Tanya Reimer's Can't Dream Without You was published as an e-book by Elsewhen Press in January 2016. The paperback edition was published in February 2016.
Information about Tanya Reimer:
Born and raised in Saskatchewan, Tanya enjoys using the tranquil prairies as a setting to her not-so-peaceful speculative fiction.
She is married with two children which means among her accomplishments are the necessary magical abilities to find a lost tooth in a park of sand and whisper away monsters from under the bed.
As director of a non-profit Francophone community center, Tanya offers programming and services in French for all ages to ensure the lasting imprint and growth of the Francophone community in which she was raised. What she enjoys the most about her job is teaching social media safety for teens and offering one-on-one technology classes for seniors. She is very active in her community, volunteering to teach eReader classes, as president of the Ladies Guild, as treasurer of the Cemetery Board, and as vice-chair for the Library Board. She is also the secretary for the School Board.
Tanya was fifteen when she wrote her first column. She has a diploma in Journalism/Short Story Writing. Today, she actively submits to various newspapers, writes and publishes the local Francophone newsletter for her community, and maintains a blog at Life's Like That.
Click here to visit her blog.
Information about Can't Dream Without You:
Legends say that tens of thousands of years ago, Whisperers were banished from the heavens, torn in half, and dumped on a mortal realm they didn't understand. Longing for their other half, they went from being powerful immortals to lonely leeches relying on humans to survive. Over the years, they earned magic from demons, they left themselves Notebooks with hints, and by pairing up with human souls, they eventually found their other halves. Humbled by their experiences, they discovered the true purpose of life and many were worthy of returning to the heavens. But many were not.
The Dark Chronicles are stories that share the heartache of select unworthy Whisperers on their journey to immortality after The War of 2019. Can't Dream Without You is one of those stories, in which we meet Steve and Julia, two such heroes.
Steve isn't a normal boy. He plays with demons, his soul travels to a dream realm at night using mystical butterflies, and soon he'll earn the power to raise the dead. Al thinks that destroying him would do the world a favour, yet he just can't kill his own son. Wanting to acquire the power that raises the dead before Steve does, Al performs a ritual on Steve's sixteenth birthday. He transfers Steve's dark magic to Julia, an innocent girl he plans to kill. But Steve is determined to save Julia and sucks her soul to Dreamland. From the dream world, he invokes the help of her brother to keep her safe.
Five years later, Steve can't tell what's real or what's a nightmare. Julia's brother wants to kill him, a strange bald eagle is erasing memories, and Steve's caught in some bizarre bullfight on another realm with a cop hot on his trail looking to be Julia's hero. All the while, Steve and Julia must fight the desperate need to make their steamy dreams a reality.
The post-apocalyptic world of the Whisperers that Tanya has created is recognisably contemporary, yet with a rich and deep mythology distinguishing it from our own world while at the same time making it much more credible. These are characters you might expect to meet, but really wouldn't want to!
A REVIEW OF TANYA REIMER'S CAN'T DREAM WITHOUT YOU
Tanya Reimer's Can't Dream Without You is a deliciously dark and mesmerising novel that feels refreshingly different, because it contains strong paranormal elements and happenings. It's something different and exciting.
Because Tanya Reimer showed lots of promise in Ghosts on the Prairies (Elsewhen Press, 2014), I was eager to read Can't Dream Without You. I was pleasantly surprised when I noticed that this novel was just as good as the previous one and differed quite a lot from other paranormal fantasy novels. To be honest, it's one of the best and most original paranormal novels I've read in quite a while.
Can't Dream Without You is a bit different kind of a story about darkness, dreams, love and survival. It quickly dispells all possible thoughts of what this kind of stories normally are, because it's superior to them by having an intense and dramatic atmosphere that is enhanced by the author's way of writing about emotions.
I think it's good to mention that this novel has an intriguing history. It was originally supposed to be a horror story, but grew into something different. Although this novel is not horror, it contains a few scenes that feature suspense, dark fantasy and horror elements.
Here's a bit of information about the story:
- The events take place in a post-apocalyptic world after The War of 2019.
- Al's son, Steve, is a Dream Whisperer. Although he is young, he's a powerful and potent Whisperer. His soul travels to dream realm at night by using mystical butterflies. Al intends to perform a ritual on Steve so that they'll be safe, but he can't destroy his son.
- A few years later, Al performs a ritual on a girl, Julia, whom he has found so that he can pass Steve's powers to her and kill her. When Al performs the ritual, Steve takes Julia's soul to Dreamland and they're linked to each other...
This is the beginning of a unique and original paranormal story that differs quite a lot from other fantasy stories due to its complex mythological elements and intense atmosphere. The story unfolds gradually and flows nicely towards the end (I won't reveal whether the ending is happy or not, but I can mention that it will intrigue readers, because the author tells what happens to Steve, Julia, James and Al).
Tanya Reimer begins her story with the legend of the Whisperers, which creates the basis for the rest of the story. The legend of the Whisperers tells of what happened to the Whisperers and how they were banished from heavens to a mortal realm. The author writes fascinatingly about them, because she tells her readers about different kinds of Whisperers and their abilities.
Because the Whisperers are an essential part of the story, here are a few words about them:
Many lives ago the Whisperers guided mortals between right and wrong, but often led them astray. Because they didn't guide mortals properly, God decided to punish them for their deeds and sent them to Mortal Realm to learn what they were doing wrong. Their powers were offered to demons and each immortal was split in two and forced to pair up with mortals. If they happen to learn what they've done wrong, they're allowed to return to heavens as immortals.
The characterisation feels convincing and the narrative shifts fluently between Steve, Julia, James and Bobby. All of these characters have their own feelings, thoughts and motives, and readers get to know them during the story.
One of the things that I find fascinating is that the author writes well about the relationships between her characters. These relationships have quite a lot different nuances.
The complicated relationship between Al and Steve is startlingly intense, because Al wants Steve to do what he wants and doesn't listen to him. Steve thinks differently about many things and doesn't agree with his father on what he is supposed to do. Their troubled relationship is handled in a realistical way. Steve fights against Al and what he intends to do.
I enjoyed reading about how Steve and Julia felt about each other and how they interacted with each other, because a magical connection had been created between them (the magical connection affected them in an exciting way). Their struggle with the strong emotions is an important part of the story.
What happens between Julia and his brother, James, is also interesting. They're French Canadians who have been born on the prairies and have spoken French with their mother. It was intriguing for me to read about how James used French to express and emphasise certain things.
One of the highlights of this novel is that Tanya Reimer has created an interesting Dreamland and writes fluently about dreams. I have read many novels in which dreams are an important part of the story, but I've seldom read novels that feature dreams in such a powerful and enchanting way. Steve's ability to access the Dreamland intrigued me a lot.
There's a deep mythological and post-apocalyptic feel to the story that will intirigue many readers. The author seamlessly combines mythological and post-apocalyptic elements with contemporary elements and maintains an approriately mysterious and strange atmosphere throughout the story.
It was intriguing that the author wrote about a bald head eagle that stole memories from Julia. This added a nice touch of mystery to the storyline and increased my interest in it, because the eagle didn't make sense to Steve and he wondered what it is. Officer Bobby, who wants to be Julia's hero, also adds quite a lot of additional excitement to the story with his deeds.
Tanya Reimer is an author to watch, because her novels and stories are good and she manages to surprise readers with fresh ideas. She has her own distinct and powerful voice that resonates powerfully among readers who love paranormal stories that have a connection to reality and the world around us. She has a gift for writing original and thought-provoking stories.
I was pleased with Can't Dream Without You, because it is exactly what a contemporary and paranormal speculative fiction novel should be like. It's not your normal kind of bland paranormal speculative fiction, but original and entertaining fiction with a satisfying amount of originality and freshness. It's something different, exciting and interesting, and that's why it deserves to be read.
Tanya Reimer's Can't Dream Without You is something different and it beckons readers to take a step into its enticingly dark and compelling world. If you enjoy reading dark stories and have a yearning for well written paranormal stories, you'll enjoy your visit to this novel's darkly enchanting world.
Captivating and fluently written entertainment for adults!