DANGEROUS DREAMS
A Story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke
Behind the Book | Excerpts | Praise | Dream Science and Theory
” . . . if I’d known what lay ahead, I would never have slept again.”
They sailed to the New World to establish England’s first permanent settlement. Today, they’re known as the Lost Colony of Roanoke—America’s most vexing and enduring mystery.
Well over four centuries ago, the “Lost Colony of Roanoke” became the most vexing and enduring mystery in American history—a mystery that lives on today. Dangerous Dreams is the story of what might have happened to the Colony; told in the personal, exciting, and terrifying manner in which it surely occurred.
On July 23, 1587, England established its first permanent North American settlement on Roanoke Island in present day North Carolina. Barely a month later, the colony’s deteriorating circumstances forced Governor John White to return to England for additional supplies and colonists. However, war with Spain precluded his return until 1590, when upon his arrival, he discovered the colony had vanished.
The Lost Colony’s saga mysteriously unfolds through the lifelike dreams of a young twenty-first century woman, Allie O’Shay, who after her dreams continue like a TV mini-series, night after night, deduces she’s dreaming the gripping drama of the Lost Colony. But Allie’s dreams do far more than witness history. Indeed, they emotionally entwine her with a young colonist named Emily Colman, with whom she develops a strange, compelling intimacy that leads to her discovery that there is far more to her bond with the Lost Colony than she could ever have imagined.
Emily and the colonists begin their struggle for survival against mounting adversity—internal dissent erupts, two suitors seek Emily’s favor, the powerful Powhatan chiefdom plans the colony’s demise, and four warriors from a tribe to the distant north arrive to trade with tribes near the colony. The subplots converge amidst the excruciating drama of the colony’s waning fortunes; while Emily faces terrifying perils that ultimately force her to make a fateful, agonizing decision that will determine the course of her remaining life.
Dangerous Dreams is for readers who savor gut-wrenching suspense; intense, fast paced action; layered mystery; compelling love and hate; a deep plot; and emotional immersion in their characters. Mike Rhynard inexorably draws readers into a tempest of gripping suspense, underpinned by a masterful blend of historical accounts and creative story telling. A must read for historical fiction and Romance readers.