What do readers think of You Were There Too by Colleen Oakley? Write your own review.

Do you think your dreams have significance? Do you think that they can foretell the future or give you information about a past life? This is the mystery that Mia Graydon is trying to figure out.

The story takes place in the present. Mia and her husband, Harrison, recently moved to a small town in Pennsylvania from Philadelphia. She has had different dreams throughout the years with the same man in each one. She doesn't know who the man is, or if she ever met him in real life. Then, suddenly, there he is. She meets him and finds out that he has been having dreams with her in them. What does it mean? Having suffered a painful disappointment, Mia doesn't know if finding the answer to this is really important or is just a way to keep busy and keep her mind off of her loss.

I found this book to be a pleasant read. Who hasn't wondered at one time about a dream? The writer's style is fluent and the dialogue is real. Many times, I find books of this sort to have male characters that are not realistic. Not so with this. The characters actions and reactions seemed very real. There are subplots, especially with the doctor husband, Harrison, which made me think about a little about medical moral issues.

I found Colleen Oakley's book to be good entertainment on summer evenings.

Do dreams really come true? They do in this thoroughly modern love story. Newlywed Mia is obsessed with a man in her life and in her dreams, but that man isn't her husband Harrison. This contemporary marriage is on very thin ice, and there are several reasons why the past has impacted Mia's and Harrison's married bliss. Couples change after their vows, and their marriages need adjustments. From the very beginning of the story, I wanted Mia to forget her dreams and discover something more realistic and valuable for her life.

You know when you have a dream and see someone so clearly; their face; their movements; their clothes; their voice. Then you wake up and realize you have never known that person or seen them but yet they were so real.
Well that's just a piece of what this story is about. But there is so much more. Marriage, loss, grieving, the thrill of first falling in love, the laughter you share, the jokes. The author brings all that to the table and makes you feel it and remember it.
Not my usual book read (at least not since I was in my twenties) but will look for more from this author in the future. Read it! You won't regret it.
Thanks BookBrowse.com for the chance to preview this book.

This is essentially the story about the life of young married couple who live in a small town in Pennsylvania. Harrison Graydon is a Doctor. He loves his wife and, for the most part, life is good except for his emotional trauma over the death of one of his patients during a routine appendectomy. Mia, his wife, is also a happy with her life except she is hugely disappointed that her latest attempt to have a baby ended once more in a miscarriage. It probably does not help that her career as an artist is not going anywhere.

But there is more. The focus of the story at this point turns to analyzing dreams. She has been having a recurring dreams about the same man. This part of the story fascinated me because I believe many of us have dreams which return again and again to the same situation. My recurring dream happens to involve me once again being a student who can no longer remember how to get into my locker or where my classes are. I have always wondered what this dream is trying to tell me.

The strange thing is that suddenly Mia one day sees the man of her dreams come to life in the grocery store. And then lo and behold she finds out that his name is Oliver and that he, too, has been having recurring dreams about her.

The author has done a great job keeping readers interested in finding out what fate has in store for these three people. Further, I think the twist at the end of the story will leave reader's with a sense of satisfaction but wanting more.

This was a different kind of love story. A happily married woman dreams about a man, not her husband, for years. Then she discovers he is a real person who has been dreaming about her! Love, desire, confusion, humor, guilt, forgiveness, and just plain weirdness ensues.
I liked it. Not the best book ever, but definitely an interesting take on human emotions. Well written, likeable characters who show real emotions, who grow and change in the development of the story. You will wonder while reading where this is all going and you will be surprised. Taken all together, this is a good read. I'm glad I read it.

A good read - kept my attention throughout. A love story with enough shifts to keep it from being just a love story. Felt some annoyance with Mia for dallying with Oliver - if only in her mind - but also felt sorrow for her as she dealt with her miscarriage.

You Were There Too is a fast-paced unpredictable read that I had trouble putting down. From the very beginning it is hard to know whether this book is a mystery, a love story, fantasy or a combination of all three. The characters are engaging and the plot intriguing. One constructive criticism is that I thought the occurrence of the "dream" relationship between Mia and Oliver could have been better explained by the end of the book.

However, overall this is an enjoyable book that presents many themes such as love, relationships and fate, all of which would make for good Book Club discussions.

After reading some of the pre-publication reviews from respected sources I looked forward to reading this book. However after the first few chapters I kept thinking this has to get better ... which unfortunately it never did. Minus the fertility issues this could've been a YA story ... which is not a compliment. The narrative, such that it was, lacked breadth and depth and purpose, as did the characters which felt flat and one-dimensional. There wasn't anything about or between Mia and Harrison that suggested a relationship much less a marriage. Except dreaming about each other there wasn't any chemistry or passion or sparks between Mia and Oliver. I didn't think that they seemed to be particularly interested or invested in getting to know each other and certainly nothing to justify Oliver leaving town to 'get over' Mia's 'rejection'. These broadly-drawn characters seemed to exist in their own self-made silos to the extent that any interest in or acknowledgment of one other felt cursory and failed to move the story forward. Also I found the ending to be trite and forced.