Scoundrels and Dreamers

This author is local to me, and I've met her at several writers's events in the area. This book is the second book in her Rock and Roll love story set and focuses on Charlee (the daughter of Peggy Sue from the first book).

There appears to be a time gap from when book 1 ends to the start of this book. Echo & the MissFits breaks up and Echo/Charlee goes on to have a successful solo career that she halts to play wife to Dusty and mother to Dylan, their first child.

I think the author does a good job at showing the stresses a marriage undergoes when something bad happens to the child. The marriage either grows stronger as the two parents work together and comfort each other or it grows apart because they each focus on their own pain and show more don't consider what the other person is going through. Some marriages still make it . . . as this one does, but some end up in divorce.

WARNING: SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW--READ ON AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION:

*****

Though I would have wished Dylan weren't kidnapped, it was good to know that he was still alive. I am glad he had people in his life that cared for and about him--even if it wasn't the best life.

I'm not sure how realistic it is to have a kidnapped child returned to his family more than 13 years after the kidnapping. I suspect it doesn't happen often.

I was sad that Angela died, but it does highlight how much cancer treatments have changed over the years. Angela was such a strong supporting character in the first book of the series. Her presence would be missed in the lives of those she touched. show less