The Daydreams (May 2, Berkley Books), Laura Hankin’s third novel, imagines the four stars of a beloved 2000s TV show reuniting for a special episode thirteen years after a scandalous live finale taping derailed their lives. As the reunion grows closer, long-held secrets — including the real reason for their infamous downfall — come to the surface. ‘90s kids and anyone looking for a darkly satirical take on the entertainment world won’t want to miss this one.

I'm a big fan of Hankin's and I think this is her best yet. Sharp and insightful on the way our culture destroyed young women in the late 90s/early 2000s, but still funny and heartfelt.

Behind the scenes entertainment industry books are my catnip. Give me a celeb drama, extra points if it occurs on set filiming.

This book was exactly what I needed - loved the dual timeline of present day versus teenage celeb memories and the concept of book following the reunion of a trainwrecked tv show and its former starts was brilliant. Lots of twists and just the right amount of present day to historic flipping. First half of the book drags a bit, so there would be benefit to some editing on that front, otherwise this falls in the realm of Evelyn and Daisy as a great behind the scenes drama.

Laura Hankin has become a must-read author for me, and this book just cements that. She’s amazing at writing characters that could easily be unlikeable and imbuing them with such relatable humanity that you end up loving them. I will keep reading whatever she writes. 5 stars.

I liked this book and the characters, and for the most part it kept me guessing until the end. I liked the core 4 characters and how their different relationships unfolded.

As someone who grew up a a steady diet of 2000s teen dramas and celebrity gossip in their teen years I really enjoyed The Daydreams. It starts with a reunion of a short lived teen series but delves into friendship, fame and betrayal. The daydream cast finally has to deal with the things they’ve been running away from for over a decade. A fun, fast read.

An interesting story about teens in the entertainment spotlight in early 2000 and the challenges the face being celebrities at a young age. They reunite as adults and see what a mess their lives were - with a last chance to redeem themselves.

Honestly, I don't really know what drew me to this book on NetGalley but I'm glad it did. It was part flashback to behind the scenes of what I imagine to be the makings of a teen sitcom/dramady on what I imagine to be on something like the Disney channel and part present day-13 years later. We come to learn how they came to be and how they came to cease to exist and somehow end up doing a reunion show.



The characters: Summer, Noah, Liana, and Kat are all given at least a 'soliloquy' to allow us into their heads, but really, this story is told through the eyes of Kat (Katherine) who is now a lawyer and was the most resistant to doing any reunion show at all; it's only her enormous guilt that obligates her to do it. We learn through the weaving of past and present how all of them contributed to their ultimate failure and it's what makes the behind the scenes so interesting. You get to know them and see them form fast friendships and then as the attention and fame gets unevenly spread, you get to see how jealousy and hurt feelings and things that never get said seem to grow and grow until their big moment gets ruined. It was that friendship and tension and then the aftermath, years later, that I think many will find interesting. I suspect many of us have that one thing we did (or didn't do) that still haunts us all these years later and to have a chance to try to rectify it the best way that you can seems pretty appealing (and daunting).



The Daydreams gives us that chance to live through characters who attempt to 'make things right' and shows us how even when our guilt doesn't really change, we do, and that can make our fantasies of forgiveness or repentance that much harder to achieve. While the exploration of their youth was entertaining, it was the examination of them now that was so relatable and interesting.

Get ready to embark on an epic journey through fame, jealousy, betrayal, love and self-discovery with Daydreams by Laura Hankin - guaranteed to keep you hooked till the very last page.

The Daydreams by Laura Hankin is a stellar read for anyone who is a fan of Daisy Jones and The Six, The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes or fans of Deuxmoi. It was a perfect cross over between the High School Musical/Hannah Montana child stars and the TMZ coverage we had of it.

Noah is the golden boy of the group and he has emerged unscathed from the show. He is poised to become a household name and he seems to have it all together. However, as the story progresses, you start to see cracks in his perfect facade. Liana is the bored wife of a famous athlete. She has everything that she could ever want, but she is desperately searching for something more in her life. Kat is a lawyer in Washington, DC and she has worked hard to build a successful career. However, she still feels like something is missing. And Summer is the cautionary tale of the group. After the implosion of season two finale, she spiraled out of control. She was arrested, went to rehab, and lost everything that she had worked for.

The Daydreams is about the exorbitant exploitation of child stars and how easy it is (was) to discard teenage talent at their first mistake, yes, but it's also about the high cost of ambition, guilt, jealousy, love, personal and professional growth—and the rich rewards of all of the above.

Told in dual perspectives in 2004 at the inception of the Daydreams band and in 2018 when they reconnect, with snippets of articles, Summer's journal entries, and blog postings in between. This narrative about the four members of the band dealing with success and glory in their own distinct ways is so warm, hilarious, upsetting, and uplifting that I kept picking it up again and again. This is a new favourite.

Thank you to Berkley for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Link to Goodreads review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5114696735

Man this gave me all the Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan and Amanda Bynes vibes. So many young women in Holly exploited and manipulated by powerful men and then cast aside and labeled as crazy or troublemakers. This is a fast and addictive read about a fictional group of older teens/20 something’s thrust into the spotlight on a hit show and then each crushed by it in some way. Coming back for a reunion show seems like a good idea…or is it?

I’ve been a fan of Laura Hankin since her debut and THE DAYDREAMS absolutely bopped its way into my heart. It hit all my nostalgic feels for early 2000’s TV and also had a gloriously twisting rollercoaster of a plot. I was stunned with each reveal. Loved it!

For fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid and Kate London Stayman. I loved the different formats the story was told in and the Soliloquy's that revealed the truths. Made it really interesting. I felt like I was reading about the Disney kids and every child star that went off the rails or got forgotten.
The story was a little predictable but it was definitely enjoyable to read. Funny how the strong, formidable Katherine transformed back to the teenage star of The Daydreams with all the same insecurities and jealousy. The takeaway is never go back to something that should be long in your past!
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

this book has the potential to be the Daisy Jones of 2023. An inventive take on what happens to child/teen stars, and the reality of what we expect from them. A great critique on the Disney/Nickelodeon machinery that churns these stars out, too.

Deeply fun if at times a bit cheesey (but hey, it's about a 90's teen show!). I think this will be perfect for fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid.

This book was just So. Much. Fun. Laura Hankin dreamed up a nostalgic cast that was so true to the flamed-out pop stars of the early 2000s, they felt real. I loved the format, alternating from the past Daydreams to the where-are-they-now reunion setup. I loved the surprises and twists along the way, just when you thought you could predict exactly what had gone wrong. And I loved the idea that the past we've been running from might mean more to us than we want to admit. Fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid are going to love this one!

In 2004, The Daydreams were a popular teen show, with a cast of innocent-seeming teenagers, amazing ratings, and a romantic storyline that captivated fans. However, during the live season two finale, everything imploded and the stars went down very different paths. Thirteen years later, the fans are demanding a reunion special. The four stars all have their own reasons for coming back, but as they tentatively rediscover the original show, old secrets threaten to resurface. Will the reunion be a chance to make things right, or will it be the biggest mess the world has ever seen?

TO me this had the vibes of Laguna Beach, The O.C. with a splash of High School musical thrown in. I floved this story so much.

In the age of reboots and reckoning with how we treated women celebrities in the early 2000s, I loved the pop culture flair of this title.

It came so close and flirted so desperately with becoming trite or trope-y or trash, but she pulled it back every time, and in a way that felt effortless and sweet. Funny, genuine, and bizarrely endearing - I couldn't love it more if I wanted to.

OBSESSED! I loved Laura Hankin’s two previous novels, but The Daydreams blows the others out of the water. Juicy, drama filled, and full of 2000s nostalgia, I was absolutely engrossed from beginning to end. There were so many shocking twists, and the ending was absolute perfection. I truly connected to every single character to the point that they felt like real people to me. Despite all the Hollywood drama and pettiness (which, don’t get me wrong, I love), at its core this book is about forgiveness and letting go of the past. It’s about knowing that making mistakes doesn’t make you a bad person, and that there’s always time for redemption. This book ended up meaning so much more to me than I anticipated, and I truly can’t recommend it enough. I was already a Laura Hankin fangirl, but this one has cemented her as an absolute favorite author. A must read, especially if you came of age in the 2000s like I did!

Obsessed doesn’t cover how much I loved this.

As someone obsessed with reality tv, semi reality tv and teen stars since a young age, I couldn’t put The Daydreams down.

This read so quickly and every character was both interesting and compelling. I fancast this immediately in my mind!