One of the reasons that I love Facebook is the joy in discovering authors that are active on social media. In reading cozy mysteries by Lorraine Bartlett/Lorna Barrett, I also discovered The Cozy Chicks Group on Facebook and The Cozy Chicks Blog with posts from multiple authors. By participating in the online event on 26-Oct-2016, Halloween with The Cozy Chicks, I was lucky to win a French Vanilla candle (my favorite scent!) as one of the prizes from author Mary Kennedy. I was “overdue” to begin reading novels by Mary Kennedy as introduced through The Cozy Chicks so I ordered my first choice of “Nightmares Can Be Murder” (A Dream Club Mystery).

The pleasure of meeting the two (2) sisters, Allison (Ali) and Taylor, warmed my heart particularly with the southern charm that the setting of Savannah, Georgia brings to the storyline. Ali is the owner of Oldies But Goodies vintage candy store and Taylor has come from Chicago to help her sister as sometimes Ali’s creative side distracts her attention from the financial and marketing sides of owning a business. Ali is also hostess to Dream Club members that meet to discuss their dreams and the interpretations of their dreams but also to delight in the exquisite food selections that Ali provides for tasting and especially her desserts. Scout and Barney are the treasured feline companions of sister Ali.

Taylor becomes a sleuth as Ali becomes a “Person of Interest” in a murder and through the interactions with Dream Club members, store customers, meeting Ali’s friends in the community, and a renewal of friendships with others that have moved back to Savannah, there is the perfect opportunity for growth of the series and the rekindling of romance.

I rarely am aware of dreaming let alone remembering anything more than a tiny fragment and the dreams are too infrequent for me to fathom joining a Dream Club but I’d certainly be a customer of the Oldies But Goodies vintage candy store. It’s a cozy mystery that brings memories of times of a slower pace and a few experiences of bliss in the pleasures of southern hospitality.

My lower star rating is due to copy edit errors that are distracting to me as a reader. I am hopeful for improvement as the series continues.
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I'm not sure how I feel about this book. Ali opens a nostalgic candy store in Savannah and her sister Taylor comes to help her keep it in the black. Ali's hobby involves dream interpretation and so she has friends that gather frequently in the book to discuss their dreams. Taylor isn't sure if she can believe all that is said at these meetings, but when one member says she dreamed of a death and then a neighbor is found murdered, the group decides that they need to see if their dreams can be directed to finding the murderer.

The characters were fun and the setting and background great, but I'm not sure I can stick with the premise of a "dream Club". I'll have to seriously thin, before I read another of this series. ( )

Taylor and Allison (Ali) are sisters. Ali has just opened a nostalgia candy store in Savannah, Georgia and Taylor is spending some time, lending a hand and helping with business planning.

When a dance instructor with a business across the street is killed, Ali and several people she knows are "persons of interest", just because they all knew the victim. Many of the women are also members of Ali's "Dream Club", a group that gets together to discuss their dreams.

While I liked Taylor and Ali, something in this story didn't capture my full attention. I don't know if it was all the stuff about dreams or if it was the initial strain between Taylor and Ali (the whole big sister, little sister stuff) but I struggled to really enjoy the story.

I think I give the series one more try to see if it smooths out for me. ( )

Nightmares Can Be Murder is the first book in the A Dream Club Mystery series.

I love this new series by Mary Kennedy. For me it was a wonderful trip down memory lane for this reader.

Tracy Blake puts her career as a business consultant on hold and heads to Savannah to help her younger sister, Ali, get her new business up and running successfully. Ali's business, Oldies But Goodies, is a vintage candy store that is gaining some popularity. Ali also hosts a Dream Club, after hours. They meet once a week and interpret the dreams they have had the previous week. There are about nine members and their demeanor and personalities are quite diverse. The characters go from the, somewhat quiet, Harper sisters, the friendly Gina, the mousy ex-head mistress at a private school, Persia and the often outspoken Dorien and Sybil and to round out the club, Samantha(Sam) A Savannah police detective.

Then one evening Gina comes over to borrow the key to the dance studio where she works. She doesn't understand why the owner, Chico, isn't there as the students will be arriving soon. When she returns to the studio she finds Chico laying on the floor, dead. An autopsy show that Chico had been poisoned.

With the murder happening so close to their business, Taylor and Dream Club start to do a little investigation of their own. It's soon learned that Chico has had some business dealing with some shady characters and was known to be a bit of a playboy. As members of Dream Club begin to share their dreams after Chico's death, it begins to look as if his death might be related to a business deal gone bad or an irate husband or a scorned girlfriend.

In addition to Dream Club, Taylor has help from her former boyfriend, Noah, who is a PI and Sara, an investigative reporter, that she knew when she was in Atlanta. Just maybe, Taylor and Noah can put their past differences behind them and rekindle romance.

Kennedy tells a great story and intersperses a lot of the candies from the 50's and 60's to create a mouth watering tale.

Definitely will be watching for the next book in this flavorful series. ( )

This is the first in a new series by Mary Kennedy, a Dream Club Mystery and does a good job of introducing us to the main characters and the Dream Club. Haven't heard of Dream Clubs? What about Dream Hopping? Yes, these activities do have a following. Suppose you dreamed you were in a train, traveling somewhere unknown, and you see people you recognize, but don't know why they are there. Are you really having the same dream as someone else? Or did you just find yourself in someone else's dream? This is dream hopping, or one variety of it.

Taylor, who has lived her life in an orderly and deliberate way as a freelance business consultant, has come to visit her sister Ali back home in Savannah and hopefully help her with her bottom line. Ali owns and operates a vintage candy store with a serious lack of customers. The sisters are as opposite as can be. This night is an example. It's a steamy hot night and Ali has been baking delicious treats for her weekly group, the Dream Club. As the evening goes along,Taylor, who never dreams, is having a difficult time keeping her disbelief in check. Some members try to interpret, others feel dreams are just symbolic, and then we have the dream-hopping Sybil. I was even amazed to find one of my own recurring dreams mentioned...must be common!

Great start to a new series! Just before the evening breakup, Persia blurts out that she witnessed a murder in her dream and how real everything seemed to be. Some things are very clear yet some are just brief images. As she finishes, it is clear that her dream of murder sounds very real. Samantha Styles, a detective in the group, quickly goes into alert mode. Is this a murder that has happened or did she miss something? She begins asking questions, which draws more information out of the dream: The victim is a man, loud music is blaring, the man eats and collapses in mid-meal. Has this happened or is it a portent? Sam is not sure believes in this 'dream stuff.'

The next morning as Taylor and Ali are involved in trying to make the store more viable by adding soup, salad, baked goods, and other items to entice the palate when customers come in to Oldies but Goodies for their nostalgic choice of sweets. When Gina stops by to ask about a key to the dance studio across the street; why is he not open for his students? What they find is a murder excruciatingly like Persia's dream discussed the night before. The dream has become reality as Chico, the Latin dance instructor, is found dead. How did what appeared to be an innocent yet confusing and frightening dream become a reality?

Samantha is on the case and once answers are made to her questions, Ali proposes to have an immediate emergency meeting of the Dream Club to see if anyone has come up with any inspiration from their dreams during the night, anything that may lead to what happened. This was a surprising book, with twists and turns leading to an unexpected perpetrator, an eclectic or perhaps eccentric group of women, the people and locale tinged with sweetness of the South and an interesting premise. ( )