Her Daughter's Dream

Best-seller Rivers completes the five-generation Christian family saga she began in Her Mother’s Hope (2010). It’s 1951, and Hildemara is back in the hospital with recurring tuberculosis, so her mother Marta moves in to care for her grandchildren Charlie and Carolyn. Charlie is the light of their lives while Carolyn is neglected, with unfortunate consequences in her college years, including alcoholism and pregnancy. Single, unemployed, and with a baby to raise, Carolyn moves back home, where the past repeats itself. Her mother lays down the law for her daughter and takes over her granddaughter Dawn’s care, selfishly arranging matters to suit herself and pushing Carolyn away, much as her mother had abused her. It isn’t until Dawn is an adult, heavily pregnant and missing her beloved army husband, who is serving in Iraq, that she realizes how each new generation of women has hurt her forebears. With her stepfather and mother-in-law’s help, Dawn resolves to stop the vicious cycle. The concluding book in Rivers’ drama examines mother-daughter relationships in the context of faith, juxtaposed against a backdrop of world events. --Lynne Welch