Dream a Little Dream, by Kerstin Gier

Kerstin Gier's new book Dream a Little Dream is finally out (two years after being released in Germany; her translator remains super slow), and it has the exact same strengths and weaknesses as her first series. Once again, Gier has created a fanciful, romantic world that is half ridiculously charming... and half just plain ridiculous.

Easygoing Liv Silver has spent her entire life traveling, so she and her younger sister Mia are looking forward to having a permanent address when their mother settles in England. Unfortunately, their plans for a quiet home in the countryside hit a snag when their mother announces that they will actually be moving in with her new boyfriend, a wealthy widower with 17-year-old twins, and attending school at a ritzy private academy. Liv is slightly weirded out when she has an incredibly strange and vivid dream about her stepbrother-to-be (and three of his extremely handsome friends), but she's far more freaked when the same boys approach her at school, asking her pointed questions about magic, dreams, and the occult.

Dream a Little Dream left me with more questions than I can address here, so I'll limit myself to the big ones. How does the magical dreaming thing work? Why does Liv dream so vividly? Does she have magic of her own, or is it all an overflow from her stepbrother's situation? And how did Gier get away with heavily featuring an anonymous school gossip blog in her novel? (Do the Gossip Girl publishers have no German lawyers?) On the other hand, I enjoy Liv's cheerful nosiness, I approve of her budding affection for her blended family, and I'm even a little invested in her relationship with her stepbrother's friend Henry, despite finding him irritatingly manipulative. Seriously, this book is a testament to Gier's remarkable charm—I'm eager to read the sequel, even though I know it's unlikely to provide any coherent answers.