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katykelly's review
2.0
I thank the author for sending me an e-copy of this book when I didn't win a Goodreads Giveaway copy. I'm just sorry my review isn't going to be more favourable - the premise sounded promising.
A college student suddenly finds she has the ability to see other people's dreams. Only one of them appears to be a killer... Great idea, right?
Unfortunately, there was just nothing that grabbed me in the execution of it that made it live up to the promise.
Yes, Sara is a college student. Her life is going to revolve around her college life. But I really did find the detail of her lectures, scores, meals, study sessions tedious and repetitive.
The dream idea was great, but I admit that each time Sara awoke from one of the killer's dreams my heart sank - she would either vomit, scream or find she'd bitten off the limb if a teddy bear. Every time.
Her boyfriend, Brian, I also didn't warm too - he was a bit needy and weak for me, especially st the start. I just didn't see his appeal.
Guessed the killer, just obvious as soon as the character was mentioned and wasn't convinced by his 'reasons' for killing.
Most of the book was taken up with college life, rather than any build to a confrontation, and Sara never tried to use her ability to help in identifying the killer until very near the end.
Sara did occasionally use her dreams for the benefit of other students (e.g. knowing who liked who) but this could have been played with and fleshed out more. The whole thing was lacking a sense of humour - quite dry and taking it seriously.
I did want to give up halfway through but persisted in case the climax gripped me. It didn't really. Brief and no surprises.
There are a lot of favourable reviews so far on Goodreads for this, but for me, it just didn't hit the spot. Sorry.
A college student suddenly finds she has the ability to see other people's dreams. Only one of them appears to be a killer... Great idea, right?
Unfortunately, there was just nothing that grabbed me in the execution of it that made it live up to the promise.
Yes, Sara is a college student. Her life is going to revolve around her college life. But I really did find the detail of her lectures, scores, meals, study sessions tedious and repetitive.
The dream idea was great, but I admit that each time Sara awoke from one of the killer's dreams my heart sank - she would either vomit, scream or find she'd bitten off the limb if a teddy bear. Every time.
Her boyfriend, Brian, I also didn't warm too - he was a bit needy and weak for me, especially st the start. I just didn't see his appeal.
Guessed the killer, just obvious as soon as the character was mentioned and wasn't convinced by his 'reasons' for killing.
Most of the book was taken up with college life, rather than any build to a confrontation, and Sara never tried to use her ability to help in identifying the killer until very near the end.
Sara did occasionally use her dreams for the benefit of other students (e.g. knowing who liked who) but this could have been played with and fleshed out more. The whole thing was lacking a sense of humour - quite dry and taking it seriously.
I did want to give up halfway through but persisted in case the climax gripped me. It didn't really. Brief and no surprises.
There are a lot of favourable reviews so far on Goodreads for this, but for me, it just didn't hit the spot. Sorry.
gg1213's review
3.0
I was sent an ebook copy "Dream Student", the first book in an already completed series, by the author. In exchange for a review, and my quick thoughts are that: it was a really fun story, pretty original (I haven't read too much that deals with dreams) caught somewhere within the realm of a realist fantasy which I think becomes more apparent as the series continues. However, the writing execution wasn't the greatest (not that unexpected considering the series is the author's first published work and writing is a skill that takes so much practice to get good at), and therein lie most of the problems I had with the book.
I had some technical issues with this book. The writing was a little unnatural and at times seemed abrupt and rushed. Very much like a first draft. There were unnecessary tangents and some inconsistency with details at times.While other times there were word choices that could be misconstrued if someone didn't just read the book for a quick story. (Ex. She wants to control the relationship, the way her boyfriend comes across at first.)
I felt like there were quite a few moments in the book that were intended to serve as an extra push that this could be realistic and that Sara has a real life regardless of the story arc, but they just kind of seemed out of place sometimes.
I couldn't get behind Sara if I tried to analyze her as a character. She is supposed to be this very intelligent girl, and she reasoned through certain things like she was either half a step from being deranged or like a six year old. At one point she actually blames herself for certain events that occur because she helped a friend. I can understand the reasoning, but the wording of her feelings make it seem like she regrets her actions.
Like I said, the storyline is fun and makes me want to continue the series eventually, but the writing isn't the best so I would recommend going into this without the intent of analyzing or thinking too critically. If you can look past the execution, the plot saves things a bit.
I had some technical issues with this book. The writing was a little unnatural and at times seemed abrupt and rushed. Very much like a first draft. There were unnecessary tangents and some inconsistency with details at times.While other times there were word choices that could be misconstrued if someone didn't just read the book for a quick story. (Ex. She wants to control the relationship, the way her boyfriend comes across at first.)
I felt like there were quite a few moments in the book that were intended to serve as an extra push that this could be realistic and that Sara has a real life regardless of the story arc, but they just kind of seemed out of place sometimes.
I couldn't get behind Sara if I tried to analyze her as a character. She is supposed to be this very intelligent girl, and she reasoned through certain things like she was either half a step from being deranged or like a six year old. At one point she actually blames herself for certain events that occur because she helped a friend. I can understand the reasoning, but the wording of her feelings make it seem like she regrets her actions.
Like I said, the storyline is fun and makes me want to continue the series eventually, but the writing isn't the best so I would recommend going into this without the intent of analyzing or thinking too critically. If you can look past the execution, the plot saves things a bit.
booksplantsandtea's review
4.0
**Minor SPOILER**
***free copy given by the author**
Thanks for that!
Aaaaah, I missed reading during my finals...
Then I read this book and all was right in the world.
I loved it. Seriously, I'm not saying this just because I received a free copy from the author. No, I'm honestly saying I liked this book alot!
But... I do have one thing that irritated me a little bit.
I started this book and I immediately liked it alot. I liked the writing, the characters, the plot, the dreams... I liked it all. But then 50 pages in, Sara sees/meets Brian for the first time and it was "love at first sight"... I was sitting there like this:
Not that I don't believe in love at first sight, but I couldn't get my mind around it in this story. Is it me or is it poorly written or is the relationship forced? I don't know. I honeslty think I'm the problem, because later on I actually liked the couple... I think I would've preferred they had one or two dates, but that doesn't match with the plot so I get why the author chose for it to be like that.
Anyway, after I got over the irritation about the beginning of their relationship, I enjoyed the book. I couldn't stop reading. I read 'till midnight, one or two in the morning and when I woke up 9 hours later the first thing I did was grab my iPod, open iBooks and continue reading.
All that to say that I loved this book. It has a beautiful love story, there's suspense (even though I figured it would be that character but I didn't know how they would save the day so no problem there), there's action, it's beautifully written and certainly not boring.
I'd say: READ IT!
***free copy given by the author**
Thanks for that!
Aaaaah, I missed reading during my finals...
Then I read this book and all was right in the world.
I loved it. Seriously, I'm not saying this just because I received a free copy from the author. No, I'm honestly saying I liked this book alot!
But... I do have one thing that irritated me a little bit.
I started this book and I immediately liked it alot. I liked the writing, the characters, the plot, the dreams... I liked it all. But then 50 pages in, Sara sees/meets Brian for the first time and it was "love at first sight"... I was sitting there like this:
Not that I don't believe in love at first sight, but I couldn't get my mind around it in this story. Is it me or is it poorly written or is the relationship forced? I don't know. I honeslty think I'm the problem, because later on I actually liked the couple... I think I would've preferred they had one or two dates, but that doesn't match with the plot so I get why the author chose for it to be like that.
Anyway, after I got over the irritation about the beginning of their relationship, I enjoyed the book. I couldn't stop reading. I read 'till midnight, one or two in the morning and when I woke up 9 hours later the first thing I did was grab my iPod, open iBooks and continue reading.
All that to say that I loved this book. It has a beautiful love story, there's suspense (even though I figured it would be that character but I didn't know how they would save the day so no problem there), there's action, it's beautifully written and certainly not boring.
I'd say: READ IT!
jen286's review
1.0
Dream Student started out with such potential, but it progressively just got worse and worse for me. I was really excited to start reading it at first, the first few chapters drew me in and made me want to find out what was going on. It quickly became tedious and kind of boring though. Unfortunate.
Sara is a pre-med college student and suddenly she starts being able to see other people's dreams. Not often, usually her roommate or boyfriend, but then they jump to a murderer. It is always the same thing until he kills the current girl and moves on to the next one. An interesting idea, and the dreams were the best part of the book, but it just didn't work for me. Maybe if they would have been a bigger part, and there would have been more dreams that weren't so normal, or just more people's dreams, it would have been more interesting. That and if Sara did something about the dreams, or used them for good, for the first 75% of the book.
So what was the first 75% of the book? Well it was a pretty boring, detailed description of Sara going to school. I swear you were told everything she ate, or didn't eat, or when she forgot to eat. It seemed like every single mealtime was in there. Why? I am not sure. I don't care. That is just one of the over detailed descriptions about her life in this book. There are also way too much detail about what classes she was going to and her study habits and just everything about her life. She is a college kid, finals are coming up, you don't have to detail every hour of her day. I will assume she is studying and going to class and eating sometimes. It was a bit too much.
The other issue with the book? It was almost all telling not showing. I like showing. If you just tell me I don't connect with the characters or what is happening. Sara meets Brian shortly after she sees his dream where he is dreaming of her. I actually liked that scene, liked how Sara described the love at first sight thing. I got it, but then it quickly just was not right for me. I don't know what it was. It was like someone who didn't know what this would be like writing what they think people would want to see or something. It was just off for me. Sara and Brian are both in love right away which was actually fine for me, but some of the thoughts she had about Brian...some of the ways she thought of him were just...I wouldn't want someone to think of me that way. It was almost like she didn't really like him that much at times, but for some reason she felt like she had to be with him. It was odd and I didn't like it. I didn't see the connection because once again we were told not shown. That and sometimes she spoke about herself in a strange way as well. She also got a different personality when all of this started, and she commented on it like why did I say that? I didn't know I wanted to do that until I said it? Odd. I've never spoken like that to anyone before, etc. It was just like she was being controlled by something or someone else, but nothing ever happened with that. It was just the way it was.
One last thing, this book is set in 1989/1990. I am not sure why. Really the only reason I know this is because the date was at the beginning of every chapter. It was just like if you are going to set the book at a certain time then set it in that time. There was only one or two scenes where I thought oh if this were now they would just use their cell phone or something. Basically there was no way to tell this was set in 1989/1990. It was just another thing I found odd.
So the last 25% of the book Sara finally decides to start trying to do something with her dreams. She finally figures out who the killer is (who unfortunately is the guy I figured it would be when you first see him at the beginning of the story) and then instead of going to the police they try and solve the crime themselves! I mean what if the police don't believe them? I get that, but really if it were me I would go to them first. If they did nothing then maybe I would try and stop it myself. But police first. Really when I saw the first girl who was killed and recognized her from my dreams I would have went to them to try and help with the next girl. Even if they didn't believe me I would have tried, and afterwards I would start trying to figure out if I can find a way to figure out who the killer is. I mean you have access to his dreams so maybe you can find something. I wouldn't just try not to think about it and hope it goes away and I don't have to continue seeing girls who are murdered every night. I guess that is just me.
Overall not a very good read. It had so much promise, but it just didn't work for me.
This review was originally posted to Jen in Bookland
Sara is a pre-med college student and suddenly she starts being able to see other people's dreams. Not often, usually her roommate or boyfriend, but then they jump to a murderer. It is always the same thing until he kills the current girl and moves on to the next one. An interesting idea, and the dreams were the best part of the book, but it just didn't work for me. Maybe if they would have been a bigger part, and there would have been more dreams that weren't so normal, or just more people's dreams, it would have been more interesting. That and if Sara did something about the dreams, or used them for good, for the first 75% of the book.
So what was the first 75% of the book? Well it was a pretty boring, detailed description of Sara going to school. I swear you were told everything she ate, or didn't eat, or when she forgot to eat. It seemed like every single mealtime was in there. Why? I am not sure. I don't care. That is just one of the over detailed descriptions about her life in this book. There are also way too much detail about what classes she was going to and her study habits and just everything about her life. She is a college kid, finals are coming up, you don't have to detail every hour of her day. I will assume she is studying and going to class and eating sometimes. It was a bit too much.
The other issue with the book? It was almost all telling not showing. I like showing. If you just tell me I don't connect with the characters or what is happening. Sara meets Brian shortly after she sees his dream where he is dreaming of her. I actually liked that scene, liked how Sara described the love at first sight thing. I got it, but then it quickly just was not right for me. I don't know what it was. It was like someone who didn't know what this would be like writing what they think people would want to see or something. It was just off for me. Sara and Brian are both in love right away which was actually fine for me, but some of the thoughts she had about Brian...some of the ways she thought of him were just...I wouldn't want someone to think of me that way. It was almost like she didn't really like him that much at times, but for some reason she felt like she had to be with him. It was odd and I didn't like it. I didn't see the connection because once again we were told not shown. That and sometimes she spoke about herself in a strange way as well. She also got a different personality when all of this started, and she commented on it like why did I say that? I didn't know I wanted to do that until I said it? Odd. I've never spoken like that to anyone before, etc. It was just like she was being controlled by something or someone else, but nothing ever happened with that. It was just the way it was.
One last thing, this book is set in 1989/1990. I am not sure why. Really the only reason I know this is because the date was at the beginning of every chapter. It was just like if you are going to set the book at a certain time then set it in that time. There was only one or two scenes where I thought oh if this were now they would just use their cell phone or something. Basically there was no way to tell this was set in 1989/1990. It was just another thing I found odd.
So the last 25% of the book Sara finally decides to start trying to do something with her dreams. She finally figures out who the killer is (who unfortunately is the guy I figured it would be when you first see him at the beginning of the story) and then instead of going to the police they try and solve the crime themselves! I mean what if the police don't believe them? I get that, but really if it were me I would go to them first. If they did nothing then maybe I would try and stop it myself. But police first. Really when I saw the first girl who was killed and recognized her from my dreams I would have went to them to try and help with the next girl. Even if they didn't believe me I would have tried, and afterwards I would start trying to figure out if I can find a way to figure out who the killer is. I mean you have access to his dreams so maybe you can find something. I wouldn't just try not to think about it and hope it goes away and I don't have to continue seeing girls who are murdered every night. I guess that is just me.
Overall not a very good read. It had so much promise, but it just didn't work for me.
This review was originally posted to Jen in Bookland
lyndajdickson's review
5.0
Sara Barnes is a 21-year-old med student who starts having strange dreams. But they're not only her dreams; she seems to be invading other people's dreams as well. It's all a bit weird, but not too bad, until Sara starts having the nightmare. The same one every night, until she's too scared to go to sleep. What do these dreams mean? And what will happen when reality and her dreams collide?
This book was a pleasure to read and flowed very well. The characters are all well-drawn and believable, as is the dialogue. The (male) author does a remarkable job of getting into the head of his female protagonist. Anyone who has ever been in love will relate. There is a lot of detail about college life and coping with the pressures of exams but, whilst not exactly necessary to the story, it provides a realistic view of the life of a college student. Also, being set in 1989-1990, we can reminisce about the days before the Internet, Facebook, mobile phones, digital photography, and laptops.
This is a very impressive debut by a new young talent. I look forward to reading the sequels, some of which are already available.
I received this book for the purposes of providing an honest review.
This book was a pleasure to read and flowed very well. The characters are all well-drawn and believable, as is the dialogue. The (male) author does a remarkable job of getting into the head of his female protagonist. Anyone who has ever been in love will relate. There is a lot of detail about college life and coping with the pressures of exams but, whilst not exactly necessary to the story, it provides a realistic view of the life of a college student. Also, being set in 1989-1990, we can reminisce about the days before the Internet, Facebook, mobile phones, digital photography, and laptops.
This is a very impressive debut by a new young talent. I look forward to reading the sequels, some of which are already available.
I received this book for the purposes of providing an honest review.
diz_tn's review
4.0
3.5 stars
This story wasn't bad and had an interesting plot. The problem was that it was REALLY SLOW. Now, the setting is 1989/1990, and the slow pacing may have worked at that time (I don't know when it was written), but it doesn't work as well in today's fast paced YA/NA genre. Often information was repeated 2 or 3 times, which made it seem like the reader couldn't follow the plot.
For the audio version: The narrator was good except for 2 tiny things. First, the voice sounded slightly too old for a 21 year old. And second, all the character's voices and the internal dialogue of the main character sounded the same. This made it difficult at times to determine who was speaking. Neither of these was a real problem for me though.
This story wasn't bad and had an interesting plot. The problem was that it was REALLY SLOW. Now, the setting is 1989/1990, and the slow pacing may have worked at that time (I don't know when it was written), but it doesn't work as well in today's fast paced YA/NA genre. Often information was repeated 2 or 3 times, which made it seem like the reader couldn't follow the plot.
For the audio version: The narrator was good except for 2 tiny things. First, the voice sounded slightly too old for a 21 year old. And second, all the character's voices and the internal dialogue of the main character sounded the same. This made it difficult at times to determine who was speaking. Neither of these was a real problem for me though.
mrose21's review
1.0
Bit of a boring book for me I'm afraid. Just didn't get it, didn't get on with the style of writing.
princessleia4life's review
1.0
This was horribly written. The style and construction of sentences were horrible
gabs_myfullbookshelf's review
3.0
Read more of my reviews at My Full Bookshelf Reviews
2.5 stars
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Being a relative newbie to the new adult genre, I had honestly no idea what to expect from Dream Student. The verdict? It wasn't bad, but it wasn't fabulous. It still had a couple Young Adult genre cliches; I had been kind of hoping that I'd escape those, but nope. The plot was not too shabby. This book had enough to keep my interest going, but it never hooked me completely.
The thing that I really liked about this book was the mystery/paranormal aspect. When done right, these genres are super interesting. I didn't see the big 'reveal' of who did it coming. All together, it made for a really enthralling story.
The MC, Sara, at times could annoy me. She describes herself as plain; she thinks her best friend is prettier than she is; she falls head over heels with a guy that she just saw at some club; in short, a lot of the things I don't like about Young Adult protagonists I found in Sara. Bummer. She got better as the story progressed, which was good. Still, she never got a true personality; she was just kind of a tool for the story. That's why I could never really connect with her.
I didn't like the whole insta-love. It seemed like a bit of a copout. I mean, it was extremely quick, and that's coming from someone who has read some absolutley deplorable insta-lovey romances. There wasn't a getting to know the person stage,which I always love, and personally think makes a story much more realistic; Brian and Sara's relationship goes from 'random strangers' to 'soulmates' in basically one night. (And anyone who has watched Frozen knows, falling in love in one night doesn't work.)
Lastly, the book seemed to focus a lot on Sara's relationship with Brian, and it sometimes would stray away from the main storyline. Another pet peeve of mine from the YA genre. I think I could have liked the romance a bit more if the focus wasn't on it so much.
Are there good parts to this book? Yes. Are there bad parts to this book? Yes. I think whether people like this or not is going to be based on what they value in a story. If characters are the most important aspect of a story for them, maybe it's not a book I would recommend. If plotlines are, then maybe it would be. It really depends.
2.5 stars
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Being a relative newbie to the new adult genre, I had honestly no idea what to expect from Dream Student. The verdict? It wasn't bad, but it wasn't fabulous. It still had a couple Young Adult genre cliches; I had been kind of hoping that I'd escape those, but nope. The plot was not too shabby. This book had enough to keep my interest going, but it never hooked me completely.
The thing that I really liked about this book was the mystery/paranormal aspect. When done right, these genres are super interesting. I didn't see the big 'reveal' of who did it coming. All together, it made for a really enthralling story.
The MC, Sara, at times could annoy me. She describes herself as plain; she thinks her best friend is prettier than she is; she falls head over heels with a guy that she just saw at some club; in short, a lot of the things I don't like about Young Adult protagonists I found in Sara. Bummer. She got better as the story progressed, which was good. Still, she never got a true personality; she was just kind of a tool for the story. That's why I could never really connect with her.
I didn't like the whole insta-love. It seemed like a bit of a copout. I mean, it was extremely quick, and that's coming from someone who has read some absolutley deplorable insta-lovey romances. There wasn't a getting to know the person stage,which I always love, and personally think makes a story much more realistic; Brian and Sara's relationship goes from 'random strangers' to 'soulmates' in basically one night. (And anyone who has watched Frozen knows, falling in love in one night doesn't work.)
Lastly, the book seemed to focus a lot on Sara's relationship with Brian, and it sometimes would stray away from the main storyline. Another pet peeve of mine from the YA genre. I think I could have liked the romance a bit more if the focus wasn't on it so much.
Are there good parts to this book? Yes. Are there bad parts to this book? Yes. I think whether people like this or not is going to be based on what they value in a story. If characters are the most important aspect of a story for them, maybe it's not a book I would recommend. If plotlines are, then maybe it would be. It really depends.