Dream Life by Lauren Mechling

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

Genre: Mystery

Release Date: 1/12/2010

About the Book: Teen psychic Claire Voyante is back in this second installment. Claire's friend Becca has started to hang out with her old prep school friends and Andy is sending mixed signals. When Claire discovers Becca's part of a secret society-and that someone is out to get them-Claire must use her cameo necklace and dream gift to save the girls-and her beloved New York.

GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: The second book featuring Claire Voyante was just as fun as the first. (It is the second book, but you could read this one without reading the first book, Dream Girl since the author does include a minor re-cap) I felt the mystery storyline picked up faster in Dream Life than it did in the first one and we spent more time with Claire trying to figure out what was happening.

The thing I liked the most about this one was that the rich girls were all nice. There wasn't a typical mean girl rich snob, which I thought made the book feel a little more real. I didn't think of the secret society girls as high society rich girls-they were all characters I could see my friends in, which made me like them. Never fear, there's still some mean girl plot if you love to read about mean rich girls!

The mystery seemed a little far-fetched at times, but I still had lots of fun reading and it kept me guessing, which is always good. Claire is a somewhat refreshing narrator-she's an average teen girl and I think that makes her relateable to readers. She also has a great family dynamic-her eccentric grandmother Kiki still remains my favorite character.

There's also a bit more romance in this one, so if you like mysteries with a hint of romance, Dream Life will be right up your ally. The series could continue, but the end wraps things up nice enough that if this is it for Claire, I'm happy with the ending-no cliffhangers here. I'm hoping we do see more of Claire in the future.

Full Disclosure: Sent to me for review by the author/publisher.