DARING TO DREAM

When twenty-three-year-old Ruth Saunders heads to California with her seventy-year-old grandmother, she has a big dream to fulfill. She wants to be a Hollywood screenwriter.

Ruth's life has been a big struggle, with numerous surgeries to repair some of the damage caused by an accident that took her parents' lives. But with her grandmother Rachel as a staunch supporter and a vision of the Golden Girls TV show as her model for what she wants to create, she believes that almost anything is possible.

After working on other writers' shows, and even creating essays for the college-bound, she finally sells her script to a network; and then, after heart-stopping moments of waiting, the show is green lighted.

But will her dreams come true? Or will she find that, despite all her best efforts, the obstacles that await her will dilute her dream until it resembles nothing like she envisioned?

Ruth is one of those characters you love and root for. And her funny, quirky grandmother made me smile, with her sayings, her support, and her wisdom. And then, despite bad relationships along the way, it looks like Ruth might actually find her true love.

I loved this excerpt near the conclusion of The Next Best Thing: A Novel when Ruth remembers some warnings she received in the beginning:

"Enjoy this, I heard Dave saying in my head, back at the kickoff dinner, before things had started their downhill slide...and at that moment, I wished I could hit REWIND, send time spinning backward until I arrived at the moment when the story of Daphne and Nana existed only in my head...."

When the worst happens, however, what brave and risky move will Ruth take to turn everything right? I was stunned by her chutzpah and wanted to shout and applaud. A wonderfully thrilling conclusion to what could have been just another story about Hollywood and its disappointments. Definitely five stars for me!