Dream a Little Dream by Antoinette Stockenberg is the story of an English castle which is transported brick by brick to America, with its resident ghosts included in the deal.

William Braddock, Lord Norwood has built a huge fortune in computers and is determined to buy back Fair Castle lost by his grandfather, and fulfil his grandmother's wishes.

He has no intention of letting anything or anyone stand in his way and with his goal in sight he sets off to America to make an offer on the castle.

Elinor is the American heiress who stands in the way between William and his dream of returning Fair Castle to England.  A writer and illustrator of children's books the castle her family lives in is her inspiration and the foundation which she believes keeps her family together.

Elinor's grandparents, Mickie and Camilla MacLeish, were the people who brought the castle and moved it to America and theirs is the choice to make upon whether to sell it back to the original owners.  But also living in the castle are Susan Roberts, Elinor's mother, her step-father Chester and her younger sister Isabelle.

William soon finds an ally in Susan Roberts.  Practical and the keeper of the financial books for the castle Susan knows that the money is running short and greets William's offer with delight.

Chester loves the castle and is constantly spending large sums of money adding to the exhibits, usually against the wishes of his more sensible wife.

Isabelle too loves the castle but since she is too young to know any other way of living Susan believes that a move to a normal house would not be too disrupting.

Mickie and Camilla are living their dream of residing in a genuine castle.  But their dream turns sour when the ghosts begin to wake and interrupt their daily lives.

Soon the only real adversary William has is Elinor, and the headstrong heiress is as determined as he is.  Although Elinor lives away from the castle a lot of the time she still returns there more and more often for her inspiration and she will not easily give up her sanctuary to the obnoxious stranger who claims to be Lord Norwood.

Also in residence at the castle is Tucker O'Toole who is doing extensive research for a book he is writing.  Elinor finds an ally in Tucker against William but he has no influence over her family and it is up to her alone to stop her family from selling Fair Castle.

And over all the events the ghosts are watching and waiting for their chance to sway the events to their own advantage.

Dream a Little Dream is a romance novel that I almost did not finish.

I found the hero of this novel William "Will" Braddock to be rather irritating for the first half of the novel.  I believe this was because unlike most novels where we see the view point of both hero and heroine, in this novel the heroine's view point dominates the story and the hero is seen through her eyes.

And since the heroine and hero are at loggerheads for most of the novel, the hero comes across to the reader only as the heroine sees him.  I admit that this shows a talent for writing but I would rather have seen some more of William's view point in the early half of the novel.

I also believe that the ghosts were played down a lot more than they should have been.  Although they were present throughout the novel their interaction was minimum and they appeared to be included only to fill in the gaps in the story of their lives.

I found this novel to be a reasonable romance novel but a poor ghostly romance.  I did stick it out and found the latter half of the novel a great improvement in the terms of the romance of Will and Elinor.  But for those who don't like ordinary romances and insist on active and entertaining ghosts to liven up the novel, I would suggest that this one be given a miss.

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Also by Antoinette Stockenberg:  Beyond Midnight, Emily's Ghost, Time after Time, Embers and Beloved.

Antoinette Stockenberg's Website