You know how sometimes when you start a book (or series) and you get a little drop in your stomach that seems to grow worse with each page turned? I kind of have that feeling for the Wake series. Even the parts which are 'good' moments for Janie are tainted with the future knowledge that things can get worse. And this is before we find out (or Janie acknowledges what readers might have guessed at) what the future has for Janie and her power as a Dream-Catcher.

For Janie, what's happening to her isn't as apparent as it is to others (Cabel and the reader, even the Captain) and that's understandable. She's falling into worse nightmares and where as before she just fought to get out of them, now she feels as if she must help the person and the defeat she feels when she can't is crushing. These aren't random people to her anymore, they might just be classmates, but Janie wants to help them. She wants to give them peace of mind.

The menace in this book is frightening in a very real world sense. McMann is able to slowly build the threat--we learn as Janie learns about the crimes being committed or the crime about to be committed. Cabel's tenseness is also felt as he struggles to both protect Janie and give her freedom. As their feelings grow deeper and they both take more risks I worried for them.

The third book, Gone, is due out in February of 2010-sooo far away! I'm hesitant though to want to read it since the dropping sensation I felt since the first book has grown immensely and there isn't much to recommend that the ending will be anything but bittersweet. ( )

Janie Hannegan is back dreamcatching and fighting crime in this sequel to Wake. Janie is working with Cabel Sturmheller and Captain Komisky of the police department again and this time the crime is a sexual predator teaching in the high school. Miss Martha Stubin is dead and the Captain gives Janie Miss Stubin’s field notes and personal notebook so she can learn about her “gift.” Janie and Cabe are a couple but have not actually gone on a date yet because they can not let anyone know they know each other because of a drug case on which they both worked. You must read the first book because the back-story is not filled in effectively here and leaves lots of questions. Janie alludes to her mother’s alcoholism but offers nothing about her father. You find out Cabe was horribly abused by his father but you do not know where his mother is. There is mature language and situations and Janie and Cabe spend the night together often, making this book better for older teens. ( )

Outstanding read, more mature, but I don't believe it's too much for high school students. Recommended to and liked by my patrons.

For Janie and Cabel, real life is getting tougher than the dreams. They’re just trying to carve out a little (secret) time together, but no such luck.

Disturbing things are happening at Fieldridge High, yet nobody’s talking. When Janie taps into a classmate’s violent nightmares, the case finally breaks open - but nothing goes as planned. Not even close. Janie’s in way over her head, and Cabel’s shocking behavior has grave consequences for them both.

Worse yet, Janie learns the truth about herself and her ability - and it’s bleak. Seriously, brutally bleak. Not only is her fate as a dream catcher sealed, but what’s to come is way darker than she’d feared. ( )

If possible, better than the first book. We learn more about the nature of Janie's "gift" and what she (may) have coming in her not-too-distant future. Janie also learns more about how to control her dreamcatching, and also how to prepare herself physically for the ordeal that is dreamcatching.

Cabel is a help to Janie through most of the book, but still has his own demons to face. I love Captain's line, "Cabel has his own demons, and if he doesn't get on with killing them soon, I'm going to kick his ass." Thank god Janie has the two of them in her life. ( )

Rating: 4.25/5

A very good follow up to one of my favorite series; it had really sad moments when Janie discovered the hazards of being a dream catcher, her miserable home life, or during the case she was working on with Cabel...

Cabel...

I loved the development in their relationship: the trust, the love, the protective side they've awakened in each other and their sweet moments of kissing and holding... *sigh*

Thanks to the author who has a unique writing style: lyrical, almost haunting and so fluid I devoured the book in a matter of hours only.

Now I'm dreading and anxious to read the last book; I don't want the series to end, and I don't want to see a sad ending for Janie and Cabel, a couple I'm growing very fond of. ( )