3.5
I have read other books by this author and love here style. It is a decent read for me , although probably my least favorite of her books I've read. It is a bit far fetched in its premise I thought, although the scientific explanation is probably pretty good. Still a good read.

The Dream Daughter, Diane Chamberlain, author; Susan Bennett, narrator
The time is 1970. The place is Nags Head, North Carolina. Carly Sears is bereft. Within the last year, she has learned two things. Her husband Joe Sears, was killed in Vietnam, only a couple of weeks after he got there, and she, pregnant with his child, had only just learned that the child would not live because of a fatal heart defect.
In 1965, Carly had worked as a physical therapist. She was assigned to help a man named Hunter Poole, who was behaving oddly. After getting to know him, she introduced him to her sister Patty, and they married. The four of them became close. When Joe died in Vietnam, about five years later, Carly moved to Nags Head to be with her sister and Hunter.
When Hunter revealed his true background to Carly, so he could offer her a way to save her baby, she wanted to have him hospitalized in a psych ward. He told her, he was from the year 2018, and he said he could send her to 2001, because by then, fetal surgery was being done, and he believed her baby could be saved.
After he proved who he was, she decided to risk all to save her baby. Without telling Patty of their plans, she sets off. When Patty finds out the truth, she is aghast and furious with both Carly and Hunter for plotting behind her back to endanger Carly. Patty was afraid to lose her sister and didn’t quite understand that while she would go to great lengths to save her only child, John Paul, Carly would also go to great lengths to save her unborn child.
In 2001, Carly contacts Hunter’s mother, Myra. She gives her whatever help she can, arranging the surgery and places to stay for the after care. After a series of catastrophic events caused changes in the plans for Carly to return to 1970, through a portal, with Joanna, she is forced to return to 1970, without her newborn. As soon as she gets back to 1970, Carly demands to go back again to 2001, to retrieve Joanna.
The calculations for time travel have to be precise, and the tragedy of 9/11, on the morning she drops back into the future, interferes with the date of her arrival. She returns to 2013, not 2001. Now, Joanna is a pre-teen. Carly finds Hunter’s mom, Myra, the genius behind time travel, and demands that she help her discover her child’s whereabouts. She wants to know that she is alive and well. She is obsessed with finding and meeting her. She disobeys Hunter’s mom who insists that she does not interfere, and she interacts with Joanna and her family. She works at an inn, and she brings the inn dog, Poppy, to play with Joanna’s dog Jobs, named, of course, for Steve Jobs.
When forces beyond Carly’s control, intercede again, she begs Hunter’s mom to send her back to 1970. After visiting the Vietnam Wall, in 2013, she had discovered that her husband did not die in 1970, but had been held as a POW for three years by the North Vietnamese. He was going to return home in 1973. She had to go home and await his return. Ecstatic, but confused and bewildered, she had decided that her daughter Joanna did not really need her. Joe, however, would surely need her upon his return after all he had been through. Hunter’s mom sends her back to 1970 to wait for his release in 1973, but before she leaves, stepping off into the past from her daughter’s treehouse, she tells Joanna the truth and scares the life out of her. She leaves 2013 to the sound of Joanna’s screams for help.
Shortly after Carly returns to 1970, Hunter’s mom, whom Hunter had presumed had been lost because of the rule of five in time travel, shows up at Carly’s door. Myra had decided that she wanted to be with her son. Carly had shown her the importance of being with your child. 52 years later, in 2022, Joanna shows up in Nags Head, North Carolina, with Jobs and Poppy, the two dogs that in 2013, had played together in Joanna’s yard, as Carly trained them and befriended Joanna.
Summing it all up, Carly was 27 when she traveled to the future the first time in 2001. She is still 27, when she travels back to 1970 without Joanna, that first time. She is 27 when she returns to 2013, because of a glitch, instead of 2001, for her second trip into the future. Joanna was now almost 13. When she returns to 1970, on her final time travel trip, she is still 27. However, when Joanna goes to Nags Head, it is only 9 years later, for her, from 2013-2022. She is 22 or 23 years old now. For Carly, it is 52 years later and she is now, almost 80. Of course, for Joanna, it is proof positive that Carly had been telling the truth.
In this novel, things fall into place magically, like in a fairy tale. I had to force myself to finish the book. The coincidences were overwhelming, and they taxed credulity. Even suspending disbelief didn’t help. Obviously, Carly watches the same soap operas in 2001 as in 1970, she learns about cell phones, internet, and email from Myra. Everyone she meets is only too happy to help her, her doorman, the nurses, Joanna’s mom, the innkeeper. In essence, Chamberlain has created Nirvana for Carly.
I also felt as if the author was using this sappy narrative to push a progressive agenda with much of the dialogue. The book was anti-war, anti Bush, anti Nixon, pro Obamacare and immigration. It felt like a treatise for liberals as Oprah Winfrey and CNN were lauded.
The Kent State tragedy was highlighted. I had not known that the students disobeyed the police and threw rocks at them. The shameful way the returning Vietnam War soldiers were treated was also highlighted as were the alternating views on the war. Obama was lionized.
At first, I thought that the novel would be a kind of marriage between “The Time Traveler’s Wife” and “Benjamin Button”, but this is in a class by itself, and it doesn’t compare to either of those two imaginative novels. I kept thinking that the book would get better, but it kept getting sillier and sillier, filled with mundane details like descriptions of pajamas and descriptions of dog snacks.
All things in this fairytale turn out well. Here are some: The fetal surgery goes well, Joanna is in a wealthy, loving home, Joe returns well and not emotionally scarred from a Vietnam POW camp, Hunter finds his mother, Carly goes on to have other children, her daughter finds her in Nags Head and meets her father. Like I said, nirvana.

I loved this book. The story was different, but drove home the fact that most women would do anything for their child. It kept my attention and the science-fiction aspect of the story was thought-provoking.