ARC Review: Dreamology by Lucy Keating

Title: Dreamology 
Author: Lucy Keating 
Genre: Contemporary, Paranormal 
Source: Edelweiss 
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: April 12th 2016

Summary: 

For as long as Alice can remember, she has dreamed of Max. Together they have traveled the world and fallen deliriously, hopelessly in love. Max is the boy of her dreams—and only her dreams. Because he doesn’t exist. But when Alice walks into class on her first day at a new school, there he is. It turns out, though, that Real Max is nothing like Dream Max, and getting to know each other in reality isn’t as perfect as Alice always hoped. When their dreams start to bleed dangerously into their waking hours, the pair realize that they might have to put an end to a lifetime of dreaming about each other. But when you fall in love in your dreams, can reality ever be enough? Whimsical, romantic and utterly original, Lucy Keating’s debut novel will win readers’ hearts.

My immediate thought after reading: I want more. How can I get more? I can whole heatedly agree with the summary, Dreamology is whimsical, original and Keating's characters have stolen my heart. I couldn't have said it any better myself. 

Almost every night Alice goes to sleep and dreams of Max. For as long as she can remember Max has been in her dreams. Max is literally the boy of her dreams, and they are helplessly in love. But when Alice starts a new school in Boston the last person she expected to see was Max. A boy she thought was strictly imaginary. Dream Max and Waking Max are nothing like each other. But the more time that Waking Max and Alice spend together, the more their dreams are bleeding into the real world and loosing each other in their dreams is a scary possibility. 

I really liked the cast of characters that were created for the reader. I loved Alice, her witty personality, how she longs for a boy that is off limits (in the real world), and her vividly wild imaginations. She reminds me a lot of me actually. She takes matters into her own hands, and didn't take no for the answer in finding what she needed. When we first meet Max he is depicted as sweet, and caring. But in the real world things are different. Max has a girlfriend, and he is pretty popular. In the real world my first impression of him was that he was kind of dickish. He blatantly ignored Alice and was very uninterested in anything she had to say. Through out the book though we see Waking Max warm up to Alice, and see the qualities of Dream Max more. 

Oliver. Seriously. I love him so much. I think he was my favorite character. The boy is the definition of trouble, not the malicious kind of trouble but the fun harmless kind. We first meet him in the deans office, before school even starts, hopelessly flirting with the older secretary jokingly. Pretending that her rejection hurts him. Pretty quickly him and Alice and friends and their adventure continue. There were several moments that Oliver has me laughing out loud. Something I don't do often enough in a book. 

The romance was a little complicated. In their dreams Max and Alice knew each other for most of their lives. They are in love. But in reality, there is another girl in the picture. The romance is slow burn build up, the tension building until they finally kiss. But that is the least of their problems, because being together is breaking their sanity. 

I really enjoyed the dream portions of this book. They were creative, cool, and at some moments strange. It would take me a few moments to catch what is going on, but it was entertaining to see what Alice and Max's minds would create next. 

The small issue I had with the dreams was the end result, when they found out why they were joined and how it happened and how they could be separated. It was very vague, and I was discontented because I love those things. But I got thinking: This book really wasn't about the paranormal/sci-fi aspect. The main focus was the romance between the two characters and whether Alice could learn to be in love with reality. 

Overall I really loved Dreamology and can't wait to read more from Keating in the future. Dreamology was a perfect mix of dream and reality and what you love and want more. Considering it is very light on the paranormal/sci-fi aspect it isn't something that contemporary fans should fear. This book won't be recommended enough. 

Want to know more about Dreamology? Check back in April for our New Authors on the Block feature!