Katherine Johns has shiny straight hair, adorable freckles on her nose, and strangely intense dreams. Even though she only just started college, she's already attracted the attention of the most sought-after man at school, hockey-star Cooper Donovon. But how can she concentrate on him when she's dreaming of her soul-mate?

It turns out that her dream boyfriend is none other than her new bff&roommate Taylor's brother Austin, who died 2 years ago. Katherine has to choose between her dead soul-mate and her live hottie boyfriend. I was annoyed at how easily everyone accepted Katherine's stories of dreaming about a dead guy. Not a single person tells her she's crazy, or even mistaken--they all immediately take her at her word. She doesn't even have to prove it by giving info only Austin would know. She just tells Austin's family and ex-girlfriend that his angel/ghost is visiting her in dreams, and they all accept it but are completely disinterested in how. Why is no one curious about the dead dude? No one wonders if he can tell them anything about death or the afterlife, no one wonders about whether other dead loved ones are hanging around too. Supposedly his death devastated his family, but not one of them wish they could see him, too. They're only interested in how Katherine and Austin's romance is going. Spiritualists and mediums get wealth and fame through vague, obvious pronouncements about dead people, but no one is interested in the fact that apparently ghosts are all around us, watching us and peeping into our dreams?

Putting aside the huge problem that the plot itself is completely unrealistic, the characters and writing don't help. The tense shifts every few sentences, sometimes the POV switches within a single paragraph. Grammar errors run rampant. The dialog is like someone taped 400 hours of CW programming and then selected the most boring, meaningless sentences possible and strung them together. The characters are too bland to even count as stereotypes. They're all handsome and nice; if they're a man, they're also muscled and good at hockey. That's the extent of their characterization. The weirdest throwback tropes are in here, too: there's an Italian restauranteur who speaks-ah like-ah this-ah, each of the characters' mothers are described as being in the kitchen (followed by the maddening phrase "of course") and half a chapter is devoted to telling us that picnics are not manly and that men should be manly and therefore not like picnics. (I have no idea where the author got that particular idea.) It is, overall, the most boring, bland, and just plain bad book that I've read in months. ( )

I downloaded In dreams today from Amazon for free, after hearing people from a reading group rave about this book. Granted, I heard the words hockey boys and wanted to read it anyway, but that's not the point.

In Dreams introduces us to Katherine, a girl who dreams about a boy she has never meet. She doesn't know why she's dreaming about him, but she just knows every time she does she falls deeper and deeper in love with him. And there lies the problem. In falling in love with him, she is struggling to deal with the living and the dreamworld - a dreamworld that is more intriguing to her than the living.

She literally can not wait to dream - to see her dream boy. Then she meets Cooper, a real life living dream boy. The star of the hockey team, and someone who loves her completely. But he's still not the boy of her dreams. Katherine has to make the choice between what is real and what is not real? The prize? True love.

Firstly, I've got to say a few pages in I was interested but not overly interested. I almost put it down. I say almost, because I decided to read a few more pages. Then a few more pages after that. Well, you get the gist. An hour later, I'd finished the book and found myself annoyed that I couldn't read the second one yet.

This storyline is unique in so many ways. I'm not going to spoil it and tell you why. You need to read it for yourself. The hook really is having a main character who dreams about a boy she doesn't know. It has you wondering if she does know him? If she'd had a memory lapse and he was her boyfriend or something different altogether. It makes you want to read to find out the reason behind her dreams and to find out who this dream boy is.

It's a poignant love-story in which the main character has to choose between two boys - both of whom she loves - with the knowledge she can only ever really have one of them. The question is, which one does she really want? And what is she willing to sacrifice to get that boy?

In Dreams is beautifully written and leaves me eager to see what will happen next in this tale. Definitely worth getting (It's free still today and after that the cheap price of 0.99 at Amazon).

You also get a sneak peek of the next novel in the series, and can I tell you it will leave you wanting much much more. ( )