"Lucid" by Adrienne Stoltz and Ron Bass

Release Date: October 2, 2012
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 342

From Goodreads: "What if you could dream your way into a different life? What if you could choose to live that life forever?

Sloane and Maggie have never met. Sloane is a straight-A student with a big and loving family. Maggie lives a glamorously independent life as an up-and-coming actress in New York. The two girls couldn't be more different--except for one thing. They share a secret that they can't tell a soul. At night, they dream that they're each other.

The deeper they're pulled into the promise of their own lives, the more their worlds begin to blur dangerously together. Before long, Sloane and Maggie can no longer tell which life is real and which is just a dream. They realize that eventually they will have to choose one life to wake up to, or risk spiraling into insanity. But that means giving up one world, one love, and one self, forever.

This is a dazzling debut that will steal readers' hearts." 

Like Michelle Hodkin's "Mara Dyer" series I admittedly only understood between 27.3% to 45.8% of what was going on in this book at any one time, however that did not stop me from liking this book in the slightest- with likeable characters, entertaining character arcs, an idea like no other and the likes of I believe it near impossible to not like this book.

On the note of interesting characters, while I really like both of the girls, Maggie and Sloan, I surprisingly enjoyed Maggie more, which I found to be quite surprising as Sloan is almost always the sort of girl I veer towards- the stereotypical all American/ girl next door character, who is extremely focused on school, rather than the flighty LA/  New York model/ actress/(insert occupation of that nature here) who gallivants around her city as if she owns it. I just found Maggie's story to be so much more relateable, real and raw- she was just so good, always trying to see the best in everyone around her and more often than not putting others before her (I mean, essentially mothering her little sister, Jade? That is no small feat).

Additionally, much like preferring Maggie over Sloan I also preferred Maggie's love interest, Andrew, over Sloan's, James. James was almost too perfect in my opinion, to the point of being unapproachable, whereas Andrew is the sort of person I think that anyone would be happy to consider a friend- a boy who makes mistakes and who isn't afraid to admit it. He had nothing on Maggie when it came to handling her younger sister.

That being said, not only were the mains and their love interests great characters, but so were the secondary characters- from Jade, Maggie's aforementioned little sister, with a personality almost as big as her crush on Andrew, to Gordy, Sloan's rock, of sorts, the boy who is dependable and who you can always count on, through thick or thin, to Sloan's gossipy bestie girly friends who help to balance out her serious personality.

As mentioned, while I only understood between 27.3% to 45.8% of the story overall, I think that I only understood 2.4% of the ending, but I'm okay with that. I like how it is open-ended and really up to the reader's discretion/ imagination about what exactly happened.

All in all, this is an extremely fascinating reading and one that I will pick up over and over again, not only to see if I can get a better grasp on the ending, but also to relive everything amazing that this book has to offer- great characters with interesting arcs, a unique plot, and the likes of.

Rating: 4/5

I received this book from the publisher to read and honestly review.  I was not compensated in any way for said review.