and uncle in their historic Williamsburg home in the summer of 1976, when she starts having vivid dreams, unlike any she's had before. She dreams of her ancestor, Charles, a brash but good-hearted soldier in Washington's army, and his friend, Jonathan, a tumultuous young pacifist and abolitionist. The dreams are more intense and more detailed than Jan can explain, and she finds herself increasingly obsessed with them, even to the point of shutting out normal life, and even though whether or not they're accurate, it's all already happened in the past... or has it?

Review: My main problem with this book was the amount of suspension of disbelief required. Not about the vivid, historically accurate dreams - those were a plot device that I was readily willing to accept, and the historical fiction chapters were actually the best parts of the book. No, what bothered me was the speed and the ease with which everything happened in the modern-day (or, well, 1976) sections. Jan has one, maybe two of these dreams, and all of a sudden she's in love with Jonathan and taking sleeping pills in the afternoon to get back into her dream world. Likewise, she's been in town for a few weeks and already finds herself fending off not one but two marriage proposals, even though she spends most of her time either dreaming, or researching the historical events from her dreams.

That was another thing - the parts of the modern storylines that weren't exceedingly silly were spent recapitulating the historical events that we had *just* read about in the "dream" chapters, just to be sure we got it. The ending is about as contrived as the rest of the book, but it is one of the better possible ways to resolve the storylines; about halfway through the book, I was envisioning possible endings so ridiculous that I was actually hoping that the dreams were the result of a brain tumor. (Schwarzenegger-esque spoiler: It's not a toomah, but the cause of the dreams isn't ever really explained, either.)

Barbara Michaels is a pen name of Elizabeth Peters, who writes the wildly popular Amelia Peabody egyptologist mysteries, so obviously there are people out there who like what she does. (I haven't read any of her other books, so I can't compare.) I can see how Patriot's Dream would be good fiction comfort reading, if this sort of book is your style - it's quick, light, not particularly thematically challenging, but interesting enough to hold the attention, and with adequate splashes of gothic-ness and romance and mystery to be entertaining. I just found the plotting to be too contrived to really lose myself in it. 3 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Not great, but not terrible, although it is starting to show its age in places. Folks who enjoy historical fiction from the American Revolution and who aren't looking for anything particularly serious will probably have the best luck with this one. ( )

Kirkus Reviews Off the rack but serviceable is this Bicentennial romance which swirls between 18th-and 20th-century Williamsburg. Jan, initially a reluctant guest in the historic manse of her aged aunt and uncle, becomes a time-traveler in her nightly dreams--back to the tragedy-laced careers of an ancestor, aristocratic Charles, and, his friend (or relative?), generous, impulsive abolitionist Jonathan. While Charles is off with Washington, Jonathan, in order to gain some measure of freedom for blacks, spies for the Tories in exchange for the slaves' release into the British Army. But there's a turnabout as Charles falls deeply in love with a young slave girl, Leah, and Jonathan comes around to the patriot cause to fight and almost die to save Charles and Leah. Here Jan materializes beside Jonathan but returns to sort out both past and present. Well plotted but as glossy as acrilan knee britches.
(Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 1976) ( )