Sweet Dreams: Tricia Sullivan

A wonderful set of characters, a twisty, tight plot, great writing. Despite the high-concept plot, everything is so grounded by the characters. Terrific.

An interesting if occasionally frustrating read. It never quite seems to strike a happy balance between whodunnit and speculative science fiction and its ending had unfortunate echoes of 'The Matrix' films, at least for me. Still it's compelling in its narrative and a decent time-filler.

Well, this was a little different to my usual reads. Charlie has the ability to enter people's dreams and manipulate them. She does this in a therapeutic way, selling her services to help those afflicted by bad dreams and nightmares. Her ability started just after she took part in a medical trial and appeared hand in hand with uncontrollable narcolepsy the combination of which has the power to leave her vulnerable. She lives with a rather interesting landlady, having answered an ad for a live in carer, O, who also helps her with arranging clients. As we meet Charlie at the start of our story, she is being questioned. It appears that one of her clients, Mel, is dead. Not just that, but it transpires that the death occurred whilst she was still in dreamland, with Charlie. But, she's not just any client, she's a well known musician and, if that's not enough, she's Charlie's ex's current girlfriend. Is that motive enough for something fishy to be happening? Is Charlie involved in the death? Certain things happened when Charlie entered her dream though, things that shouldn't happen, coincidences that shouldn't be? Mel's Dreamscape was familiar, she described a person that Charlie also has nightmares about. Are the two of them connected more than just having shared a boyfriend and if so, how? What the heck is going on?This was a strange book for me. I would definitely put it into the category I so loving call bonkers. But it was also brilliantly so. I love the concept of dream hacking - yes I also enjoyed the film Inception - and found the fact that someone could sort of astral project them self into someone else's dream quite intriguing. I also loved the diary / log entries that Charlie keeps as records of her work. Especially the more interesting dreams and hurdles she encounters early on.As for the rest of things, well, you'll just have to read the book as to say more would just spoil it as certain things have to be discovered at the right times for the whole to work, and others have to stay secret for the jokes (and yes, there are quite a few of them along the way) to be funny. Suffice to say that it is rather convoluted and it would do you good to have your wits about you throughout!The characters were brilliant. With characters such as those found in this book, being quite larger than life (to say the least in some cases) there is a danger that they could come across as caricatures. Luckily, although she sails close to it at times, the author doesn't quite cross it.All in all, a rather interesting book that delivered for me on all levels. A substantial read that had it all but also didn't take itself too seriously. One which has definitely piqued my interest in this author enough to see what else she has written.My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I’d say this book feels much more plot-driven than character driven. That’s not to say that Charlie isn’t an interesting character to read, I more mean that she could have differed in a lot of ways and the plot would have been mostly the same.But what a plot. Like Lucky Ghost it reads more like a mystery novel (a noir one at that) than a science fiction novel. The sci-fi element is used to great effect, I find it hugely unsettling whenever a book explores the idea of being unsafe while asleep (my bed is one of my favourite places). This story is designed to put you a little on edge, it succeeds.What this book handles particularly well is pacing. When I started the book I thought I was going to have to drag myself through this actually grown up novel (siiiigh) but I found myself devouring it in one setting. This is because any moments that aren’t fast paced action (the book is about sleep after all) are perfectly interspersed between well written action scenes.Despite my usual genre, this book isn’t YA really, though older-young adults would, I daresay, enjoy the storyline. I’d particularly recommend it to people who typically enjoy somewhat creepy stories? Maybe if you’re looking to expand your reading from the kind of book you might typically pick up but you’d like to keep some of the elements of your favourites this would work for you?I will say this book has a few…more lewd elements (why am I such a prude). They aren’t throughout and they aren’t the lewdest stories I’ve read of late but on the off chance that is a dealbreaker for you I thought I would mention it.My rating: 4/5 (a surprisingly good read)Sweet Dreams are Made of This publishes on the 21st of September for those wanting to check it out!By the way, I received a digital advanced review copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

A story that I've been looking forward to for some time as I remember reading the synopsis in the Orion catalogue and thought wow, so much so, that I made a note on my calendar to keep an eye out for it. What was delivered wa a kick ass story that I loved. It was novel, it had a character I loved to spend time with and whilst she had a great many of her own problems, the overall arc really delivered with a good understanding of pace alongside plot.For me, a great story and one that I hope will generate other future outings for our heroine. Magical.