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Your Dream For Me is a YA/ Coming of Age story revolving around 3 main characters, Scarlett, Macie and Nathaniel. I love reading YA books as it always bring fresh and raw feelings whenever I read them.

The story happens in between major high school events like prom and school plays. The main character Scarlett is into fashion while her best friend Macie is into theatre. Whilst Scarlet is not into acting, she finds herself involved in the production of a school play and met another friend Nathaniel.

I feel like the storytelling is flat, not much of character development as well. Though the author inserts very important issues in the story that I think most of the young readers are experiencing, I can’t seem to emphatize with the characters. The romance is lacking, I understand that this is YA but the intimate moments between Scarlet and Nathaniel is bland.

Nothing much to highlight in the story. It seems trying to convey an idea of transformation from a teenager with dreams and aspirations to a young adult facing a new world with hope that all their dreams will come true. Looks good on paper but lacking execution.

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Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Your Dream For Me is the perfect combination of fashion/theater and a heartwarming romance.
We follow badass Scarlett with a passion for fashion and the theater kid Nathaniel. The book contains your typical meet-cute and high school drama. The FMC is fierce and compassionate about her friends. Sometimes she makes choices without thinking about it first, which makes me a bit annoyed sometimes. However she quickly comes to realize her mistakes and her growth in the book is truly inspiring. It was emotional, funny and cute all at once. Sometimes a bit predictable, but totally worth the read if you love fashion and the arts. It discusses themes like friendship, love and self-discovery in a fast-pace.

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thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this arc in exchange for an honest review.
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this book is perfect for the younger YA audience the chapters were short and sweet and the story was easy to follow. I enjoyed Scarlett as a main character and how she began her career in the fashion design(by starting from the very bottom). I enjoyed all of the side characters and how they were involved throughout the novel. I do wish we got to see more of Scarlett and Nathaniel together. This book was cute enough it was a simple story perfect if you just want a quick read.

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Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the book in exchange for a review.
I loved how this started, how it pulled the reader in, and how the author told the story. about high school theatre. I loved that it was super easy to read and I really liked reading it after a bunch of romance (mainly adult) that I was reading. Overall this was an interesting read and I would recommend it to theatre kids and YA readers,

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

This was a DNF for me. I just couldn't get into it at all, so I stopped at around 20%. Just a miss for me.

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I really enjoyed this book, give me romance and a FMC having a passion in fashion design and I'm so in! Can't wait to read more from Alison!

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Seventeen-year-old Scarlett, unlike her theatrically gifted parents, is not one to spend time near a spotlight. Scarlett dreams of becoming a renowned fashion designer, where she can flex her creative talents away from a crowd. So it's no surprise when she sneaks into her school's costume shop to explore the racks. Unexpected, however, is coming face-to-face with Nathaniel Wilder, a talented theater student who piques a new interest.

With fashion still as her main priority, Scarlett vows to learn how to make a 50s-inspired dress for her best friend, Macie. After all, she needs a strong portfolio of work to help her get into her dream school, the Fashion Institute of Technology. The one problem? She has no idea how to operate a sewing machine. Thanks to Nathaniel's encouragement, Scarlett decides to shadow the school's drama teacher to practice her skills, hoping to fuse her passion for fashion with theater...and be closer to him for the spring play.

Scarlett's designs are unfolding, but a distressing event involving Macie shakes everyone in Scarlett's world—causing their friendship to falter and Nathaniel to unexpectedly pull away. With building stressors threatening the rest of the year, including a rival who wants to tarnish Scarlett's reputation, Scarlett must rely on her determined spirit and newfound sewing skills to keep her fashion dreams—and her most important relationships—from unraveling.

Loved it, loved it. I thought this story was amazing.

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Thank you so much for allowing me to read and review your titles. I really enjoy the opportunity!

I do appreciate it and continue to review books that I get the chance to read.
Thanks again!

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DNF @ 41%. I love sewing and theater so I had high hopes for this book. But I just couldn't get through it. All of the characters annoyed me a lot and there was nothing interesting or unique about the plot to me.

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Thank you, Level Best Books, for the advance reading copy.

I feel this ya is really a very young ya read which I feel would be best enjoyed by younger readers and beginners.

I appreciate the perfect length of the book and the short chapters.

This is the story of Scarlett who wants to become a fashion designer and has to start from the very beginning. She meets Nathaniel when she tries to sneak into her school’s costume shop.

And there starts their story.

I love how easy it is read and follow the story. I like the involvement of the side characters. However, I would have liked it more if the chemistry between the characters was better and the best friends to be better than this. But you know teens. We know. We all go through this phase.

Well, it’s a fun short ya book I say. Do not expect too much. Choose this book for the cute cover and the short story.

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There are YA books for adults, and then there are YA books for kids. And this was the latter. There is nothing wrong with that, I could see this being a good solid read for my kids when they’re older. But it’s not my personal style.

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This was.... not a dream for me.

I think a lot of the issues I had were because I'm a bit older than the target audience, but I just couldn't get into the book or really connect with any of the characters. The book started off with us just kind of thrown into the middle of things, which usually works okay, but here it just. Didn't.

I am also a vehement insta-love HATER, and the entire plot of this book was based on that. The dialogue was kind of cringey, and the writing either read way too fast paced –so that I couldn't properly get invested into the story/characters– or felt super isolating?? I don't really know how to explain it but it really felt like this book was written by an adult who was trying to be down with the kids or whatever, and it just came off very weird and like I was being talked down to, almost. I literally read the majority of the book like this: 🤨

The one thing I really liked was the whole theatre backdrop to the story– but that's literally all it was. A backdrop. It would have been so much more interesting if Scarlett hadn't had such a passive role in the show and went to rehearsals or watched Nathaniel (also, why wasn't that shortened to Nate even once? what teenage boy insists on calling themself by their full name anyway?) perform. There was such a great opportunity to add references to musicals and broadway shows, or make us feel like we were more involved with the theatre aspect, but that just... didn't happen.

Unfortunately, the characters, including Scarlett and Nathaniel, were quite 2D and all seemed to very obviously serve a purpose in the story – but not do anything beyond that. I was looking forward to this one, so it's a shame it didn't really deliver.

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I feel like I've been in a very bad reading slump and I chose this book because the premise reminded me of that one show I loved with a passion but sadly I didn't connect with the book like I wanted to, I don't blame the book much since I think I may be the problem right now. I hope in a few weeks I can pick it up and give the book a better chance but I just wasn't able to connect with the characters at all.

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Thank you to NetGalley and Level Best Books for this ARC! I have a lot to say about this one.

This is a YA high school romance following Scarlett, a Junior at high school who wants to be a fashion designer. After an embarrassing run in with a mystery guy she hopes she’ll never see him again but it turns out he is the esteemed actor Nathaniel everyone at school is talking about. When Scarlett volunteers to help out at the theatre to improve her sewing skills sparks fly but things quickly devolve when something traumatic happens to her best friend.

The only reason this book gets even one star is because I found the fashion design elements really interesting and I generally liked the main character even if she was in her own head a bit. I also really liked her relationship with Macie, their friendship was cute.

However this book has absolutely AWFUL SA representation. It feels like it was used as a plot device to cause conflict rather than to actually address the issues surrounding SA and victim blaming. This actually disgusts me as a survivor of sexual violence especially because this book is aimed at young adults. The whole thing was just brushed under the rug and not mentioned again for the next half of the book.

Then we have the side characters who were not fleshed out at all. The love interest was a bit of a flake in my option and could jog on for all I care because apparently this man loves to run away from his problems. The relationship was paper thin and the communication between Scarlett and Nathaniel was absolutely atrocious.

Then there was the writing. I’m so sorry but the writing style was better suited to a middle grade book. I found myself rolling my eyes at some points at how ridiculous the dialogue was and how unrealistically these characters were talking to each other. I think this author was going for some kind of emotional heartbreaking story but it really missed the mark.

Just a reminder to authors SA is not a plot device and if you’re going to include it in your novel at least do your research and actually have a reason for including it whether that’s to educate and bring awareness or to help other victims of SA come to terms with what has happened to them. I won’t be reading anything else this author is written and I can’t in good faith recommend this book to anyone. Especially it’s target audience who might be lead to believe that this kind of representation is normal.

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THANK YOU FOR THE ARCS (NETGALLERY)
if you are looking for a good short read this right here
your dream for me by Alison Schaffir
honestly i really like this the beginning was a bit slow and i didn’t love that part but by the middle of it which came really quickly really made up for it i think no i know for a fact i definitely have a crush on Nathaniel the way he treats Scarlett and just everything about him honestly and for me at least a mmc that does theater (well honestly any theater character i have never read about that before) was definitely different for me but from the way this book was written definitely wanna read more book similar to this it was such an easy simple read but even then you got so much detail but not so much that the book became unbearable just the perfect amount however it want to know what would have happened between Gavin and Scarlett if there weren’t a Nathaniel like don’t get me wrong her and Nathaniel are perfect like they are meant to be but i really liked Gavin and how he help Scarlett and the way he also treated her overall this is definitely a good ready you might need some patience in the beginning and a little bit in the end for this book but in all it a good read

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This is a sweet YA book, perfect for a teenage audience. The story is about a high schooler, Scarlett, who has a dream of becoming a fashion designer. She has to complete an ensemble as part of her entry to her dream school. Nathaniel agrees to help her with her entry since he has experience in sewing. Scarlett quickly develops a crush on Nathaniel.

Although it has been a while since I was in high school and I am not the target audience for this book, I did enjoy the story!

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Sweet YA romance. Centers around mix ups and missed opportunities. The first 3/4 of the book I was enjoying, felt was a bit long but was fun. The ending of the book along with way too many misunderstandings mad me feel just meh about the book by the end. Was a solid start so if this is a first or earlier work for the author I’d gladly give her another chance.

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First and foremost, I absolutely love what they've done with the cover of this book. The first time I saw it I was immediately interested without knowing anything about it.

If you're looking for a book that will take you right back to having crushes and the drama of high school, this one really packs that punch. There were certainly some things that might make you cringe normally, but they were written really well so that you didn't have that feeling.

I did really like the different interests that were represented as well as the characters themselves and their development and growth throughout the book.

All in all this was a cute and endearing young adult romance and was an entirely fun read.

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This book had an amazing premise and amazing characters, but somehow it ends up falling short, like idk if it's because of their age or the fact that is a YA but something on it didn't do it for me. Still the story is really good and perfect for those younger readers.

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3.5 Stars Overall

This book wasn't terrible, and it was a very quick read for me, BUT it wasn't my favorite.

We follow Scarlett, a High School Junior who wants to enter the world of fashion someday and be a designer. The first half of the book is mainly about her friendship with her BFF Macie. She does notice and catch the eye of the new kid, Nathaniel, which she falls head over heels for before even saying 2 words to him.

This is definitely a slow burn YA novel as the love interests don't even get close to any sort of dating until after the first half of the book, which made the book drag on for me.

Scarlett second guesses just about everything she does, which became annoying after a while if I'm being completely honest.

The whole book had your typical HS drama, but the ending, while it was a good ending, I feel like it switched from how high schoolers would end it, to how college students or even someone in their mid-twenties would end things. In my opinion, Scarlett wasn't mature enough, and her character hadn't developed enough for that to happen (even though she swears she had figured life out over the last few months).

Not a book I'd start recommending but I think High School girls would probably enjoy it 😊

Thank you to NetGalley and IBPA for the Advanced Readers Copy

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