The Good Dream

By: Donna VanLiere

Narrated by: Donna VanLiere

Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Nominee, Inspirational Fiction, 2013

From the New York Times best-selling author comes a poignant, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting novel about an unlikely path to motherhood, and of two lost souls healing each other.

Tennessee, 1950: a time and place that straddles the past and present. Ivorie Walker is considered an old maid by the town (though she’s only in her early 30s), and she takes that label with good humor and a grain of salt. Ever since her parents passed away, she has hidden her loneliness behind a fierce independence and a claim of not needing anyone. But her mother’s death hit her harder than anyone suspects, and Ivorie wonders if she will be alone forever.

When she realizes that someone has been stealing vegetables from her garden - a feral, dirty-faced boy who disappears into the hills - something about him haunts Ivorie. She can’t imagine what would make him desperate enough to steal and eat from her garden. But what she truly can’t imagine is what the boy faces, each day and night, in a filthy lean-to hut miles up in the hills.

Who is he? How did he come to live in the hills? Where did he come from? And, more importantly, can she save him? As Ivorie steps out of her comfort zone to uncover the answers, she unleashes a firestorm in the town - a community that would rather let secrets stay secret.

The Good Dream is Donna VanLiere is at her absolute best.

©2012 Donna VanLiere (P)2012 Macmillan Audio

Lives saved!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

In fact, I have already recommended this audiobook to friends, and I am recommending it to you now as well. In seeking a good book, I seek a good story, and Ms VanLiere has crafted a believable story. The listener actually cares about the characters and wants particular outcomes. At various points in the story, you may feel that you know how it will end, but you are never certain. The she provides additional information through the characters and you wonder if you know at all.

What did you like best about this story?

It was heartwarming without being sappy or pedestrian. The people are honorable in the ways they approach their lives and the dilemmas they face.

What does Donna VanLiere bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

It does my heart good to hear a book written with some southern dialect delivered authentically- without the fakey-sounding put-on accent. Hearing her performance lends validity to the inclusion of particular turns of phrase with which I grew up and hear so seldom!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I laughed AND cried- repeatedly! Most of all, I could not turn it off! I so wanted to hear the next step of the journey all the way through.

Great moving story

Love the pure goodness of the book and the narration is so wonderful! Some parts were difficult to read, sad, but it is worth it.

What a fabulous read!!

I'd been searching for a great story and after reading When Crickets Cry and Where The Crawdads Sing, everything else was falling short....until this book! I loved absolutely everything about this story!

Loved it thoroughly

The entire experience was exactly what I love from a good novel - characters you fall in love with immediately, good vs. evil, a quilted tapestry of imagery, dialogue, and metaphors dripping with emotion. Her perfect southern drawl and chucklesome sayings linger in my head like fog hangs in the morning air. Ivory is a character you can’t help but adore and become fast friends with. I wish there were an entire series of her stories. Better yet, I wish she were real and that we were friends and neighbors. I could use more Ivorys in my life.
Bravo to the author of this one!
Well what are you waiting for?
Get to listening! :)

Great Listen

Everything about this book kept me intrigued. The author read this book and did a fantastic job with the accents. This is a heartwarming story that I recommend to anyone.

Beautiful Southern Story

Donna VanLiere crafts an earthy hearwarming story of healing and redemption. It is rare for authors to narrate as skillfully as VanLiere! She does a fantasic job of bringing characters to life. I loved every moment of this story!!!

Excellent in every way!

I so enjoyed listening to this story being read by the author. She did a phenomenal job bringing it to life. I chose to listen again because it is such a rich story. Highly recommend her books!

Seriously one of best books ever

This is officially on my top favorite books of all time. It’s a little hard to listen to in the beginning, but it doesn’t take long to make it worth it. The author is actually the narrator and she’s fantastic!

Touching Story

i enjoyed this touching tale. The author did an excellent job of narrating and making the characters come to life.

Heartwarming

The story was amazing, but in the end, it felt rushed. The beginning was well laid out and everything flowed, but then the last fifth of the book just kind of ties up weird loose ends. That being said, it's definitely worth the read/listen.