Dreams Beyond the Shore

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Pub Date 15 Sep 2017 | Archive Date 31 Jan 2018
Blue Banyan Books | Blouse & Skirt Books

Description

Seventeen-year-old Chelsea Marchand was pretty satisfied with her life. Until recently. Willing to play the dutiful daughter as her father’s bid to become Prime Minister of their island home brings her family into intense public scrutiny, Chelsea is swept along by the strong tidal wave of politics and becomes increasingly disturbed by her father’s duplicity. She finds a reprieve when she meets Kyron, a kindred spirit encased in low riding blue jeans. The two share a bond as he too struggles to get beyond his father’s shadow.

But when Chelsea discovers an even darker more sinister side to her father’s world, a discovery that makes her question the man he is and the woman she wants to be, she must decide how much of her own dreams she is willing to compromise to make her father’s come true. But can she find the strength to stand up to her father and chart her own journey?

Tamika Gibson serves up a fascinating and stirring debut novel about growing up and accepting who you are, regardless of who your parents may be. Buoyed by the rhythms, heat and lyrical lilt of contemporary Trinidad and Tobago, Dreams Beyond the Shore blends politics and romance in a heartwarming story declaring that decisions matter far more than destiny.

Dreams Beyond the Shore won first prize in the 2016 Burt Award for Caribbean Literature.

Seventeen-year-old Chelsea Marchand was pretty satisfied with her life. Until recently. Willing to play the dutiful daughter as her father’s bid to become Prime Minister of their island home brings...


Advance Praise

“Tamika Gibson serves up fresh, brilliant excellence with every twist and turn of this moving story about love and life and growing up. I love this book! Dreams Beyond the Shore was easily one of the best YA novels I read all year.”

Daniel José Older, author of Bone Street Rumba and Shadowshaper

“Tamika Gibson serves up fresh, brilliant excellence with every twist and turn of this moving story about love and life and growing up. I love this book! Dreams Beyond the Shore was easily one of...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9789768267061
PRICE $12.99 (USD)

Average rating from 15 members


Featured Reviews

Dreams Beyond the Shore tells about two teenagers who has to take a different path than their peers, it's the story that leads to inspiring youth who chooses to go for their dreams and stand against their parents and the path they want their child to take. What's more, this plot takes it more complex - told by two main character's perspectives, Chelsea Marchand and Kyron, two teenagers of complete lifestyle opposites. But you have heard - opposites attracts? Chelsea belongs to Politicians high society class family and Kyron - not even near that...but what does unites them? Being too much influenced by their fathers criminal life activities overshadowing themselves...

This is a story set in rather small island, giving readers a new setting, because how many stories have you read that are set in Caribbean? They both sparkle a fast romance and flirting but as much as everything else is going around them, it also comes between them. It was interesting read, but I didn't connect with both characters. The writer has interestingly written a plot to build up, for both of teenagers finding more about those who they love, they both go through a lot and they learn...

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In Dreams Beyond the Shore we find seventeen year old Chelsea at a crossroads in her life, left to decide whether to be the dutiful daughter her politician father expects her to be or to follow her own dreams to be a writer.

At its heart this is a coming-of-age love story. Told from two perspectives, Chelsea's and Kyron's-her eighteen year old boyfriend, the story is real and the central characters' voices ring true to the electric experience of new teenage love. Kyron steals the show with his good looks, confidence, intelligence, and integrity all mixed in with a slight bad-boy vibe.

Dreams Beyond the Shore is set on the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and while the setting is important, it remains in the background leaving at the forefront the classic tale of two teens struggling to define life on their own terms. Teen readers will definitely connect to their stories.

While the central story line is well written and developed, readers may find themselves wanting to know more about the underlying stories of Mr. Marchand's connection to the criminal world and the implications of his rise to being Prime Minister, both for the country and for Chelsea and Kyron.

There is an interesting cast of secondary characters who do have some depth but are unsatisfying in that their appearances are fleeting.
During her narrative, Chelsea hints repeatedly at her father being duplicitous and corrupt but we don't see hard evidence of this. Near the end there is a strong suggestion that Mr. Marchand has been involved in horrible crimes however it is hard to believe that these are the sort of activities of which Chelsea was aware.

This is an enjoyable book. I became invested in the lives of the main characters and was left wanting at the end as I needed to know more about the characters' fates.

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