When love has gone, when hope has flown, where do you go?
Aven Winter has literally been to hell and back. But despite living through more trauma than most people can survive, since returning from the demon queen's clutches, she's tried to hold on to the joys in her life and move on from the grief. The problem is, the grief has hurtled back into her life with the anniversary of her husband Darius's death, and no amount of citrus oil or lavender scrub from her family's apothicaire is helping.
When the anniversary of her dead husband's death sneaks up on her, Aven's broken heart forces her to seek solace among a local coven of witches. But their friendship soon twists into a sinister ploy to exploit Aven's newfound magic. When Aven refuses to use her powers for evil, the coven leader, a man capable of commanding the very strands of time, casts a spell on Aven, cursing her physical body to fall into a deep, unbroken sleep while her mind is thrust back into the past. There, she reunites with the man who would later become her beloved husband, falling once more for the charming young man.
Desperate to cling onto her one true love, Aven attempts to change the future, but the relationship she missed so much is not what she remembered. Darius hardly has any time for her, always rushing off to his ship, leaving Aven with a deep loneliness. Instead, she's forced to spend more time with Darius's good-for-nothing friend Baz, whom she really can't stand. Despite their incompatible personalities, Aven finds herself drawn to Baz, and she eventually reveals the truth?that she's from the future and needs Baz's help to wake from her eternal sleep.
When Darius's fate proves impossible to change, Aven must mourn the love she thought she had and choose a different future for herself, one where love is not only found in the most unlikely places but also reciprocated. Determined to rewrite her story and break the curse, Aven must find the coven leader and destroy the source of his power: his very heart.
A Dream Upon Waking is the highly anticipated sequel to A Cry for the Deep and the lush finale to the Three Bells series, beautifully examining the experience of grief and the hope of new beginnings. This gothic mashup of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White will keep you spellbound from the first page to the last.
