“If your two personalities are in love with different guys, does that count as two-timing?”
Genre: New Adult fantastical romance
Length: 110,000 words
Status: Completed, edited, on hold.
Notes: Was a quarter-finalist in 2011 and 2012 in ABNA.
Cassandra Howard is tired of being the responsible older sister. Now that she’s going to college—escaping the perpetual parental pity party for her chronically ill sister Haley—Cassie’s going to get some attention for once. She’s out to land the guy of her dreams. Literally.
Mulligan is the perfect boyfriend. He plays the drums. He has a sexy accent. He’s devoted and charming and only has eyes for one girl. But that girl isn’t exactly Cassie. Mulligan is in love with Dia, who happens to be Cassie’s alter ego from another universe. Mulligan and Dia are dreamland’s happiest couple, and Cassie is getting sick of playing ugly duckling to her other self these days. There’s got to be a way to find Mulligan for herself, even if he might be a very different person in the waking world.
Using a mysterious portrait of Mulligan for inspiration, Cassie tracks down two candidates for Mulligan’s other self: Is it Jamie, the talented artist who painted the portrait? Or is it Terrell, the hot musician who posed for it? And how’s a girl supposed to ask her potential boyfriend if he ever goes to another universe while he’s sleeping? (Well, without ending up back in therapy before she can blink.)
As Cassie investigates their identities and slowly falls for both guys, Mulligan accuses Dia of infidelity and the love pentagon explodes. Apparently it’s still cheating if your other self dates someone else in another universe. Who knew? Cassie must borrow Dia’s magic to find the real Mulligan once and for all—but dragging elements of dreamland into the waking world has consequences, and soon Cassie’s biggest problem isn’t who she should love. It’s dealing with who she is and what she’s done to those she loves. And one thing’s for sure: dreams of happily ever after do sometimes turn out to be nightmares.