The Dream, the first entry in Barbara Delinsky’s Crosslyn Rise Trilogy, is the story of a woman who’s the last in her once-wealthy family and tries to hold on to her familial estate with the help of her former childhood bully.
The Dream by Barbara Delinsky
Rating: 
Published: 1990
Illustrator: Cinille
Imprint or Line: Harlequin Temptation #317
Book Series: Crosslyn Rise #1
Published by: Harlequin
Genres: Category Romance, Contemporary Romance
Pages: 220
Format: eBook, Paperback
Buy on: Amazon, AbeBooks
Reviewed by: Introvert Reader
The Book
The Dream, category romance Harlequin Temptation #317, by Barbara Delinsky, was the first book in her Crosslyn Rise trilogy. The trilogy centered on an old majestic estate on the North Shore of Massachusetts and the three couples involved in transforming it into something magnificent for a new era.
The Plot
The Dream tells the age-old story of an heiress who is the last of her line and the inheritor of her family’s magnificent mansion and estate. She cannot afford to keep it as it is, so she must decide whether to sell or redevelop it into a new community.
Jessica Crosslyn owns Crosslyn Rise, however tenuously, and must choose its destiny. Jessica had a dream, and the one person who could make it happen was architect Carter Malloy. Unfortunately, he had been her tormentor during her childhood.
Initially, she flat-out refuses to work with him. After a rocky reencounter, Carter is able to convince Jessica he’s not the cruel pimply-faced boy who made her childhood miserable. Jessica ultimately asks Carter to build her a dream home on the grounds of Crosslyn Rise.
In the end, Jessica is able to reconcile her plans of both holding on to her ancestral home and achieving financial security. Through a difficult process of soul-searching, she eventually recognizes the potential in Carter Malloy and chooses to trust him with the project of designing her dream home.
With Carter’s help, she is able to build a modern home within the grounds of the estate that honors its past and sets up a promising future for her family.
Final Analysis of The Dream
Barbara Delinsky painted a sweet picture of how love can truly conquer all obstacles and how, with just a little imagination, anything is possible. With Carter’s help, Jessica was finally able to make peace with both duty and desire so that she could safeguard her family’s estate for generations to come.
The Dream captures the universal struggle between conflicting feelings of love and responsibility, showing that it’s possible to achieve both in the end.
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Synopsis
She was in turmoil
Heiress Jessica Crosslyn had to make a decision. If she sold the family estate, she’d lose her ancestral home forever. If she turned it into the condominium development of her dreams, she’d havee to work with Carter Malloy. He was the best architect for the project, but Jessica hated him.
The sexy, enigmatic Carter was Jessica’s nemesis—the one man she’d spent a lifetime trying to avoid. But now she had no choice. If she wanted to save Crosslyn Rise, she had to place her entire future in Carter’s hands. But that didn’t mean she had to wind up in his arms….
The Dream By Barbara Delinsky
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