A Dream Within A Dream: 3:59 Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway

Welcome to my stop on the official blog tour for 3:59 by Gretchen McNeil! Today I have my review of the book and don't forget to scroll to the bottom of the post to enter the tour wide giveaway!

This tour is going to wrap up in a very exciting way! Gretchen McNeil is going to do a live chat via YouNow with YOU!!!

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 9TH
7:00 PM (West coast)
6:00 (Central)
4:00 (East Coast)

Click here to bookmark her channel right now!

3:59

Author: Gretchen McNeil
Genre: YA Science Fiction/Fantasy/Thriller
Release Date: September 17, 2013
Publisher: Balzer + Bray

AMAZON | BARNES AND NOBLE | BOOK DEPOSITORY

Description:

Josie Byrne's life is spiraling out of control. Her parents are divorcing, her boyfriend Nick has grown distant, and her physics teacher has it in for her. When she's betrayed by the two people she trusts most, Josie thinks things can't get worse.

Until she starts having dreams about a girl named Jo. Every night at the same time—3:59 a.m.

Jo's life is everything Josie wants: she's popular, her parents are happily married, and Nick adores her. It all seems real, but they're just dreams, right? Josie thinks so, until she wakes one night to a shadowy image of herself in the bedroom mirror – Jo.

Josie and Jo realize that they are doppelgängers living in parallel universes that overlap every twelve hours at exactly 3:59. Fascinated by Jo's perfect world, Josie jumps at the chance to jump through the portal and switch places for a day.

But Jo’s world is far from perfect. Not only is Nick not Jo's boyfriend, he hates her. Jo's mom is missing, possibly insane. And at night, shadowy creatures feed on human flesh.

By the end of the day, Josie is desperate to return to her own life. But there’s a problem: Jo has sealed the portal, trapping Josie in this dangerous world. Can she figure out a way home before it’s too late?

From master of suspense Gretchen McNeil comes a riveting and deliciously eerie story about the lives we wish we had – and how they just might kill you.

3:59 is a thrilling and mind bending science fiction mystery that will have readers on the edge of their seats for the entire book. The story follows leading lady Josie Byrnes, whose life has gone drastically downhill lately. Her parents are getting divorced and she just found out that her best friend and her boyfriend were hooking up behind her back. Just when Josie thinks she can't take anymore, strange things begin to happen - every day at 3:59. It starts with strange dreams about a girl who looks just like Josie, but isn't her. Then Josie sees the girl - her doppelganger - in an old mirror in her room. It seems as if the mirror is a portal between two universes - Josie's world and the mysterious girl's, Jo Byrnes, world. Jo's life seems perfect - a nice house, loving boyfriend, a tight knit family. Josie wishes that she could have Jo's life, even if it's just for one day. Surprisingly, Jo has the same idea about Josie's life and they agree to switch worlds for 24 hours. Little does Josie know that the world she stepped into isn't as great as it seems. There are terrible monsters attacking people after dark, Jo's mom is in an insane asylum, and her boyfriend - Nick - definitely isn't in love with her. Now she's stuck in Jo's life without a way back to her own and Josie must find a way to help the people in this world all while trying to find a way back to her own.

This book was incredibly fascinating and thought provoking with an edgy mystery and tons of thrills mixed in. The story deals with the theories of multiple universes and quantum physics, which is really complicated and mind boggling (for me at least), but the possibility that this type of thing could really happen is so crazy and intriguing to me. Josie is a great main character. She's been going through typical teenage hell with a cheating boyfriend, horrible ex-best friend, and parents going through a divorce. Even though she's dealing with these problems, she's still incredibly smart, kind, thoughtful and strong. We get to see what her character is really capable of when she steps through into the alternate universe and must rescue not only herself but the people she cares about. The other characters were well written too, each with their own personalities and quirks - even though most of the time there were two of each in separate worlds. The plot was mind blowing and had me eagerly reading the book as fast as I could to attempt to understand the concepts that were discussed as well as trying to figure out what was really happening in both worlds. There were definitely some scary and creepy times in the book where things were confusing and I loved trying to put the pieces together before Josie did. As always, the writing was phenomenal and I easily immersed myself into the book alongside Josie. The author uses lots of vivid details and descriptions that made the story palpable and it felt almost like it was happening right outside your window. As I mentioned, the concepts in the book are actual theories in physics, which is equally exciting and terrifying if you think about all the possibilities that entails. If any of those theories are right - something like this could be actually possible in our world. Until then, I'll stick to just reading about it happening to someone else. Highly recommended for fans of science fiction, fantasy, and thrillers.

Singer. Writer. Clown.

Gretchen is repped by Ginger Clark of Curtis Brown. Her YA horror/paranormal POSSESS debuts with Balzer + Bray for HarperCollins, August 23, 2011. Her second novel, TEN – YA horror/suspense about ten teens trapped on a remote island with a serial killer – also with Balzer + Bray is tentatively scheduled for a Fall 2012 release.

Gretchen is a former coloratura soprano, the voice of Mary on G4′s Code Monkeys and she currently sings with the LA-based circus troupe Cirque Berzerk. She is a founding member of vlog group theYARebels where she can be seen as “Monday,” and she is an active member of both The Enchanted Inkpot, a group blog of YA and middle grade fantasy writers, and The Apocalypsies, a group blog of 2012 children’s debut authors.

You can find Gretchen on Twitter, Facebook, and on her blog.