Review: Into the Dreaming by Karen Marie Moning

Into the Dreaming (Highlander #8) by Karen Marie Moning
Publication Date: April 24, 2012
Publisher: Delacote Press
Number of Pages: 253
Format: Hardback
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For the first time in hardcover, here is #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Marie Moning’s novella Into the Dreaming, a tale of Highland fantasy, star-crossed lovers, and the timeless manipulation of the ancient, immortal Unseelie king. This is Moning at her romantic, funniest finest.

Free him from his ice-borne hell . . .

Stolen from his beloved home in the Highlands of Scotland, imprisoned in the Unseelie king’s dark, frosty kingdom, Aedan MacKinnon endured centuries of torture before becoming the icy, emotionless Vengeance, the dark king’s dispatcher of death and destruction in the mortal realm.

And in his century you both may dwell . . .

Aspiring romance novelist Jane Sillee has always believed that she was born in the wrong century, but she’s managed to make a decent enough life for herself—if only she could stop having those recurring dreams about a man too perfect to exist.

In the Dreaming you have loved him . . .

Haunted every night of her life by a devastatingly sexy Highlander who comes to her while she sleeps, Jane tries to write him out of her head and heart. As a child he protected her, as a woman he loves her.

Now in the Waking you must save him . . .

When an ancient tapestry bearing the likeness of her beloved Highlander arrives on her doorstep, Jane is whisked back in time to fifteenth-century Scotland, to the castle of Dun Haakon on the isle of Skye, where she is given one chance to save her dream lover . . . or lose him forever to the Unseelie king.

Caught in a deadly game between the light and dark courts of the Fae, Jane must find a way through the ice to the heart of her Highander. But will the love of one mortal woman be enough to defeat such ancient and ruthless immortal enemies?

As big of a fan I'm of KMM I can't believe it took me a year to buy this book. Especially since I've been dying to get my hands on it since before it was re published you couldn't even find the story anywhere. Not to mention all of the bonus material in it. The cover is absolutely beautiful. I've tagged the book with both Fever and Highlander tags because of some of the bonus material, it's has a little bit of everything.

The story itself is a very quick read and very cute. Not only did it feel good to read her work again, but to be back in the Highlander world. As long as Jane can remember she has had dreams of this Highlander warrior, which Jane can swear feels so real. But now she is swept back in time, and he doesn't remember who she is or even himself. To break the curse the Unseelie King has put on him, she must make him fall in love with her within the next month. I love the little twist in this short story, different from most PNR books. It's the female that is doing the seducing and chasing instead of the other way around. I knew going into the book that the fae mythology is slight different from her Fever series and even the later Highlander books, because at the time when she wrote it it was being published by a different publisher. None the less it's still a decent read.

On to the bonus material. Which is pretty much the main reason I was excited to get the book. The first one is a proposal for a never written book called Ghost of a Chance. It features the brother of Hawk from her first Highlander book Beyond the Highland Mist. After reading it I'm a sad it never got written. It sounds like it would be an awesome book. The second bonus feature is some deleted scenes from Kiss of the Highlander. As KMM explains originally when she write it, when Gwen goes back in time instead of confronting Drustan she fakes amnesia. Here we get a sense on how that part of the book played out.

The third and last Highlander bonus, and probably the biggest bonus content is the original draft for The Dark Highlander, or as KMM calls it The Dark Highlander Lite. It's a completely different story, and even has a different heroine, Elizabeth who happens to be a friend of Gwen. The draft itself is very good and would of made a good book. But it's lacking that darkness surrounding the real book. It's light and fluffy, but it did leave me interested and wouldn't mind reading the whole thing if it existed.

Now there's two bonus for the Fever world or well not really bonus. Since the book came out a few months before the Fever graphic novel, it contain a sneak peek of that with half of the arts still being in black and white. And then there's also included the first chapter of Darkfever. As a huge Fever fan not much that I hadn't seen before.

I think this book is an awesome introductory to both of her series. If you haven't read either or one or the other, this book is an excellent buy to get a taste. Even for a person who randomly picks it up, it will easily suck you in and make you wanting more of each series.

Rating: 4/5