Once Upon a Twilight!: Blog Tour: The Year of Chasing Dreams | Lurlene McDaniel | Review

The Year of Chasing Dreams
The Year #2
Author: Lurlene McDaniel
Reading Level: New Adult
Genre: Contemporary
Released: July 22nd 2014
Review Source: Random House

The companion to The Year of Luminous Love.

In the vein of Eat, Pray, Love, this YA novel intertwines a family saga with a grand love story and is the companion to The Year of Luminous Love and Wishes and Dreams. For fans of Sarah Dessen's The Moon and More and Ann Brashares'sForever in Blue.

Ciana Beauchamp hasn't seen or heard from Jon Mercer in months. Until now. He's back in Windemere to see her. Deep down Ciana is filled with joy and relief. She's never stopped loving him. It's proof of Jon's love that he has returned, but what will their future be?

When tragedy strikes, almost no one in town is left unscathed. Tragedy has a way of bringing people together, but it can also tear them apart. Ciana can hardly face her choices, but she knows she must, and there are now people who she can turn to if only she is willing.

It’s been years since I’ve read a book of Lurlene McDaniel. I was first introduced to her books as a freshman in high school and through the four years of school, I was addicted to her collection of books. When the opportunity presented for a review, I immediately jumped in.

The Year of Chasing Dreams is about two friends, Ciana and Eden. Both of these young women are chasing their dreams, even if they are struggling with love and grief. Ciana wants to preserve her family farm and struggle to win the battle because the town is against it. See, a developer has come to their town and wants to buy the land. Ciana has pride and loves her family. The farm is her house and does everything to preserve it. While Eden is determine to find her Australian love interest. She travels not knowing whether her feeling is mutual, but she takes the leap of faith and is rewarded with love.

I enjoyed Ciana’s story the most. She is strong headed and firm to her believes. Her family tradition is important to her and she wanted nothing but to preserve it. She didn’t care if the town was against her and what she believes. And even though she was in danger, she protected her land. Not only was she struggling with this, but she also discovered a mystery while reading her grandmother’s diaries.

Lurlene specialty is to make one cry. I remember how passionate and addicted I was to her stories. So I was surprised I didn’t cry with The Year of Chasing Dreams. Then, I realize why. This book is part of a series, which now I have to read. Sometimes while I read The Year of Chasing Life, I felt out of the loop and didn’t know what happened to make the characters unsecured. I felt bad because the family faced a tragedy and I really didn’t know what exactly happened. Even though I felt out of the loop at times, I did enjoy this inspiring story. One should never give up on dreams.