Quick Synopsis

A college reunion turns dark and deadly in this chilling and propulsive suspense novel about six friends, one unsolved murder, and the dark secrets they’ve been hiding from each other—and themselves—for a decade.

Publisher’s Synopsis

Six friends.
One college reunion.
One unsolved murder.

Ten years after graduation, Jessica Miller has planned her triumphant return to her southern, elite Duquette University, down to the envious whispers that are sure to follow in her wake. Everyone is going to see the girl she wants them to see—confident, beautiful, indifferent. Not the girl she was when she left campus, back when Heather Shelby’s murder fractured everything, including the tight bond linking the six friends she’d been closest to since freshman year.

But not everyone is ready to move on. Not everyone left Duquette ten years ago, and not everyone can let Heather’s murder go unsolved. Someone is determined to trap the real killer, to make the guilty pay. When the six friends are reunited, they will be forced to confront what happened that night—and the years’ worth of secrets each of them would do anything to keep hidden.

Told in racing dual timelines, with a dark campus setting and a darker look at friendship, love, obsession, and ambition, In My Dreams I Hold A Knife is an addictive, propulsive read you won’t be able to put down.

Book Review

In My Dreams I Hold A Knife is an impressive debut novel that follows a group of once-inseparable friends trying to unveil who murdered one of them 10 years prior. It is story full of psychological suspense, secrets, and obsession.

I am not sure that I would describe In My Dreams I Hold A Knife as an edge-of-your-seat read, but it is an addicting, propulsive book that I finished in one sitting. Ashley Winstead crafts this twisted tale so that there are reveals along the way that keep you both interested and guessing. Even without these, I loved the different characters and the complexity of their relationships with one another. Some may find them unlikeable, but I thought they reflected quite a few of my college peers and made relatable mistakes (minus murder).

Shortly after In My Dreams I Hold A Knife starts, all of the characters are introduced within two pages. I feared that I would not be able to keep them straight since there are so many, especially since several names started with the same letter and were nicknames. But I did not have any issues once they reunited in the story. This book is also told in dual timelines, but they are easy to distinguish and follow.

While I enjoyed reading In My Dreams I Hold A Knife, it was not anything ground-breaking. It is similar to a number of other books and John Hughes movies. Essentially, the story played into many tropes and was over-the-top a lot of the time. I typically do not care about improbability in a plot, but there were a few instances where I paused because I was distracted by things that were so implausible they seemed inaccurate.

Overall, I really enjoyed In My Dreams I Hold A Knife and was impressed that it was Winstead’s debut. I recommend this book unless you cannot handle unlikeable characters.

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