Laura Lippman does it again!! The reader is on the edge of "what is going on" from the very beginning. The narrator was a good choice, the rhythm of speech and pace was perfect. This plot keeps you in the "unknow" until the end. A perfect combination. Thank you Netgalley for an audio ARC of this title.

Deja vu immediately came to mind as I delved into the beginning chapters of this book. The plot reminded me of Steven King and a very similar storyline so that was a distraction from the start. It was also a bit difficult to keep track of the time shifts. None of the characters were especially sympathetic but I considered that a plus and added to the tension in the book.
The narrator was terrific. His inflections and ability to differentiate between the characters' personalities was uncanny. His interpretation added to the story.

First line: Gerry dreams.

Summary: After an accident that leaves author Gerry Anderson immobilized strange things begin to happen. He keeps getting calls from his fictional character, Audrey, from his bestselling book Dream Girl. Even though he knows he is talking to someone neither his nurse nor his personal assistant have heard the phone ring or heard the mysterious woman on the other end. Then one night he wakes up from his drug addled sleep to find a body on the floor by his bed. What is happening? Is he starting to lose touch with reality like his mother?

My Thoughts: I felt like this book had a lot of promise. Lippman has written some really great thrillers but this one was boring. It took nearly half the book to reach the point where the body appears. There is lots of time hops and characters. Everything seemed to drag on and on. I kept waiting for some crazy reveal or big shock but when something finally happened at the end I was underwhelmed. It was a big letdown for me. And none of the characters were likeable. I got really annoyed with the main character, Gerry. He was constantly trying to worry about how he is perceived in the new “woke” society and #MeToo movement. It got old.

FYI: Check out Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman. Much more fun.

Gerry Anderson is really only famous for one novel, although it's far from his only publication. But Dream Girl is the only one that captured the interest of the public (and made him a wealthy man), and the first question he's often asked by strangers is the identity of "dream girl". Gerry insists she is purely fictional, so then why after all these years is she haunting him?

Gerry has a beautiful penthouse, but he has had an accident and is bedridden and forced to rely on his daytime assistant and nighttime nurse. Yet when the early morning phone calls start coming and no one seems to hear them but Gerry, and furthermore when the caller identifies herself as Aubrey, the fictional "Dream Girl", Gerry begins to question his own sanity. Who is trying to drive him over the edge and why?

This novel was intriguing and quite different from what I expected from Lippman. I enjoyed it, but prefer her other titles. Well done and well narrated. Recommended.

Thank you, Edelweiss, for an audio-ARC of Dream Girl by Laura Lippman.
Dream Girl is a mystery novel about an author that is bedridden due to an accident. In between rounds of medication, he questions a threatening letter and phone calls. A dead body leads to many unanswered questions and elevates the suspense. Personally, I found the story to be slow. Switching between the past and present took away from the suspense of the mystery. The audio narrator, Jason Culp, did a great job with the audio narration. He consistently kept his tone different to showcase different characters.

Initially I was concerned this was a fantasy book which is not my preferred genre,Twists and turns abound. The narrator is sympathetic to a point but then seems delusional . Which scenario is true? The pace really picks up in the last 20% of the book . Very satisfying ending after some early sluggishness.

This book is disturbing and hilarious in all the right ways. I loved how old school it felt. It reminded me so much of all the old movies I used to love. I listened to the audiobook and it was really terrific.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Meh. Got to 40% of the audiobook and ended up requesting the digital book so I could skim and find out what happened.

Some books don’t read as well as an audiobook and I think Dream Girl is one of them as it skips all over the place chronologically and hard to keep track.

Gerry is a successful author living in Baltimore. After an accident, he is housebound with only his personal assistant with him during the day and a mediocre nurse at night. He keeps getting calls from someone saying they are from his past. Is it real or not?

I kept thinking of Stephen King’s Misery while reading Dream Girl. Silly plot with a silly ending.

Laura Lippman’s latest delves into the life of Gerry, who is bed-ridden and recovering from an injury, relying on the help of an assistant and a caretaker. When strange things begin to happen, Gerry questions his own sanity.

This book is unlike any of Lippman’s others. It has a male narrator and the story alternates between present time and multiple past times. I thought the narrator in the audio version was excellent, but I did not particularly care for this, as I found it to be confusing at times and I had difficulty keeping track of what was going on, especially with it being an audio rendition where I couldn’t easily go back and forth. I felt like the book was more of a character study of Gerry than a suspense. I did not like Gerry or any of the other characters so it was hard to become too invested in the outcome of this. Overall, this one was just so-so for me.

Laura Lippman’s classifies her latest novel Dream Girl, as horror and credits her favorite authors as inspiration. This story will immediately have Stephen King fans recalling Misery. In the # MeToo era, we are presented with a popular author, Gerry Anderson, severely injured, helpless in his apartment and dependent on two young women for his care. I could see where the story was going from the beginning, so 3 stars. The ending almost redeemed the novel for me, but I’m sure will irritate other readers. I just could not buy Gerry’s stupidity, even with the explanation that he was being drugged.
Recommended for all of Lippman’s many fans,

Gerry Andersen is literally a prisoner in his own home after a fall turns him into an invalid. The novelist relies on a private duty nurse and his personal assistant for everything. As if that weren’t bad enough, Gerry begins getting phone calls from “Aubrey” the fictional character from his best selling book. Gerry knows he made her up, yet there she is on the phone, knowing things she shouldn’t know. And when he tries to prove he’s getting the phone calls, there is no record of them. Is he losing his mind? Lippman’s novels are so twisted you need to have the mind of a contortionist to solve them yourself. Culp is a perfect narrator, capturing Gerry’s fear, anger and bewilderment for listeners

This is my first read of a Laura Lippman novel though I do have quite a few sitting on my shelves at home....and I must say I was pretty impressed. I finished it in just two sittings. (It's a rather short audiobook just under 9 hrs long)

The plot of this book is really my favorite thing about it. I'm a true sucker for books written about writers, and this novel, which pays homage to Stephen King's masterpiece Misery, is about an incredibly successful novelist Gerry, who has been in an accident at home and is now immobilized, bed ridden, and requiring a day and night nurse to come in and take care of him. And he begins to receive mail and phone calls from a woman claiming to be Aubrey, the lead of his most successful thriller, Dream Girl, when the character is fictional. And Gerry has to come to terms with are the calls really happening? Is he suffering from early onset dementia? Is someone from his past trying to get revenge on him?

It's a dark psychological thriller with a horror element, there's some brutal violence included a couple times.....

My biggest negatives with the book is the structure: it's told back and forth every chapter from Gerry's present dealing with his bedridden condition and from random sporadic times in his past whether it be 2012 one chapter 1969 one chapter 2008 the next 1973 the next...I feel like a lot of the past chapters weren't very necessary and it took away from the strength of the creepiness of the present day timeline which was so well written. I kept waiting the narrator to talk faster and just get back to present day Gerry.

The audiobook was truly well produced, I enjoyed the narrator's tone and the voices he gave to the characters. It was very easy to listen to, and honestly, even with the book going back and forth every chapter the audio was very easy to follow along with, which is normally a problem for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced listening copy of Dream Girl which will be out in June!

I will definitely be trying another Laura Lippman novel because despite the flaws here, I really loved her writing style.

3.75 ⭐️