Dreamland by Alyson Noel

Release Date: 1st August, 2011

Publisher: Macmillan

Pages: 208pgs

The Story

Riley Bloom's afterlife is about as good as it gets, except she'll never be a teenager. Riley desperately wants to speak to her older sister, Ever, and ask her advice. Ever is still alive and the only way Riley can reach her is to search for Dreamland a place where ghosts can jump into dreams and talk to their loved ones. But when she finally gets there Riley discovers Dreamland isn't as heavenly as it sounds. In fact, it's a total nightmare.

The Review

I wasn't sure what to expect in the third installment of the Riley Bloom series. I've read the first two books in this new spin-off series and they were nice, very light and entertaining reads, but I wasn't a huge fan of them since they're considered 'middle-grade' novels which I rarely read. But I still had a go with the third book and it was interesting enough.

First of all, it's easy to connect to the characters and Riley in particular is as sassy as ever, although her fiery attitude can get her into some deep trouble sometimes. She's probably one of the few reasons why I've continued with this series. And, of course, there's her dog, Buttercup, who is really cute. On the other hand you have this guy named Bodhi - Riley's hottie guide - who doesn't have a lot of spotlight this time round. Having the lack of Bodhi . . . it was pretty unfortunate because they're going their separate ways during the course of this book and I just want our Bodhi back to make the book interesting again. Sighs. Anyway aside from that small disappointment, it's still easy to see Riley crushing on Bodhi but she's completely oblivious to the fact of that . . . but then again which girl isn't oblivious to their boy crushes? Without going into too much detail, let's just say there's an adorable and very sweet scene between Riley and her older sister Ever, whom was our main heroine from Noel's previous Evermore series. That was great to read about and it's about time too!

Overall the plot is easy to follow and it kept me reading til the end - mostly because of the characters than the storyline itself. With a feel-good setting and likable characters, DREAMLAND is well worth the read if you're already a fan of Alyson Noel's novels or if you're looking for a read that won't take up too much of your time.

The Rating

3/5 stars