{Review} Dream Girl by SJ Lomas

February 27, 2014 Michelle @ Book Briefs Reviews, Young Adult 0 ★½

Dream Girl by S.J. Lomas
Paperback, 258 pages
Published November 2013 by Scribe Publishing
Source: ecopy for review
Age Group: YA
Summary:

For Christine, dreams have never meant much. Until she meets Gabriel. Everyone thinks Christine should stay away from her new coworker at the library—thanks to his bad reputation—but when her dreams grow more vivid and she becomes entangled in a dangerous dream world with Gabriel every night, she can’t stay away. Soon it’s clear there is far more to dreams than Christine ever imagined, and now she’s on the path to making the biggest, and strangest, decision of her life.

I really liked the premise of this book. The story is split between the dreams and real life. Christine journals about her dreams and when she starts seeing her new co-worker Gabriel in her dreams as well as at work, she knows something strange is going on. I wanted so badly to like this book, but it just didn’t work for me. It was hard for me to get through. The characters didn’t seem believable and the insta love got on my nerves. I just didn’t feel Christine and Gabriel’s connection right away. I liked where the romance went but it was a rocky start for me.

I liked the spooky feeling of the dream world and her dreams freaked me out in a good way, but the book seemed jumpy and disjointed for me. It was moving way too fast and I couldn’t get my footing with the story. If things would have just slowed down a bit, I feel like I would have forged a better connection with Christine, but I just couldn’t get to know her. And I couldn’t seem to like Gabriel at all.

I can really see people enjoying the cool feeling of the dream world. It was interesting. It was easily my favorite part of the story, but I couldn’t just ease into enjoying this book. I liked how the plot was split between the dream world and the real world. I thought SJ Lomas did a good job making the two world feel different. The mystery and the danger aspect were fun and I can see people really getting into the high paced romance and adventure, but it wasn’t for me. I needed a better connection with the characters, and a little bit of a smoother plot with more detail.