Emily Rozmus (Library Media Connection, October 2008)
Janie still remembers the first time it happened. She was eight when her life changed forever. Janie finds herself sucked into the dreams of those around her. No matter where she is or what she is doing, if someone near her is dreaming, then Janie is too. Now, at 17, sleep-deprived and over-stimulated, Janie doubles her load by working at a nursing home every minute that she isn’t in school. With the help of Cabel, a figure from her past, as well as that of a former resident from the nursing home, Janie finds that the curse may be a blessing after all. The book is told in easy-to-read segments separated by hours and days. Narrative flows naturally from dream to reality, so readers identify with Janie’s distress and ultimate triumph. A happy yet alluring ending will draw fans of this first novel of a series to the next installment. Well-developed characters, an intriguing love story, and an adventurous plot make this an appealing novel. Recommended. 2008, Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuster), 224pp., $15.99 hc.

April Spisak (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, April 2008 (Vol. 61, No. 8))
As a child, Janie discovered she had a disconcerting tendency to wander into the dreams of others. Now that she is seventeen, this always burdensome quirk has become unbearable: in school she is incessantly bombarded with the dreams, mostly about sex and anxieties, of her constantly dozing peers. The gruesome nightmares of a fellow student, Cabel, are especially alarming, however, when she finds herself attracted to his waking self and drawn into his life. The romantic connection is a relief to the deeply isolated Janie (living alone with her alcoholic mother, she has always had to keep distance from friends to preserve her secret), but he has even more to offer than simple involvement: Cabel is somehow able to spot Janie in his sleeping world, and he is determined to find ways to help her, and himself, out of his own horrendous nightmares by using their waking bond as therapy to face his past. The potentially overblown romantic attachment between the protagonists (they are, after all, apparently destined to be together whether awake or dreaming) is effectively complicated and reined in by a well-developed subplot that supplies Cabel with a secretive contemporary life to go with his tortured past. In addition, Janie’s patient resilience in the face of unpleasant circumstances makes her a sympathetic character, and readers will likely find themselves as relieved as she when some control of her powers is gained. Pair this with Jonsberg’s Dreamrider, reviewed above, for two different but overlapping explorations of lucid dreaming Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2008, Simon Pulse, 210p., $15.99. Grades 9-12.