Dream Team
Business consultant Taylor Blake has returned to Savannah, Georgia, to help her sister Allison turn her dream of running an old-fashioned candy store into a reality. Allison is also interested in dream interpretation and invites Taylor to her Friday night Dream Club, where members meet once a week to share and analyze their dreams.
When a local dance instructor, Chico Hernandez, is found dead in his studio, and the murder scene has an eerie resemblance to one of the dreams shared at their meeting, Taylor can’t help but be intrigued. And when her sister, who was briefly involved with the dance teacher, becomes the prime suspect, Taylor and their fellow club members can’t be caught napping. It’s up to them to dream up a solution to the murder before Allison faces a real-life nightmare.
Taylor Blake’s sister Allison is living her dream of owning a store selling vintage candy, but her dream could be cut short by the realities of the business world. Since Taylor is a business consultant, she is happy to travel from Chicago to Savannah, Georgia to help get Oldies but Goodies back in the black. While she is in town, Taylor agrees to attend some of her sister’s Dream Club meetings as well. Allison and some of her friends meet once a week to share and analyze each other’s dreams. Then one member’s dream of danger and death seems to come true when dance instructor Chico Hernandez is found murdered in his studio. When Allison becomes the prime suspect, Taylor learns there may have been more to Chico than flirting and sexy dance moves and soon gets to work proving her sweet sister’s innocence.
I loved this book, as well as most of the main characters. I connected with both Taylor and Allison who are very different in spite of being sisters, right away. Taylor is more serious and practical while Allison is a dreamer who seems to drift from project-to-project. They are good influences on each other as Taylor seems to be more willing to follow her heart and Allison matures and begins concentrating on ways to improve her shop. I also like Taylor’s reporter friend Sara Rutledge as well as the psychic of the Dream Club, Sybil Powers. Not all of the characters in the book are likeable, however. Some of the other Dream Club members are a nightmare and it’s hard to see why Allison would willingly spend time with these pushy women, some of whom seem to be inventing dreams for attention or to embarrass other group members. This is my least favorite part of an otherwise excellent book.
The candy shop and the Dream Club seem like two completely separate settings, but they do mesh together better than I had expected. The transition between candy shop, dream club, and sleuthing scenes are smooth and keep the story moving at a brisk pace. The Dream Club meetings are often a big help to the investigation through the dreams and the reactions of the other group members when offering possible explanations for the meaning behind the dreams. Adding a further complication to Taylor’s task of solving Chico’s murder is the fact that the investigation throws her together with her ex-boyfriend Noah Chandler. Noah was in the FBI and is now a private investigator who lends Taylor a hand in solving the case. They have great chemistry and respect for each other and seem to have what it takes to be an amazing couple in future installments of the series.
Toward the end of the book, some fairly obvious clues are overlooked, but ultimately the story comes to a satisfying conclusion. The ending is great and left me already looking forward to the next installment of this new series. Readers who enjoyed Mary Kennedy’s Talk Radio Mysteries have reason to celebrate that Kennedy has started a new series. The dream interpretation aspect of the series is unique and dram symbols are included throughout the story and at the back of the book.
Reviewed by Christine
