Dream a Little Dream (Chicago Stars #4)

I loved this book so much that I bought the paperback as soon as I finished the eBook. Truthfully, I read both books in the Bonner Brothers part of the Chicago Stars series over the weekend, about 750 pages of Susan Elizabeth Phillips goodness. Like Nobody\’s Baby But Mine, Dream a Little Dream is filled with everything I love. Wonderful family dynamics, fantastic dialogue and banter between characters, and an honest, real relationship. What stood out for me in this book was how well Phillips dealt with Gabe\’s grief and Rachel\’s seemingly hopeless life and how that brought them together. There\’s nothing easy about a man moving on from the death of a wife and child and Phillips pulled no punches, but it\’s clear that Rachel is exactly who Gabe needs in his life to do so. Rachel is amazing and one of my new favorite heroines. She\’s a crazy protective mother determined to give her son the world. She\’s strong and honest. I loved every moment between her and Gabe, though many of them included me wiping away tears. There\’s a delightfully fun, yet sweet secondary romance featuring Gabe\’s younger brother Ethan. I\’ve heard it described as cliched and shallow, but quite honestly, it was a perfect story line for a character who\’s portrayed as the favorite, who hears God\’s voice through a variety of different celebrities, and has been living his life unsure he\’s doing it right. Then there\’s all the lovely Bonner family hi-jinks, which alternately made me laugh and want to commit acts of violence. There\’s a little suspense as Rachel\’s being stalked. Finally, Dream a Little Dream is a beautiful story about finding faith in God as an adult that moved me to tears.

Road trips are great way to listen to books, but I would recommend listening to Dream a Little Dream on a road trip. Not that it was bad. No, it was a great story, but boy did it bring on the ugly cry. I mean the one where you will use anything that is soft to stop the tears. Fortunately, I happen to have a box of tissue in my car and I manage to keep the tears at bay, not very well. At the beginning of Dream a Little Dream we meet Rachel Stone aka Widow Snopes. Now her dead husband did shady things, and she has to live with the consequences of his actions. Everyone believes she\’s this awful person, so she has to prove to everyone she\’s not the person they saw on TV. However, that is hard when no one is willing to give her a chance. Anyway, the good people of Salvation, North Carolina are horrible people. At times I would be like scream you are hypocrites, because they talk about being followers of Christ and then they treated her like dirt. Fortunately there were a couple people that saw she wasn\’t the devil incarnated, like Gabe and Kristy. Gabe has some serious issues. He has the hots for Rachel, but there is the issue of her child. It stems that he can never has his family again, so he doesn\’t want another family. This is a struggle for Rachel, because she\’s falling for Gabe; however, her priority is her son. Through most of the book, Gabe is thought to be a block of ice that slowly melts. I mean what Rachel goes through, she doesn\’t give up on life. I do like the secondary love story between Ethan and Kristy. Kristy is so in love with Ethan, but all he can see is the big busty women. Bad preacher. LOL. So, when Kristy changes her appearance he lose it his s***, and he can\’t handle it. He has to face facts that he needs Kristy in life and she\’s absolutely perfect for him. Wouldn\’t recommend this book for a long car ride cause the tears were streaming down the face. However, Susan Elizabeth Phillips does an amazing job with making me have the feelies for this story. Adore Rachel and her inner strength to conquer the past. She\’s truly a good person, even when no one believes her to be one. I also love how she exacts revenge on Cal and Ethan in the end. That was awesome. I like how Gabe comes to realize that he can love again after tragedy. Overall, a pretty darn good story. If you are in a need of a good cry, Dream a Little Dream is a go to read.

The rapey alpha males in this book were just too much for me. Controlling, manipulative, power-wielding men simply do not qualify as romantic heroes. It really doesn\’t matter if he is motivated by \”love\”; when a man disables a woman\’s car so she will have to ride with him it\’s actually a crime and not a romantic gesture. And then there\’s the whole issue of the child, who is treated like an object by his mother and her angry self-absorbed lover/employer. I\’ve enjoyed a number of SEP\’s books, but this one not only misses the mark, it does a real disservice to women. The ending is everything one could wish for, and everyone is redeemed, but you\’d have to overlook a whole lot of unacceptable if not downright abusive behavior in order to let the ending redeem this book.

I hated this book. It felt like the author deliberately set out to manipulate the reader\’s emotions and instead of a nicely flowing story which feels natural we had a series of manipulations. Here\’s the vulnerable child who is recovering from illness. Here\’s the mother, so poor that she is dressed in rags. Here\’s the handsome hero who lost his wife and child in a tragic accident. And so it went on. Add in A LOT of religious claptrap and you can see where it\’s headed. I think that this book will appeal to people who are from a strong Christian background but other than that, I felt that it was without merit. Finally, if there were a prize for the least appropriate cover picture, then this would have to win it. Rachel spends the vast majority of the book dressed in rags or hand-me-down clothes. She possesses one pair of old boots and no shoes and starves herslf so that her poor child can eat. Where does the pink silk dress and chocolates come from? Not her \”dream\” either. Not even on her wish list! An awful book. If your\’e religious it may well have a feel good effect, if you\’re not I\’d leave well alone.

I have to say though i have only read about 5 of this particular authors book, this was certainly the one i enjoyed the least. It was by no means a bad or unenjoyable read but having read the others before this one, i can comment and say that it was not as good as some of her others. The story is interesting, but it was definitly a let down when it came to the relationship between the female lead and her male counterparts brothers. Sorry, but who would really forgive Cal and Ethan so easily? How could their brother not mention anything except display a small moment of anger by throwing one of them in a fountain? It just made the book a little less enjoyable after such an interesting and well-woven relationship between the two leading charters and her son. They were so believable that it just highlighted the lack lustre ones from the other characters.

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