Dream a Little Dream, by Kerstin Gier

At last!  Another book from the delightful Kerstin Gier, whose Ruby Red series was a fun, romantic, comical time-traveling adventure.  I've been eager to see what Gier would produce next, and now it's almost here.  Dream a Little Dream will be released in April, 2015.

This is book 1 in The Silver Trilogy.  Teenager Liv Silver and her sister, Mia, have lived all over the world with their parents.  The book begins with Liv and Mia arriving in England to join their mother, who is supposed to be lecturing at Oxford.  They cannot wait to live in a quaint English cottage filled with the possibility of charm and mystery.  However, upon arriving in London, they find their mother has met a man and plans for them all to move into his house along with his twin children.  Although there are the usual hiccups and disagreements when this new plan is announced, everyone in the household begins to genuinely gets along.

One night, Liv has a dream that feels incredibly real.  She follows her future stepbrother, Grayson, into a cemetery where he meets up with three other boys from school.  They perform a ritual, asking the "Lord of Shadows and Darkness" to show them who will be part of their circle.  Naturally, Liv falls out of the tree she's been hiding in right at this moment.  Only later will she learn out what she's been "chosen" for.

The book is part Inception, part Raven Boys (by Maggie Stiefvater), with Gier's knack for humor and a taste of Gossip Girl thrown into the mix.  As we previously saw in Ruby Red, she writes wonderfully real teenage girls, who are sarcastic, flawed, and spunky all at once.  As Liv gets pulled farther into this mysterious dream world, she begins to fall for one of the boys, Henry.  Their budding romance is genuine and sweet.

My only complaint about this book is that Gier spends a lot of time exploring dream worlds, but never really gets around to Liv's part in the secret circle.  When the moment finally arrives, it feels too rushed.  However, because we have 2 more books yet to come, the ending is only the beginning.

Review given in exchange for an advance reader's copy from Net Galley.

One additional comment: I really hate the cover.  The purple door, bubbles, butterflies, and pink curly script are all misleading.  The book was really a bit dark and sinister in some places, and I think could appeal to boys and girls if the bookseller or librarian talks it up enough.  However, NO TEENAGE BOY that I've met would touch this book with a ten-foot pole based on this cover.  maybe they'll change it before publication?

1/16/15 UPDATE  Yay!  They did change the cover after all.  The new one is still kinda' girly, but at least it better reflects the darker aspects of the book.