Once Within a Dream, S. L. Kassidy

Description

Once Within a Dream by S.L. Kassidy is a paperback fantasy novel that blends grief, resilience, and supernatural mystery into a haunting journey through a fractured world.

Samar Habeen is fighting two wars. One is against the Nightmares that stalk the broken streets of Oganja. The other is inside her own heart.

Still reeling from the loss of her mother and homeland, Samar struggles to survive in a city that offers little comfort. Grief clings to her like armor she never asked to wear, and the family she longs for feels distant and fractured. Her only refuge becomes a strange monument housing a tomb—a quiet place where sorrow and memory echo together.

But when Samar suddenly stops visiting, something awakens.

A sleeping soul rises from the tomb and begins searching for her, setting in motion a story of loss, connection, and the mysterious bonds that link the living and the dead. Once Within a Dream is a dark, atmospheric fantasy about survival, longing, and the strange ways the past refuses to stay buried.

Listing details:
Author: S.L. Kassidy
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Desert Palm Press
Publication Date: March 12, 2026
ISBN: 9781954213982

Biographical note:

What is there to know about me? Not much. I was born, bred, and raised in New York, and I have no desire to live anywhere else. One day, I would like to travel to a few places, but for now I am content where I am.I started out writing poetry in junior high and continued to do so for ten years. I wrote short stories, usually fantasy and romance stories, for my own entertainment throughout high school and college. Back then, I wrote strictly for me and those stories remain locked in the back of my closet in little notebooks, written in my almost unreadable, tiny handwriting. In between writing those stories and poetry, I managed to get a college degree in history.After graduating college, I had a semester off before graduate school, and I didn’t really have anything to do with my time. So I took a chance and wrote a fanfic and dared to upload it to the Internet. I was surprised that other people enjoyed my work, and I’ve been posting ever since. I had quite a bit of fun with fan fiction and eventually decided to try my hand in original fiction. I suppose it was sort of like coming back around to what I had been doing in high school and college, except this time the stories were for whoever wanted to read them. After I uploaded my first original story, I didn’t looked back. I plan to continue writing as long as I continue getting ideas for stories and it continues to be fun.