To Catch a Dream

 

To Catch a Dream 

About the Book:

When their mother passed away, Evie Ross and her sister were each given a stack of letters, one to be opened every year on their birthday; letters their free-spirited mother hoped would inspire and guide them through adulthood. But although Evie has made a successful career, her desire for the stability and security she never had from her parents has meant she’s never experienced the best life has to offer. But the discovery of more letters hidden in a safe-deposit box points to secrets her mother held close, and possibly a new way for Evie to think about her family, her heart and her dreams.

My Comments:

I read the first book in this series, What the Heart Wants, and really enjoyed it so I grabbed this one too.  While Suda Kaye, the heroine of What the Heart Wants inherited her parents' wanderlust, Evie has always been the steady reliable one who could be counted on, who has built a steady reliable life, and who is (but doesn't realize it) afraid to take risks.  

Evie and Suda Kaye were pretty much raised on a Native American reservation by their maternal grandfather.  Their father was hardly ever home, and Mom frequently left them with their grandfather while she headed off to experience new things.  Unfortunately, she didn't seem to get that her choices hurt her girls.  In this book we learn more about the girl's dad, their parents' relationships and a secret they left behind. 

The major catalyst for Evie's healing is the boy next door--a man who was raised on the reservation with her, who has always carried a flame for her and who is now ready to make his move.  I loved Milo.  He knew Evie, he loved her, warts and all, and was willing to wait for her to work through her issues.  He was there for her and ready to help her with her pain.  

If it is important to you, there are a few rather graphic bedroom scenes.  If the book otherwise appeals to you and those types of scenes don't, they are easily skimmed and don't add anything to the plot.  

I'd like to thank the publisher for provided a review copy via NetGalley.  Grade: B+

My Review: What the Heart Wants

What the Heart Wants

About the Book:

“Fly free.”

For ten years those words, written on pink parchment paper in her mother’s beautiful handwriting, have been Suda Kaye Ross’s guiding star. Every year on her birthday, Suda Kaye opens another of the letters her mother penned before she passed, heeding the advice inside as she fills her life with experiences. From Italy to Australia, from Rio to Russia, she’s slaked her wanderlust. And then, on her twenty-eighth birthday, she opens the letter that sends her home.

Returning to Colorado means confronting everything—and everyone—she left behind, including her cherished sister, Evie, and her first love, Camden Bryant. Suda Kaye and Cam spent four years and one unforgettable night together. Given the way she ran out on him, it’s no surprise that he’s wary, resentful…and engaged to someone else. Evie, hardworking and überresponsible, just wants her sister to put down roots at last.

For Evie’s sake, and her own, Suda Kaye is trying to build a new life, all the while wondering whether it’s too late to come back home—or if the most important part of her never really left.

My Comments:

Once upon a time it was my dream to "fly free", to go from place to place leaving no roots behind, to see the world and experience adventure.  I went off to college rather than staying within a couple of hours of home  After college I moved from Mississippi where my family lived to New Orleans--not a huge distance, but definitely a new existence.  I saw it as a temporary step--someplace I'd get a couple of years of teaching experience before landing a job in an overseas school.  Well, turns out that teaching was not my vocation, so I headed to Atlanta to go back to school.  After three months there, I chose to return to New Orleans.  I was tired of starting over.  Then I married a native New Orleanian and I knew that meant I wasn't going anywhere, except on vacation.  

Suda Kaye had itchy feet, and encouraged by the letters written by her mother during her mother's final illness, Suda Kaye has been around the world, and has been with a variety of men, none of whom could hold a candle to her first love.  Her mom's most recent note, as stated above, sent her home, home to where those who had loved her before still love  her but were hurt by her long absence.  

With well-drawn characters, Audrey Carlan shows that you can go home again.  She also shows how living your dream isn't necessarily the best idea.  While you could say that it is a good thing Suda Kaye's mother lived her dream while she was young, she did so at the expense of two little girls who needed her to be there, and I have to wonder whether, while laying on her premature deathbed that mother felt her life was well-lived.  

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.  Grade: B+