Sarah Reviews… Can Dreams Come True? by Krysten Lindsay Hager

Title: Can Dreams Come True?

Author: Krysten Lindsay Hager

Publisher: Clean Reads

Publication Date: 20^th March 2018

Format: eARC

This book was received from the publisher in return for an honest review

About the book:

Cecily has always had a huge crush on singer Andrew Holiday and she wants to be an actress, so she tags along when her friend auditions for his new video. However, the director isn’t looking for an actress, but rather the girl next door—and so is Andrew. Cecily gets a part in the video and all of Andrew’s attention on the set. Her friend begins to see red and Cecily’s boyfriend is seeing green—as in major jealousy. A misunderstanding leaves Cecily and her boyfriend on the outs and Andrew hopes to pick up the pieces as he’s looking for someone more stable in his life than the models he’s dated. Soon Cecily begins to realize Andrew understands her more than her small-town boyfriend—but can her perfect love match really be her favorite rock star?

What I Thought:

Earlier this year I reviewed Dating The It Guy by Krysten, so when the opportunity came up to review Can Dreams Come True? I happily accepted.  Can Dreams Come True? Is the first book in a new series focusing on high school student Cecily Taylor, like so many teenagers out there Cecily has grown up with a few celebrity crushes, but now she’s a high school junior and she has just found out her biggest crush, teen pop sensation Andrew Holiday is coming to town to shoot his latest music video. When one of her friends asks her to accompany her to an audition Cecily captures not only the director’s attention but that of Andrew himself. Cecily soon finds herself in the middle of a love triangle, with her boyfriend Zach, on one side and Andrew on the other.

The story was well paced and the romance aspects were cute. Although the story is set in Cecily’s junior year at high school the romantic elements within the story are fairly innocent, and the plot doesn’t tackle any major contemporary issues; there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, it makes for a relatively quick, enjoyable, light read, but I felt the book was aimed more towards the lower end of the YA target market.

As a main character I did connect with Cecily, there are definitely aspects of her that resonated with 17 year old me. Cecily is a big reader, and while she is perhaps a little less confident, or slightly more introverted than I was, I certainly felt as though a lot of my character was in her. I have to say one of my favourite parts of the book was when her vice principle was talking with Cecily about creating her class schedule and rather than pushing her into something completely outside of her comfort zone he understood her and actually encouraged her love of reading, lending her one of his books and making other suggestions for things she might like. I had a teacher like this and hands down she was one of my favourites and I still think about her now many years on!

I also really liked Andrew’s character, my only slight criticism is that some of the supporting characters felt a little two dimensional. I felt it was a little too easy to side with Andrew over Zach, I would have liked to have felt a little more torn over the way I wanted Cecily to turn, who I wanted her to choose, but to me some of Zach’s actions just felt a little too much like I was obviously being steered in Andrew’s favour, that’s not to say that Zach’s actions were unbelievable, they were totally believable, especially for a teenage boy, maybe I would have just liked things to be slightly more subtle.

A few of the female characters also seemed to fit neatly into certain stereotypical character moulds – the beautiful, and flirty ex-girlfriend, the frenemy that invites Cecily along to the audition because she thinks being alongside ‘plain’ Cecily will make her look better and becomes jealous when it becomes clear that Cecily is getting more attention from the director and Andrew.

That said maybe this is just because I’m approaching this book as an adult with more life experience in general, a 13 year old may finish the book and think something completely different, I certainly didn’t feel as though it was a bad book, as I mentioned it was an enjoyable slightly fluffy read and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, everyone needs a little fluff every now and again!

Would I Recommend?

Yes, Can Dreams Come True? Is a cute start to a new series and I’d be interested to find out what comes next for Cecily and Andrew. I think the series certainly has potential for a sweet romance that would be suitable for the younger end of the YA market, or someone looking for a lighter read.

My Other Krysten Lindsay Hager Reviews

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About the Author

Krysten Lindsay Hager writes about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, frenemies, crushes, fame, first loves, and values. She is the author of True Colors, Best Friends…Forever?, Next Door to a Star,  Landry in Like, Competing with the Star (The Star Series: Book 2) and Dating the It Guy. True Colors, won the Readers Favorite award for best preteen book and the Dayton Book Expo Bestseller Award for childen/teens. Competing with the Star is a Readers’ Favorite Book Award Finalist.

Krysten’s work has been featured in USA Today, The Flint Journal, the Grand Haven Tribune, the Beavercreek Current, the Bellbrook Times, Springfield News-Sun, Grand Blanc View, Dayton Daily News and on the talk show Living Dayton.

Connect with Krysten

Website // Instagram // Twitter // Facebook // Pinterest

As always if you’ve read the book let me know what you thought! If you’ve not read it yet will my review convince you to pick it up? 

Also as part of Can Dreams Come True?’s Weekend Blog Blitz there’s a giveaway for the chance to win a £5 Amazon voucher. Be sure to check out this link for your chance to enter or click on the tour banner below