THE DREAM DAUGHTER by Diane Chamberlain is a literary roller coaster. Carly discovers in 1970 that her daughter has a heart defect that is a death sentence based on medicine available. So she finds someone that can help her save her daughter. This story reads better blind so I’m not going to bring up anything else about plot. There are times that this book seems predictable but then it turns out that you are thinking about it all wrong. I did have to set it down at the halfway point and come back to it as it’s hard to be a mom and read a book about a lost or hurt daughter. But I’m glad I picked it back up as it resolved really well and it ends perfectly in my opinion.

I received an Advance Review Copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Another great book by Diane Chamberlain. The Dream Daughter hooked me in straight away and I read this in a day. A fab story about time travelling and the difficulties Caroline faces when trying to save her daughter. Have a read you won’t be disappointed.

This book was everything and more. It's hard to fit it into one genre. Part family drama, part time travel, part historical fiction, and all the feelings.
I couldn't stop reading it. I laughed. I cried. The ending... many, many Kleenex were involved.

Title: The Dream Daughter
Author: Diane Chamberlain
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4 out of 5

Caroline Sears is newly-widowed by the Vietnam War and pregnant with her first child when she finds out there is something wrong with her baby’s heart. Carly is devastated because the baby is the only thing she has left from her husband. Then her brother-in-law, mysterious physicist Hunter, tells her he can help her—but his “how” is more than Carly can even imagine. Will she risk everything for her unborn daughter?

I don’t generally read books that I know will make me cry. I risked it with this book, and I’m glad I did. I loved Carly, and her struggle for her unborn baby was both moving and heartbreaking. This was a good, emotional read.

Diane Chamberlain is a former social worker and a bestselling author. The Dream Daughter is her newest novel.

(Galley provided by St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

Oh how I love to read Diane Chamberlain's books. She is the ultimate storyteller, weaving tales that are so vivid and real that I get lost in her books and tune out the world around me. The Dream Daughter was such a tale. It was so wonderfully written, full of love and heartbreak. It is a story unlike others I have read recently and I absolutely loved it.

5 stars! This was beautiful! I don't often find myself reading time travel novels. This one is one I would have hated to miss, as I enjoyed it so much better than I expected to.

It's 1970 and Carlie is pregnant and still so in love with her husband who is believed to have been killed in the war. All she wants now is to have her baby, a part of her husband and their love. She learns her baby has a heart defect and will die soon after she is born. Nothing can be done about it in the 70's, the medical knowledge is not there yet. However, she learns there is a way to travel to the future where fetal surgery can be performed and her baby girl might be saved. Will she do it? Would you? At great risk I might add.

I do not know if I am a strong enough person to do what she did. I hope I am. This was an excellent read. I was fully caught up in her journey and her mother's heart. This was a brilliant story and made better by our discussion of it in the group, The Travelling Sisters, here on goodreads.

Many thanks to the publisher via NetGalley and Diane Chamberlain for a digital copy to read in exchange for a review. Heartwarming and beautifully written. I highly recommend it.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an eARC of this book.
What an intriguing, fascinating, interesting read. I must say that I love books involving time travel if it is well done and this one is, mostly, very well done. Well developed, likable characters populate this book with a plot that twists and turns and surprises.
It is excellently written by an author with whom I was not familiar even though she has written many books. Others say this is not her usual fare but I will nonetheless check out some of her other books.
Suspend your disbelief and read this book. It is amazing.
4.5 stars because I didn't like the tacked on ending and I hate the title but rounded to 5 because I truly loved the book.

This was so different than Chamberlain's other books, I didn't it live it like her others. Perhaps I just couldn't jive with the time travel? It was certainly detrimental to the story, but not my thing. Great writing, I love the characters, but just not a sci-fi fan.

Captivating, breathtaking & unputdownable!

Wow! I absolutely love DIANE CHAMBERLAIN and this book was phenomenal, one of my top books of the year.

THE DREAM DAUGHTER by DIANE CHAMBERLAIN is an irresistible, powerful and deeply moving story that immediately captured my attention and my heart. It had me in tears so many times over the course of reading this emotionally captivating story and in the end, it left me with feelings of such warmth in my heart.

I am so glad that I go into my books totally blind because not knowing anything beforehand about this story was definitely very pleasing and appealing. I absolutely loved the direction that this story took and totally embraced it.

DIANE CHAMBERLAIN delivers a beautifully written, unique, magnificent and intense story here with absolutely wonderful, relatable and compelling characters. The emotions and compassion that you feel for them are so palpable. My heart especially went out to Carly. Her unconditional love, courage, and strength were absolutely admirable and I felt so much compassion for her.

I do love my thrillers but I also love stories that take me on an emotional journey and this one definitely moved and touched me.

*Traveling Sisters Read*

Norma’s Stats:
Cover: Affecting, fascinating, suspenseful, eye-catching, piqued my interest, and an extremely fitting representation to storyline. The significance of this cover after reading this novel definitely made its impact on me.
Title: Oh my that title….that is all I’m going to say!
Writing/Prose: Well-written, beautiful, captivating, skilled, and proficient. I absolutely love this author’s writing style and will read anything she writes.
Plot: Suspenseful, thought-provoking, heartbreaking, heartwarming, complex, imaginative, perfectly-paced, enjoyable and extremely entertaining.
Ending: Tearjerker, satisfying, and heartwarming that gave me that gratifying afterglow upon finishing.
Overall: This book contained all the elements that I absolutely love in my books. For me this was book perfection! Would highly recommend!

Thank you so much to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Diane Chamberlain for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a review!

4.5 stars

I will be forever grateful to the person who randomly left The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes in the tiny library at the all-inclusive resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico. While on vacation, I decided to explore the “library” (duh!) which consisted of a shelf in the lobby bar. It was there that I picked up my first ever Diane Chamberlain novel and became an instant fan. What I thought looked like “a fairly decent book to read by the pool” quickly became my obsession and had me looking up how many other books I could read by Chamberlain.

In The Dream Daughter, Chamberlain breaks form, but still delivers on a captivating story and some of the best storytelling around. I was immediately hooked on this book and drawn in by the characters. And throw in some time travel, and well, just call me #fangirl.

Aside from the amazing storytelling, the way Chamberlain makes you FEEL and the connection to Carly, Hunter and Patti, I really liked how the time travel was explained. Chamberlain made it make sense. It was “science-y” but not too much so, but it made you believe that it could happen and it made sense in the story.

That is all I am going to give you folks because this is a book that needs to be explored on your own. The blurb gives you the basis of what you need to know. The rest of it, you should enjoy the journey for yourself and get immersed in this wonderful novel. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my copy of this book via NetGalley

In the mid 1960s, Caroline Sears is thrown headfirst into her new hospital job after she’s tasked with caring for the one patient the other nurses avoid. Listless, depressed, and possibly suicidal, Hunter refuses to speak to any of the doctors, won’t give the nurses the time of day…until he sees Caroline. Suddenly this strange and silent man begins to smile and laugh, fully willing to allow Caroline – Carly – to show him how to use crutches to get around on his newly broken leg.

Five years later Hunter is part of the family. Literally. Though Carly was initially hesitant to introduce her sister to a potentially disturbed patient, the pair immediately hit it off and, just a few years later, have a beautiful little boy, John Paul (naturally after John Lennon and Paul McCartney – Carly’s sister is a massive Beatles fan and the first day Carly met Hunter he sang right along with the latest Beatles song, odd at first since the song was just then making its debut on American airwaves, but Carly quickly learned that Hunter had a knack for just knowing things).

While Patti and Hunter have a perfect life, Carly’s is beginning to fall apart. She only just learns of her husband’s death – killed in Vietnam – when she discovers their unborn daughter (the baby Joe hadn’t even known about, Carly herself only recently found out she was pregnant) has a heart defect and the chances of survival are virtually nonexistent. With her world shattering, Hunter reveals a secret to Carly: he’s a time-traveler. And in order to save her child, Carly needs to get to the future.

Any new Diane Chamberlain novel is a cause for celebration. By curling up with an industrial size box of tissues, obviously, because as I’ve said time and time again, this woman has it out for me. So pardon me if I had a moment of blissful ignorance: why surely a sci-fi time-travel romp won’t have any heartbreaking scenes! For once, a sunshiney, happy tale!

Yeah, I was sniffling and puffy-eyed well before finishing. My bad.

St. Martin’s, maybe spring for a puppy? An entire menagerie of cute baby animals? Although what does it say about me that, not only do I keep coming back to these gut-punch stories, but I actually look forward to them?? The Dream Daughter pulls all the stops and I refuse to spoil anything, though I will say the moment I saw the chapter heading noting the date was September 2001 (and set in New York), I wailed a loud “nooo” and had to take a break.

Silly me, thinking 9/11 would be the emotional scene. What happens after is even worse.

Don’t take my unrelenting weeping as a sign this book is anything but amazing. The Dream Daughter is phenomenal and Diane Chamberlain proves she can shine in any genre, yet underneath the fantasy elements lies a very real, very universal question: how far will a mother go to protect her child? The characters are all so beautifully crafted, but Carly is sure to stick with readers, this one included. A slightly reserved woman content to spend to rest of her life in her childhood cottage undergoes a huge overhaul, discovering courage and tenacity she had no idea she possessed. She lost her husband and is all but guaranteed to lose her child unless she makes the leap – literally – decades into the future. Not only is she totally on her own, but she’s essentially in a new world: computers, cell phones, the Internet. Even money is a bit bewildering (Carly quickly learns a few hundred bucks in 1970 went MUCH further than in 2001). I can’t say enough about Carly and her character growth. I would not fare a fraction as well as she did if I were in her place.

As always, the time spent within the pages is all too brief compared to how long the story stays with me afterward. The Dream Daughter might be a dip in a new genre, but at its core it’s still a classic Diane Chamberlain novel that long-time readers are sure to love. Few things make me ugly cry like her books, but they’re just so. good. I can’t help but delight in each heartbreak – and eagerly await the next one. It will come as no surprise to anyone when The Dream Daughter finds its way back to the blog at the end of the year as a Top Read of 2018.

What an awesome 5 star 🌟 book!!! I strongly recommend this to everyone who is looking for a great mind boggling story. It pulled me in from the beginning and was a fast paced page turner that kept me on the edge of my seat.
When I first read the blurb about this book dealing with time travel, I didn't think I'd like it. Then I started hearing from my friends and reading early reviews on Goodreads that it was such a believable and excellent book that I decided to give it a try. I'm so glad that I did! The book release was October 2, 2018.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced readers copy and
congratulations to the author on a hopefully, soon to become best seller!

It's 1970. Caroline Sears' husband has died fighting in Vietnam and her unborn daughter will be born with a life-threatening heart defect. There is no way to treat her daughter's condition and Caroline is devastated. Then her mysterious brother in law, Hunter, proposes a fantastical solution to the problem that might just save the baby's life. Hunter is a physicist and tells Caroline that she can travel forward in time, access advanced medical care for the ailing baby, then come back to 1970 with a healthy daughter. Only things don't go as smoothly as Hunter promises.....

This story is so creative with many twists and surprises. While it is a tale about how much a mother is willing to sacrifice and endure for her child, it also gives a healthy lesson about not messing with time. There are consequences. While time travel is not a new plot by any means, I loved the premise of this story. The book is well-written, paced nicely and the author really takes a new and creative approach to the idea of time travel.

Diane Chamberlain has written more than 25 books. I really enjoyed this story and will definitely read more of her books!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from St. Martins Press via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

I always rank order my top books of the year (because I'm a book nerd) and Diane Chamberlain's books almost always make one of my top five books each year. This book is no exception and as of right now is ranked as my favorite book of 2018 with 2 months remaining! Once you start reading a Diane Chamberlain book, it's like being on an exciting roller coaster ride with one thrilling point after another. Chamberlain is a master at building suspense and developing her characters in such a way that you get pretty emotionally invested in them despite the fact that they are all fictional. This book was very different from other Chamberlain books because it's a fantasy book rather than realistic fiction. Chamberlain still managed to wrap me up with her literary magic and got me engrossed in her tale of time travel as well as all her usual themes of love, family, and friendship. I highly recommend this book to other book lovers. Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. This book review is my definite and honest review of The Dream Daughter.

This is the first book that I have read by Diane Chamberlain. I loved the characters and could sympathize with Carly. First Carly loses her husband and then finds out that the child she is carrying has a heart defect. Hunter, her sister's husband, confronts Carly and let her know that he is a time traveler. Hunter knows in the future there is a surgery that can be performed to save her child's life. Carly, at first, does not believe him but when he tells her something that happens in the future, and it does, she believes and decides to take the leap. It should be an easy trip based on Hunter's calculations but when things happen, the timeline for Carly to return to 1970 keeps getting shifted. A great book about love and sacrifice. Just a great book crossing genres! Thank you to Ms. Chamberlain, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for opportunity to read and review this awesome book.

I am a big fan of Diane Chamberlain and her new book "The dream Daughter" does not disappoint. However, the set up and the style of the book is quite different from Diane's other books.
The Dream daughter starts in 1970 describing quite a domestic set up of young widow and her sister marries to a science man. As the story progresses we learn about possible future complication with the unborn baby of the young widow, her sister's husband " the man of science " is actually a time traveler from 2018 who decided to stay in 1970 and have family there. He offers to help to send Carly to 2001 to have a fetal surgery to save the baby, the surgery that did not exists in 1970.
Carly travels to 2001 and things go wrong... , baby lives but they are lost in time and life throws further obstacles on their way.
The emotions in the book are so raw and convincing, as in all Diane Chamberlain books, I felt as I was in those places and had those experiences.
The possible drawback of the book is that the actual time travel does not have scientific explanation to it, seems to be as a fluke of space and time, as to travel one need to jump from high places at specific times. Also there is a limit on the number of the times one can travel, it represents a major point in the book, but it does not appear convincing either.
I liked the book, I liked Carly with all her raw emotions and I liked her even more as we see her progress from a young scared young woman in the beginning of the book to matured person with different life experienced. The ending is happy and unexpected.
Thank you Diana Chamberlain for the very interesting and unusual book.

I was provided with the free copy of the book by the publisher through Net Galley.

I enjoy Diane Chamberlain books so I requested this on NetGalley, however, I was a little unsure about a book with time travel. Not my normal interest. But I trusted Ms. Chamberlain, and rightly so. I was immersed in this book right away! I loved the story line of a young woman who is pregnant with a seriously ill child. And the time travel was not only believable but as the novel went it was kind of interesting to try to think about all the ins and outs and how it would work. A really great read that pulls you in and just makes you want to read until you finish the book!

I love all Diane Chamberlain's books and was excited to read her latest novel. Time travel is not usually my type of book but this one was done very well. I enjoyed reading about all the time periods in this book. Especially the one in the future. This is such an original book and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Thanks to Netgalley for a copy to review.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley, thank you to the author, the publisher and Netgalley.
I love Diane Chamberlain, I have read many of her books and have really enjoyed them all. I found this book a little bit different from previous books. I think that I was put off by the idea of time travelling, and wasn't sure that I was going to like the book. But despite the time travel, I really enjoyed the book. It was a very emotional book and it really drew me in. I would definitely recommend it to friends. As I was nearing the end of the book, I was thinking of the many possible endings, and I think that the ending and epilogue were perfect.

Wow! I loved this book! It was totally different from my usual kind of reading but Diane Chamberlain managed to make the impossible sound totally plausible. The only other time travel book I've ever read was "11-22-63" by Stephen King (which I also loved).

The characters are well-rounded and believable, and the story is unique and fascinating. This was a book I had a hard time putting down.