Dreams of Falling

By Karen White

Dreams of Falling - Karen White
  • Release Date: 2018-06-05
  • Genre: Fiction & Literature
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 205 Ratings

Description

One of PureWow's "Best Beach Reads of Summer 2018"

New York Times bestselling author Karen White crafts evocative relationships in this contemporary women's fiction novel, set in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, about lifelong friends who share a devastating secret.


On the banks of the North Santee River stands a moss-draped oak that was once entrusted with the dreams of three young girls. Into the tree's trunk, they placed their greatest hopes, written on ribbons, for safekeeping—including the most important one: Friends forever, come what may.

But life can waylay the best of intentions....

Nine years ago, a humiliated Larkin Lanier fled Georgetown, South Carolina, knowing she could never go back. But when she finds out that her mother has disappeared, she realizes she has no choice but to return to the place she both loves and dreads—and to the family and friends who never stopped wishing for her to come home.

Ivy, Larkin's mother, is discovered badly injured and unconscious in the burned-out wreckage of her ancestral plantation home. No one knows why Ivy was there, but as Larkin digs for answers, she uncovers secrets kept for nearly fifty years—whispers of love, sacrifice, and betrayal—that lead back to three girls on the brink of womanhood who found their friendship tested in the most heartbreaking ways.

Reviews

  • Secrets of the past and the present

    5
    By Marge_Roberts
    I love how this author, in her own unique southern fiction style, weaves together what happened to best friends Ceecee, Margaret, and Bitty during the early 50s and how it relates to Ivy and Larkin’s lives in 2010. In fact, all of the characters have some influence on each other’s life. Twenty-seven-year-old Larkin left her Georgetown, South Carolina home when she was 18 without looking back. She went to school, took a job and lived in New York, becoming a blank slate without wanting to make friends or be known to anyone else except professionally. When she is forced to return home for her mother, Ivy, she must not only face her own past with her best friends, Mabry and Bennett, and her parents, Ivy and Mack, but also in finding out her mother’s past during her own years of growing up. Secrets have affected all of the characters. Instead of suffering from memories of them, they must now face them. I always slow down my reading speed when reading a book by this author. There is a lot to absorb, and because I love her writing, I am able to immerse myself into a beautifully told, well thought out story. I especially love how the older generations have their own history, and how their actions affect those in the present. Every section of every chapter is told by each of the main character’s own point of view, making it more personal, heartwarming, heartbreaking, and wonderful. I was able to feel what they felt, and understand every sacrifice, betrayal, and secret and the reasons behind them. I loved it.
  • Dreams of Falling

    5
    By Redneck RN
    Fiction or buried truths come to light,,,,,,,a family of heritage moving forward yet unable to let the past rest,,,, Inviting,,,,suspenseful, heartfelt and charming,,,,
  • Karen White spins magical southern story!

    5
    By JenTer13
    Dreams of Falling is the latest offering by award winning author Karen White. Advertising editor Larkin Lanier has been called home to Georgetown, SC, when her mother goes missing. Upon her return, Larkin joins forces with her grandmother’s close friends Ceecee and Bitty to find her mother, which they do. She has been seriously injured in the burnt out shell of the family home, Carrowmore. During the weeks of her mother’s hospitalization, Larkin comes face to face with the past, her family’s and her own. She is forced to face facts about her own growing up years, to speak again to those she had thought to have left behind, and to learn to forgive herself for her own girlhood foolishness. Larkin also makes discoveries previously unknown to her that explain occurrences between her parents that have helped to drive her away. And, most surprisingly, Larkin unravels the full mystery of her grandmother Margaret’s death in the fire that destroyed Carrowmore. Again, Karen White writes a complex story spanning three generations of southern women, sharing their hopes and dreams, fears and foibles, and the wishes they had left on ribbons in the wishing tree. This book is a great read, and I do recommend it!