The Dream Daughter - Diane Chamberlain

I know that I gave a 1-line review of The Dream Daughter in my 11/5 post.  But this is another book that deserves its own review.  So, let's start with the blurb:

When Carly Sears, a young woman widowed by the Vietnam War, receives the news that her unborn baby girl has a heart defect, she is devastated.  It is 1970, and she is told that nothing can be done to help her child.  But her brother-in-law, a physicist with a mysterious past, tells her that perhaps there is a way to save her baby.  What he suggests is something that will shatter every preconceived notion Carly has. Something that will require a kind of strength and courage she never knew existed.  Something that will require an unimaginable leap of faith on Carly's part.
And all for the love of her unborn child.

Although it's not evident in the synopsis, I will give you one small spoiler alert:  This book is about time travel.  Now, I have to tell you that I have very good precedents for reading and enjoying this kind of book. Stephen King's 11/22/63 is one of my top 12 books all-time.  And Dean Koontz's Lightning is my favorite Koontz.  Time travel is just so darn interesting, when it's done right.  The Dream Daughter is different because it's really about saving a baby (By the way, have you ever heard the Save My Baby joke?  If you haven't, ask me to tell it to you when I see you next.  It is a crack-up.).

At one point, Carly gets sent to 2013 instead of 2001.  We get a good, and understandable, explanation of how that could happen.  Just like King and Koontz, Chamberlain does a great job of making time travel seem plausible.    I'm pretty sure that's not an easy thing to do.

My notes are filled with all kinds of reactions to TDD:

"emotional connection"
"tense"
"Oh, no - 9/11?"
"Oh no no no no no - wrong year"
"OMG"
"emotional"
"What the heck?"
"so much tension"
"OMG!"
"tears"

Although this is not a mystery, I sure still spent a lot of time wondering what was going to happen next.  For that I am grateful to Ms. Chamberlain.  And my final word on The Dream Daughter is that I absolutely loved the last sentence.  Even though I didn't make note of it, I have a strong suspicion that there could have been a tear or two when the book wrapped up.