The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain

 

Life has been hard for Carly Sears.  Her husband Joe, her childhood sweetheart, had gone to Vietnam and been killed two weeks later.  That knocked the pins out from under Carly's world.  She gives up her physical therapist job and goes to live with her sister and brother-in-law in the family's beach cottage in Nags Head, North Carolina.  The family support and familiar surroundings start to help Carly find her footing and then she finds that she is pregnant.  All her hopes are now focused on the baby which will be her living tie to Joe.

But fate isn't done with Carly yet.  In a routine checkup, she gets horrific news.  Her baby has a heart defect and will only live a few days after birth.  Reeling, Carly is about to give up when her brother-in-law, Hunter, comes to her with a strange story.  Hunter had come into her life as a patient when he was found with a broken ankle and hospitalized.  Carly worked with him and got him back on his feet and introduced him to her sister.  Now Hunter tells her something that she cannot believe.

Hunter's background has always been a bit mysterious, something he won't talk about.  Now he tells Carly that his mother had perfected time travel and he has come back from the future in the early 2000's.  When he fell in love and married, he decided to stay but he can get Carly to the future where her baby's heart can be operated on in utero and fixed before birth.

Carly can't believe it but decides to trust Hunter.  Everything works as he promises and her baby is born and starts doing well in the newborn intensive care.  Carly has to go back but vows to return quickly to her baby and bring her back to the coast.  But when Hunter sends her forward again, instead of returning to 2001, she ends up in 2011, her baby long gone.  Carly tracks the baby down and finds a way to meet her.  Her daughter is now a lovely, healthy ten year old with loving adopted parents.  Should Carly stay with her daughter?  Should she take her back with her to the past?

Whenever I read a time travel book, I just suspend disbelief since the science is never going to work out.  To me, this was a book about a mother's love for her daughter and about what one will do for the people they love.  Carly always makes the best out of what life throws her and is focused on those she loves and what is best for them.  This book is recommended for readers of women's fiction.