FADE

Product Details Reading level: Young Adult Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Simon Pulse (February 10, 2009) Language: English ISBN-10: 1416953582 ISBN-13: 978-1416953586

FADE, book 2 in the Dream Catcher Trilogy, is the continued story of Janie Hannagan-Dream Catcher. Janie is sucked in to the mind of the dreamer, an ability that has always haunted her, but now Janie is learning to control it. Not only can she pull out of the dreams, but she can help to change them. Janie's ability lands her a job with the police. The only other person outside of the police force who knows about her, or cares, is Cabel--her partner and the boy she loves. But Janie's newest assignment, to bait a suspected sexual predator, could push Cabel to far and Janie is learning that dream catching comes at a high price.

I love this series. It's fast paced and holds your attention from page one. Janie and Cabel have had such hard lives you can't help but want a happy ending for them, and with all the twists and turns they take, you have to keep reading to be sure it ends well. This book is a bit darker than WAKE. There's mention of sex, more graphic than in most of the YA I've read, but nothing over the top. If you've followed any of my previous book reviews and we have similar tastes, you'd probably enjoy this one.

Wake

roduct Description from Amazon

Not all dreams are sweet.

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.

She can't tell anybody about what she does -- they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can't control.

Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant....

About the Author

Lisa McMann is also the author of Wake. She lives with her family in the Phoenix area. Read more about Lisa at http://lisamcmann.com or be her friend at http://www.myspace.com/lisamcmann.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm not a big fan of books written in present tense. I've read some great books in this format, but it takes a few pages to get me in to it. This one hooked me right from the start. The book starts out with Janie sitting in the library about to be pulled in to some random person's subconscious. For Janie, it's like walking by a wind tunnel and getting sucked in whenever someone nearby starts to dream.

The story is faced paced but also easy to follow. The characters are well rounded, the dialog is fun. I've noticed a trend with current Young Adult (YA) top picks and that's that the main character's parents are basically non existent. In this book I think it's fitting. There is something going on with Janie's mom and I want to keep reading to know what it is. Having absent parental figures tends to create a more self sufficient character and that's a trait I like to see.

Great read and I can't wait to pick up the next to installments of this series.