Summary: Jan Wilde is visiting her aging aunt and uncle in their historic Williamsburg home in the summer of 1976, when she starts having vivid dreams, unlike any she's had before. She dreams of her ancestor, Charles, a brash but good-hearted soldier in Washington's army, and his friend, Jonathan, a tumultuous young pacifist and abolitionist. The dreams are more intense and more detailed than Jan can explain, and she finds herself increasingly obsessed with them, even to the point of shutting out normal life, and even though whether or not they're accurate, it's all already happened in the past... or has it?

Review: My main problem with this book was the amount of suspension of disbelief required. Not about the vivid, historically accurate dreams - those were a plot device that I was readily willing to accept, and the historical fiction chapters were actually the best parts of the book. No, what bothered me was the speed and the ease with which everything happened in the modern-day (or, well, 1976) sections. Jan has one, maybe two of these dreams, and all of a sudden she's in love with Jonathan and taking sleeping pills in the afternoon to get back into her dream world. Likewise, she's been in town for a few weeks and already finds herself fending off not one but two marriage proposals, even though she spends most of her time either dreaming, or researching the historical events from her dreams.

That was another thing - the parts of the modern storylines that weren't exceedingly silly were spent recapitulating the historical events that we had *just* read about in the "dream" chapters, just to be sure we got it. The ending is about as contrived as the rest of the book, but it is one of the better possible ways to resolve the storylines; about halfway through the book, I was envisioning possible endings so ridiculous that I was actually hoping that the dreams were the result of a brain tumor. (Schwarzenegger-esque spoiler: It's not a toomah, but the cause of the dreams isn't ever really explained, either.)

Barbara Michaels is a pen name of Elizabeth Peters, who writes the wildly popular Amelia Peabody egyptologist mysteries, so obviously there are people out there who like what she does. (I haven't read any of her other books, so I can't compare.) I can see how Patriot's Dream would be good fiction comfort reading, if this sort of book is your style - it's quick, light, not particularly thematically challenging, but interesting enough to hold the attention, and with adequate splashes of gothic-ness and romance and mystery to be entertaining. I just found the plotting to be too contrived to really lose myself in it. 3 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Not great, but not terrible, although it is starting to show its age in places. Folks who enjoy historical fiction from the American Revolution and who aren't looking for anything particularly serious will probably have the best luck with this one. ( )

Kirkus Reviews Off the rack but serviceable is this Bicentennial romance which swirls between 18th-and 20th-century Williamsburg. Jan, initially a reluctant guest in the historic manse of her aged aunt and uncle, becomes a time-traveler in her nightly dreams--back to the tragedy-laced careers of an ancestor, aristocratic Charles, and, his friend (or relative?), generous, impulsive abolitionist Jonathan. While Charles is off with Washington, Jonathan, in order to gain some measure of freedom for blacks, spies for the Tories in exchange for the slaves' release into the British Army. But there's a turnabout as Charles falls deeply in love with a young slave girl, Leah, and Jonathan comes around to the patriot cause to fight and almost die to save Charles and Leah. Here Jan materializes beside Jonathan but returns to sort out both past and present. Well plotted but as glossy as acrilan knee britches.
(Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 1976) ( )