Gypsy Love: Dream or Reality has everything I want in a book! There's mystery: a baffling otherworldy/alternative reality overtakes the main character....but he cannot discern if it's a dream, or it's really happening. There's a love story for the ages that takes ages for the lovers to blissfully revel in their romance. There's humor: but I don't want to give that away!! It's unexpected and so much fun. There are terrifying fistfights, gunfights, knife fights, fires, drownings and illness. There are deaths, and births. There is spirituality, a great love of God and his gifts to us. There are Romany Gypsies: exotic, magical, mystical, musical, beautiful with lives that stay within their own community until that community is threatened. There are bad "guys" who work to hurt and separate our lovers. There are good-bad "guys," men who aren't evil, but who haven't yet accepted the truths of their lives, and instead face those truths with anger, desperation, jealousy, hatred and other nasty traits. And yes, we see that if anger and hatred and jealousy and all those other nasty personality traits are that person's way of dealing with whatever life throws at him (or her), then it's simply going to come back. Yes, karma comes back (as in Buddhism, Karma comes back in the next life). And this broad and deep story shows that reincarnation gives us all the opportunity to reset our karma. It's no secret that love trumps hate. It's no secret that acceptance and forgiveness is the way to live a beautiful, blessed life. And its no secret that a dream may be reality. Or that reality may be a dream. Which is which? In Gypsy Love: Dream or Reality, I experienced the actualities.
The book is a "can't put down," quick read. The characters are well drawn, the narrative structure deep and rich. I genuinely enjoyed it. So much so that I read it twice. And I'm usually a non-fiction reader.
This book was originally published in Brazil, in Portuguese. The author is well-known in Brazil and her books are beloved there. This was her first novel. I think it's a gem.
Lopes writes an interesting story with Gypsy Love: Dream or Reality. I enjoyed this story, filled with love, mystical magic, and alternate realities. The story was well put together, and I think it had its own touch of magic to it. The author has a great imagination, and it shows in this story. There were build ups to actions, suspense, and journey of the mysteries of life. It was a little hard to always know what was real and what was a dream, but I think that was intentional and part of the mystique of the story. I look forward to reading more by this author.
I received this book free in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. ~Amy's Bookshelf Reviews
As an opera lover I found this reminiscent of many of the sizzling plots that require as good suspension of disbelief in order to enjoy. It’s equally swashbuckling, fantastical, action-packed, and suspenseful. Two stories, actually three, interwoven, although sometimes it is hard to tell which “reality” we’re in at the time. Lost loves, lost dreams, feudal disputes, and incest! The first instance is fairly predicable, but the second one is a complete surprise, begging the question of a true happy ending. But this is a novel.