This is such a warm and loving story! It is well-written by Nina George, the author of The Little Paris Bookshop. As Eddie stated brilliantly: it is not a fantasy book, but a fantastic book! This story is about two love stories that are woven between dreams and realities, past and present, parallel universes.

A marvelous book, one of the best I've read in a long time. If you like literary fiction you can sink your teeth into, you'll love this book. Exploring alternative realities, dreams, and the thin spaces between life and death, the book is narrated by Henri, a coma patient in a London hospital. This narration is supported and supplemented by those of his son and longtime lover. This book is engrossing; I couldn't put it down.

Have you ever spent any time thinking about how certain decisions forged your current life, or wish you could go back and choose differently, or change a no to yes? If so, then you need to read this book! This one gets a very rare 4.5 stars from me. I loved it.

This book captivated me right from the beginning. It is a tough subject; what happens to us when we die; is there life after death, is there an alternative reality, or parallel worlds that happen along side the one we live in? Subjects that have always grabbed my attention and made me think hard about how little we know of truth and reality.

Henri is a war correspondent. His 13 year-old son Sam is a synesthete and has an IQ of 144. Sam sent Henry a note and asked to meet him for an event at his school. On the way there, Henri performs a heroic deed but is struck by a passing car, casting him into a coma. At Henri's bedside, Sam meets Eddie, who was named as healthcare surrogate in Henri's living will. Eddie is the love of Henri's life, but is also the woman that terrified him into rejecting her. Throughout Henri's coma he lives and relives different points in his life when he could have made different choices; some in which he and Sam's mother stayed together and he never met Eddie, some in which he died repeatedly in a variety of ways and scenarios. Through it all, Sam can sense his father's presence, although the prognosis from doctors is grim.

There are so many beautiful phrases that I highlighted in this book to remember for future reference - thoughts on life, on death, on love, and the reality of what it means to truly love someone. This book really kept me captivated throughout the whole story. I couldn't wait to finish it, and yet I never wanted it to end. The ending did surprise me, and yet I think it truly suited the tone the author set. What a heartbreakingly beautiful look at life, death, and all the possibilities in between. Thank you, Net Galley, for the chance to read such a captivating story in advance.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting novel about a father-son relationship and the women who love them. The story delves into alternate realities of Henri, the dad.

The Book of Dream of the story of four characters. Henry who is in a coma; Eddie who is Henry’s living will executor; Sam who is has never met his father Henry; and Maddie, the ballerina who has lost her reason to live.

Henry is on his way to meet his son Sam for the first time. As he approaches the rendez-vous point, he is stopped by an emergency which costs him his life. He is now lying on a hospital bed between life and death. Sam visits him daily and discovers little by little who his father is. Eddie who once loved Henry is now determined to bring him back. While on a different hospital floor, little Maddie needs a reason to live or will be lost forever. Sam makes it his mission to save her from the grips of death.

This book deals with what happens to coma patients and how those who love them cope with the stress of losing them. This is a beautiful story of love, regrets, and forgiveness. This is the third novel by Nina George dealing with mortality. If you have not read one of her novels yet, please do so. I already read her beautiful books: The Little Paris Bookshop and The Little Breton Bistro. Nina George is one of my favourite authors.

Thank you Crown Publishing and NetGalley for my advance reader’s copy of this stunning book.

I tried to finish this, but could not. The whole premise was odd, and I did not find the characters to be compelling. I struggled to keep some of the minor characters straight, and found the multiple narrators disruptive to the narrative. Perhaps there was a point to this story, but I lost interest after reading about 100 pages.

What a gorgeous book. So beautiful and well written about the gray zone of dreams between life and death. This book haunted me for days after I read it. So fun.

Many thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

Nina George completes her “cycle of mortality novels” and leaves her readers with a sense of joy and sadness. Her books, although sad and joyful at the same time, are always a delight to read. Her characters are so real to the reader - you feel as though you’re a part of the story. She proves once again “there’s more between life & death than we can tell from here,”

Everyone ponders life and death. The Book of Dreams explores the world between. Beautifully written, and tragically brilliant. Nina George takes us on a journey anyone who has experienced great love and great loss will relate to and understand. It makes a lasing impression-and gives voice to those who wonder if this is all there is. Having read it while mourning the loss of my mother, I can't say it was comforting, but then death is never comfortable. The Book of Dreams gives voice to the hope that love is enough to carry us through and love transcends all, even death.

Second chances, making things right, and doing what’s right are all part of George’s magical story featuring a small cast of fascinating characters. Ex-war reporter Henri Skinner who while en route to see his son Sam for the first time in years is hit by a car and left comatose. Sam, a gifted and brilliant 13-year-old, is armed with the knowledge that Henri was trying to get to him and spends hours at the hospital where he meets Henri’s ex and medical guardian, Eddie Tomlin, and a comatose, orphaned young dancer, Madelyn Zeidler. It’s a wonderful mix of beginnings and endings, and a magical reflection on what’s important in life.

I received this book "The Book of Dreams" from NetGalley and all opinions expressed are my own. This was a very weird book. Sorry to say that I kinda skimmed it because it didn't hold my interest.

Beautifully written story with unforgettable characters navigating through the many questions that connect us to our world and each other. Having lived through most of the experiences in this story I felt that Ms. George does indeed understand the struggle we all face in being human. A Must Read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this incredible story!

I had trouble at first and felt like the sentence structure got in the way of the details in establishing the participants. I kept at it and, about a third of the way through, a switch clicked on and I just flowed with the story. I have been recommending this to readers at my library and telling them to place a hold when Spring comes.

If I weren't already a confirmed fan of Nina George, this book would make me one!

I hardly know where to start reviewing The Book of Dreams, because, for me, so much of the book is felt and experienced, rather than read.

As I have come to expect from Nina George, the characters are beautifully drawn, they are real and speak to you not as "characters" but as people living real lives. Each person exists in their own space and none are superfluous to the story; even inanimate objects take on life. Despite the subject matter, the point somewhere between life and death, this is not a sad book; rather it is joyous and even downright funny in places.

Until reading Nina's statement "The Book of Dreams completes my cycle of novels about mortality." I hadn't thought of "The Little Paris Bookshop", "The Little Breton Bistro" and "The Book of Dreams" as being related and yet in retrospect of course they are. Although it is not necessary to read all three to enjoy any of them, I'm glad this is how I read them.

Can't wait for the next cycle of titles about living from the very talented storyteller, Nina George.

Oh, my! Well, this one kept me up most of the night. There is a point where you just have to keep going because you are so invested in the characters and what’s to become of them. This author knows how to write about the heavy stuff in life. Readers who have dealt with major life altering situations (like me) will relate to the atmosphere of life’s choices. It definitely has a “What Dreams May Come” vibe. The way the author weaves the lives of the characters who are possibly near death and their loved ones who wait for miracles is just plain amazing. I haven’t read anything lately that has touched me quite like this story! Read it!!!

The beginning for me was a little clunkly for me, I thought it might be a translation issue that had be weary on finishing it but, once I settled into the novel it really all came together. I really enjoyed the different perspectives as well as the observations George makes about humanity.

Nina George does it again with The Book of Dreams. This lyrical book shares three perspectives to pull this engaging book together.

When was the last time that you read a book and found that tears were rolling down your cheeks? For me, it has been quite a while but I cried over this one.

When I told my husband about this novel, he said that it must have been depressing. I replied that it was not depressing but that it was sad. Sadness is an essential piece of this book and yet to me it was a wonderful read and one that I recommend highly, if it is your kind of book or if you are willing to see if it is.

Henri, a French man with a history, was a journalist who covered wars. His thirteen year old son, Sam, did not know him. Just when they are about to meet, Henri saves a young girl but himself is injured and thereafter is in a coma. This means that Sam and Henri's reunion takes place in the hospital where Sam, who has synesthesia, senses deeply and feels Henri's presence. Sam spends every day at the hospital sharing himself with Henri and the novel's other protagonists.

This book is the story of several characters: Sam, Madelyn who is a young girl in a coma and Eddie, the woman that Henri let get away. Their relationships are explored and intersect with one another over the course of the novel which is told in alternating voices.

There is a philosophical underpinning to this book. The characters both live their lives and imagine the ways in which their lives might have played out differently with the same people. The author also explores what she imagines that characters think and feel when they are in a non-awake state and what happens when someone is about to die.

Nina George comments that she wrote three of her novels, of which this is the third, to better understand death. She was writing in the aftermath of her father's death. The book is beautifully written.

I very much enjoyed this author's novel, The Little Paris Bookshop and feel that The Book of Dreams is also a keeper. For me, it is a five star novel.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a moving and wonderful read. The opinions are my own.

After reading George’s earlier books, I felt the heavy dose of philosophy and the depth of the dreams of a comatose man were too deep for me. I felt the book was slow going, and skimmed much of it. Just not for me.