I am a bit of a fan of Diane Chamberlain’s books, so I was really happy to receive a copy of The Dream Daughter (thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review. TBH, I didn’t even read the promotional material, figuring if it was as enjoyable as Necessary Lies, The Stolen Marriage, etc., it would be well worth my time. Then I read the blurb, and saw the words “time travel…” OMG.

I’m not a fan of fantasy, magical realism, science fiction (except for the it-could-maybe-really-happen type like something about a plague), and especially not a fan of time travel. So this one sat on my TBR pile for MONTHS while I debated whether or not to even read it. There always seemed to be at least a couple of other books in the pile that were SO much more appealing to me. Finally, when I realized it had been on the pile more than three months, I decided to quit procrastination and just try it…even though it was categorized as “Women’s Fiction,” two words which are, for me, almost as offputting as “time travel” for me!

So here is the outline (no spoilers): it’s 1970 and a young widow name Caroline (Carly) Sears learns she is pregnant right before her husband is killed in Vietnam. As if that isn’t enough, she finds out the baby, which is the only thing she has to connect her with her late husband, has a serious heart defect for which there is no treatment – at least not in 1970. So, here we go…

Her brother-in-law, a physicist, confides to her that he is in North Carolina because he traveled back in time from 2018, then met and married her sister (who has NO idea about any of this), and was so happy he then decided to stay in 1970. He is willing to help Carly travel to a time in the future when fetal surgery is a relatively common practice, with the idea that she and her baby can then travel back to 1970 North Carolina.

That’s the basic outline. As I said, no spoilers, that’s just what you could gather from the publisher’s blurb. It does have the Diane Chamberlain style of developing characters the reader really cares about, and has some interesting conundra (?) for the main characters to deal with. BUT. It’s time travel.

So, here’s the thing: I know several people (including some in my book club) who will LOVE this book, and I will recommend it to them without hesitation. They will read it and give it five stars. For me, it just isn’t my thing. I tried to imagine the characters in a story that didn’t involve time travel, set in any of the timeframes that are in the book and realized I would have liked any of those WAY more. So, for me, I can only go 2 stars…but I will definitely continue to be a fan of Ms. Chamberlain’s work (and hope this time travel stuff is just an aberration!)