The Year of Chasing Dreams

May 1, 2014
Two 20-year-old best friends enjoy their romances while trying to save the family farm in Tennessee.Ciana's great hope is to preserve her family farm, just as generations of her female forebears did. A developer wants to buy much of her land to build a major new housing tract, but she, nearly alone among her neighbors, refuses to sell, and many in the town turn against her. Jon, her heartthrob from The Year of Luminous Love (2013), arrives to help, firing up the old romance despite the temptations of an aristocratic Italian. Meanwhile her best friend, Eden, tracks down Garret, her Australian love interest from the previous book. The romances seem to be going well until a serious disaster strikes. In life-or-death situations, everyone tries to hold on to their dreams. McDaniel strikes interesting contrasts between Ciana and Eden. Ciana remains a virgin, waiting for her wedding night, while Eden has a past and enjoys sleeping with Garret (offstage). Despite its reliance on wild flukes to advance the plot, the story comes off as more realistic than many other romance novels. Additionally, the author throws in a little mystery: Who is responsible for trying to scare Ciana off her land? Despite its sequel status, the story stands well on its own.A pleasant-enough outing for fans of old-fashioned, relatively clean romance. (Romance. 12 & up)

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June 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-Beginning a short time after The Year of Luminous Love (Delacorte, 2013) ends, this novel finds Ciana and Eden still reeling from the death of their close friend, Arie. Jon Mercer, Ciana's one-time love, offers her his heart, hoping for a fresh start. The months since Arie's death have been good to Eden, since she found a place and a family with Ciana and her mom, helping them with cooking and gardening. When Arie's mother invites the girls over to her house and gives them letters from their friend, they are stunned. For Eden, Arie offers her a possible way to contact Garret, the fun-loving Australian she met while the three friends were in Italy, and for Ciana, Arie gives her blessing to fully continue a relationship with Jon. While Eden finally connects with Garret and goes to visit him, Ciana continues working on her farm while also battling a local developer who wants to buy her property. Ciana's refusal leads to repercussions, and as she and Jon try to figure out how to deal with them, they grow closer together. This is a meandering, episodic book that relies too heavily on melodrama to be fully believable. The characters are less than fully developed and act more like young women in their early 20s rather than girls barely a year out of high school. The men are too perfect, and the plot flits from one crisis to the next. Fans of the previous book may leave satisfied, but others will be left wanting-Necia Blundy, formerly at Marlborough Public Library, MA

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