Dream Me by Kathryn Berla
Dream Me combines time travel, teen angst, and romance in Kathryn Berla's new YA novel where a young man from a dying Earth's future time travels to our present-day, visiting a teen in her dreams.
Summary
Zat is a dreamer from the distant future—a time when humans no longer dream and Earth is a desolate wasteland. He dreams of the beautiful Earth of the past, and a fiery-haired beauty named Babe. Against the wisdom of his peers, Zat decides to risk everything to travel back in time and live in Babe’s dreams…
Babe is the perpetual new girl in town. Her father's job frequently moves the family around the country, and Babe just longs for a place to call home. As she settles into the sleepy town of Sugar Dunes, Florida, Babe begins to have strange dreams of a green-eyed boy named Zat. Night after night, Babe shows Zat her world. But the dreams come at the cost of nearly crippling migraines every morning. Babe’s life outside of her dreams pales in comparison to her growing love for Zat and their time spent together.
But the more time Babe and Zat spend together in her dreams, the more Babe’s pain increases, and Zat begins to question the reality of his existence. How can he live a life with Babe, when all they have is her dreams?
Can a dream become a reality?
Book Details
Dream Me by Kathryn Berla
On Sale Date: July 11, 2017
Young Adult Fiction, Time Travel
Amberjack Publishing, 270 pages
Source: NetGalley
My Rating: 2.5/5 Stars
My Review
Time travel and dream projection, with a heavy addition of romance, Dream Me sounded like my kind of YA read.
Dream Me really ended up being an equal mix of positives and negatives for me. I'm going to get the negatives out first so we can end on a positive note.
Normally, I would love this fun genre blend in one of my YA reads but the concept and delivery of the sci-fi element was really sparse and the romance too instantaneous for my taste.
The dying Earth, time travel, and Zack's determination to visit Babe were all vaguely explained and it wasn't until the end when an unforeseen twist (one that I really liked) made me change my mind on many points, unfortunately, though it gave it a satisfactory conclusion, it was too late premise-wise.
I had a hard time connecting to Zat's character, our young and handsome time traveler, throughout the entire story. I loved the idea of a slow burn romance developing within a dream world between Zat and Babe but the execution felt lacking to me. I needed more chemistry or banter between the two - the buildup just wasn't there for me.
What I did enjoy was Babe's spunky personality and the positive portrayal of family and friendships. The fun setting which took place at Sugar Dunes, a sleepy town in the Florida Panhandle, also added to the appeal, in fact, the contemporary setting outshone the dream realm surprisingly.
Summer vacations, a new town, and friendships would have made Dream Me a great start to a YA contemporary. Also, I would like to mention that this is a very sweet and clean read which would be suitable for younger readers wondering into teen reads.
In the End
A clean and positive (light) sci-fi read that feels more like a YA contemporary romance with little build-up. A great twist at the end and positive family and friendships relations are an added bonus.
