One of the fun parts of setting a fantasy book in an actual place is that you can send your characters to destinations you love.
I took advantage of that in the second book of my Clandestine Magic trilogy about a wizard and his unwilling assistant, set in an America short on women's rights. Because of [spoiler redacted], they end up in tandem dreams they have some control over.
This is the point where the assistant, Beatrix Harper, figures out that she can rearrange the dream to put them both at a beach:
The room around them gave a tremendous jerk. The sand-colored wall slid like a dropped coverlet to the floor. His patchwork quilt undulated, each square turning sea-green one by one. The spindly chair in the corner grew—to four feet, six, eight.
What was left of the bedroom faded and he was standing alone, no Beatrix at hand, with sand beneath his bare feet, the ocean reaching for his toes and an empty lifeguard’s chair perhaps half a mile distant.
He could do nothing but blink at it all for a moment, speechless.
Neat little trick. I'd like beach dreams.
The place Beatrix imagines up is Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. Say "Rehoboth" in the Baltimore-Washington area, and you instantly conjure up the taste of saltwater taffy and the feeling of the boardwalk on bare feet for many thousands of people, me included. It's potent nostalgia, the place I'd go if I could snap my fingers and appear anywhere, dream or real life.
Here's the real question: Where would you go?
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More cool & bookish things
This new book from author Lisette Marshall was a wow read for me: secrets, intrigue, two people against a tyrannical leader ... all sorts of things that made me zip through the story.
And a really intriguing character:
They call him the Silent Death, because he kills without sound and leaves none capable of speaking in his wake …
When the empire’s deadliest fae murderer catches her wielding forbidden magic, twenty-year-old Emelin believes her hour has come. Instead, her inhumanly beautiful captor spares her life, but carries her off on his velvet wings – into the one place from which no human ever returns.
The heart of the Fae Isles. The treacherous Crimson Court, where the Mother of faekind has ruled unchallenged over fae and humans for decades.
The Silent Death is supposed to be the Mother’s loyal servant, her invincible warrior, her ruthless, soulless killer. But in the shadows he is playing a game of his own, and he needs Emelin’s magic to win it ...
Looking for more fantasy romance reads?
An empath pitted against a succubus for the good of her country. A witch in an arranged marriage trying not to fall for her husband. Find those stories and more in this fantasy romance collection.
A woman with the power to see the future seeks out a reclusive man to save a life. A shifter and fae find themselves caught in a forbidden love. Find these free books and more in this collection.
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