Today, I am delighted to be hosting Carolyn Mathews on the latest leg of her blog tour to celebrate her time-slip novel, Temple of Dreams. My thanks to Kelly of Love Books Tours for inviting me to take part, and to the publisher, Roundfire Books, for providing the ebook for review.

Here’s my review:

This book is billed as ‘a novel of then and now’ and it certainly lives up to that claim. The ‘now’ features Sebastian, who has recently lost his adoptive parents. Studying at a natural health college, he is encouraged, despite a healthy dose of scepticism, to explore his dreams; dreams that plunge him back to Ancient Greece. And that’s where the ‘then’ comes in, as we follow the path of Apollos, a young Athenian about to be initiated into the Greater Eleusinian Mysteries.

Carolyn Mathews has a deep interest in metaphysics, as anyone who has read her Pandora trilogy will know. But this is her first time slip novel. The device of using third person for Seb’s story and first person for Apollos works well, making a clear demarcation between the two time strands. The depth of research is obvious, but it doesn’t seem forced and we learn a lot about both ancient and modern views on natural healing as we go along.

There are similarities between the two boys’ stories, such as the fact that both lost their birth mothers at an early age and each is recovering from an injury, but the parallels are hinted at, rather than laid on too heavily. This is a well-written, easy to read novel, which I very much enjoyed. Recommended for all fans of time slip stories; or anyone who enjoys a more spiritual approach to their fiction.

Temple of Dreams is available both as an ebook and as a paperback. You can buy your copy by clicking here.