Indie October Review: Dream Junkies by Alexandra Ares

Title: Dream Junkies
Author: Alexandra Ares
Publisher: Smart Media New York
Publish Date: June 8, 2011
Source: Received a copy from the author. This did not affect my review.

Why You're Reading This Book?:

• You want to see how good dialogue is written.
• You like memorable characters.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "A novel about love, uprootedness, friendship, hope and deception, Dream Junkies presents an America where the chimerical chase painfully contrasts with the difficult realities of life. Kitty Roman and Desert Rose, the two main characters of the novel, take us on a fascinating journey through the heart of the American Dream, from New York, filled with intellectual and artistic elites, to glamorous Los Angeles with its movie moguls and jetsetters. Although they have different backgrounds, hopes and ambitions, at the end of the road they find the same thing: true love. A page turner in which self irony and lucidity blend wonderfully with lyrical interludes, Dreams Junkies, offers the reader a "deconstructed" view of the American dream."

My Two Cents:

Kitty, an immigrant from Romania who has been in the States for quite awhile, is in search of the much storied American Dream. A chance meeting with an Iranian artist who calls herself Desert Rose confirms for Kitty that obtaining the American Dream may not be that out of reach. Desert Rose isn't so sure of that herself. They'll travel from NYC to LA in search of their different ideals of what the American Dream is supposed to be.

I really enjoyed this book. I think everyone who lives in this country, immigrant and native born, can appreciate the struggle of wanting to find your niche here in this country. We're told that if we go after what we want, we can have it. This is supposed to be the land of opportunity where if you have a desire, you have the freedom to go after it. It sounds simple enough,no? Unfortunately as Kitty and Desert Rose find out, it's not that easy to get, let alone figure out what exactly the American Dream is to each of us. It's more trial and error than we think it is. You really feel for their situation and they are definitely two characters that I found myself rooting for throughout the book. This book is part friendship story and part self soul searching story.

This book has a little of everything. It has funny parts. It has sad parts. It has parts that will make you think. It's hard to quantify the overall feeling of the book. As you may have counted, this will be the third book that I've reviewed by Alexandra Ares and one thing that is consistent among all three of the books is that they have great dialogue. It's really realistic and well written. The writing itself is good but it's the dialogue that really keeps the books going along. That is true for all of the books, especially for Dream Junkies.

Bottom line: This is a fun ride that looks at some big questions.