Recent Reads: Dreamland

Book: Dreamland by Sarah Dessen

Genre: YA Fiction

Book Count: 5

Ahhh, the first book in my new Recent Reads format.

So I'm a huge Sarah Dessen fan. Love her. Thanks to my sister V for introducing us.

I once received a compliment from someone that some of my writing was very "Sarah Dessen-esque." Yeah, I printed that comment and have it pasted in my writing journal.

Okay, anyway, back to the book.

For a long time I didn't want to read this one. No real reason. When my sister babysits for us, we pay her in books - there's a reason I'm telling you this, I swear. I think this actually costs us more money because we all go to the bookstore and then my daughter and I almost always get a couple books too. Anyway, this was one of the books my sister picked up and as it would be, I ran out of reading materials and this book dropped into my lap.

I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was about how much I liked it. I have yet to read one of Ms. Dessen's books that I don't like. She just makes things so believable and vivid, as though you're the one walking through the pages. Her characters are real and could be the girl next door, the one down the street, your best friend or your sister and in Dreamland, Caitlin is no different. The story of a girl struggling to escape her perfect sister's shadow, in Dreamland Caitlin learns that life for the "perfect" maybe isn't so great.

Though it is not my favorite Sarah Dessen book (that slot is still reserved for This Lullaby because I Dexter), I did enjoy Dreamland.

And as for Sarah Dessen books in general ... I'm excited to pick up the paperback of Lock and Key when it comes out. (I've had to wait for paperback because I'm a dork and need to have all my books in a "series" match. )