Dreamland by Alyson Noel

Title: Dreamland
Author: Alyson Noel
Pages: 210
Genre: YA/ Fantasy
Source: Macmillan Children's Publishing Group

Riley's finding that the afterlife can be a lonely place when all you do is focus on work. So she goes to the place where dreams happen, hoping to find a way to contact her sister, Ever. She meets the director, who tells her about the two ways to send dreams. As a Dream Jumper, a person can jump into a dreamer’s dream, share a message, and participate. As a Dreamweaver, an entire dream can be created in a studio and sent to the dreamer. But Dreamweaving was outlawed decades ago, and the studio was boarded up. Thinking it’s her only way to reach out to her sister, Riley goes in search of the old studio. There she finds a ghost boy, who’s been creating and sending nightmares to people for years. In order to stop him and reach out to Ever, Riley is going to have to confront and overcome her own fears. [via GoodReads]

Riley's adventures in the Here & Now continue.  In this third installment, Riley is suffering the repercussions of having helped restless souls into crossing over without the Council's permission (see Shimmer).  The Council has spoken and the verdict was harsher than expected.  They've decided that Riley needs time to "grow" and the best way to accomplish that is for her to take a break from soul catching.  With no friends aside from Bodhi and Buttercup, Riley feels alone and lost.  Luckily she learns about dreamweaving and finds herself on her next adventure... this time, trying to make contact with her sister, Ever.

The thought of being 12... forever, is a hard one to come to grips with, and Riley is having a hard time dealing with it.  She wants to turn 13, to finally be a teenager, and when she learns that that is a possibility for her, she wants nothing more than to "grow"... but turning 13 is harder than it seems, especially since she's dead. 

Riley is the still the carefree and brave young woman we have all come to know and love.  While she still acts like her 12 year old self - throwing trantrums and not giving much thought to consequences beyond the moment, she is finally coming into herself.  I loved seeing how she matured as well as the many life lessons she learned throughout the story.

I thought this was a great installment to the series.  Not my favorite in the series but a good one nonetheless.

My Rating: