The Dream Daughter had a very interesting twist on time travel overall. It doesn’t feel like science fiction and that part is done very well. However, the time traveling piece in the back of your mind makes it feel unsettling. Carly is a widowed physical therapist in the 1970s who discovered she is carrying a child with a devastating diagnosis. Until her brother in law admits that he has actually perfected time travel and can send her to 2001 to get fetal surgery and save her baby. 

While in 2001 all the problems you’d expect from a time traveling plot occur, and that felt predictable…Johanna’s going home, no she isn’t, yes she is, Myra disappears, and somehow a major event of the 21st century is forgotten about by a time traveler which messes up everything.

Some parts felt predictable, but much of it did not. I’m still not sold on my overall opinion, I liked it, I was glued to it, but I’m not sold. Hence, the 3.75.  

I really liked this more than I expected until the end. It definitely kept me reading and I finished the end very quickly, but the loose ends felt very harried to me. 

I initially read Big Lies In a Small Town by this author and loved it so much that I went to find another of her titles almost immediately. I was less enamoured with The Dream Daughter and I'm not sure if that's because I didn't get what I expected, or if it just wasn't as engaging. From the author's other work and the description of this, I was expecting a straight forward but powerful historical drama surrounding medical technology in the 1970's. Instead, I got a historical time travel novel and it... just didn't quite click with me.

Don't get me wrong, it's well written and an interesting premise. But it's not what I was expecting or particularly wanting. What the novel did very well was depict the stress and grief of Carly's impending motherhood, particularly when she is told that her unborn child has a fatal heart defect that means it will not survive past being born. It also painted the picture of 1970's USA with the political backdrop of the Vietnam War exceptionally well - that didn't surprise me, as the author has already demonstrated the ability to bring a period of history to life wonderfully.

Chamberlain is very fluffy about the science of her time travel and that's probably a good thing, however it meant that I never truly invested in it. So whilst the historical elements of the novel really worked for me, the time travel and immersion into modern life didn't. And the last third annoyed me more than it engaged me. And maybe it's just the fact that I generally struggle to engage with time travel in fiction. There are a few notable exceptions - I loved The Time Traveller's Wife for instance - but by and large, it doesn't work for me. I know this and generally avoid it. But absolutely got caught out here when the medical period drama I was expecting took that turn.

It certainly won't put me off Chamberlain's novels, but this one didn't quite work for me.