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Chasing Stardust
Laurel-Rain Snow, author of An Accidental Life and Embrace the Whirlwind, now tells her most triumphant story yet in Chasing Stardust. Compassionate and wise, this novel examines life, love, and parenting in the modern world. Once again, the author creates wonderfully flawed characters that readers will find impossible not to love for their dogged misdirected affections. In this tale, a single mother will learn to love herself after years of defeat, humiliation, and self-loathing and figure out what makes her happy as a parent, as a professional, and as a woman. With her hands full at home and at the office, love comes late in more ways than one. It's not exactly the love she was looking for, but finally, for once, love comes to stay and she's no longer chasing stardust, she's dancing in it.
408 pages, Hardcover
First published October 10, 2007
26 people want to read
About the author
Laurel-Rain Snow
6 books257 followersLaurel-Rain Snow is the pen name for Lorraine Frost Sandone, who was born in California's Central Valley, attending community college in Modesto, CA, after which she transferred to San Francisco State University in the sixties. She transferred again and graduated from California State University in Sacramento, with a BA in psychology.
Ms. Snow moved to Fresno, CA, in the early seventies, where she then worked in the social work profession for over thirty years, specializing primarily in child welfare cases. She earned her MA in counseling from California State University of Fresno in the seventies.
Ms. Snow, now retired from social work, lives in Fresno, CA, and is the mother of four grown children and proud grandmother of seven.
After retiring from the social work profession, Ms.Snow turned to an old dream—writing—and has published six novels, available on Amazon.com.
The author weaves three decades of experience into her novels, which sets them apart and lends authenticity to the characterizations.
Ms. Snow moved to Fresno, CA, in the early seventies, where she then worked in the social work profession for over thirty years, specializing primarily in child welfare cases. She earned her MA in counseling from California State University of Fresno in the seventies.
Ms. Snow, now retired from social work, lives in Fresno, CA, and is the mother of four grown children and proud grandmother of seven.
After retiring from the social work profession, Ms.Snow turned to an old dream—writing—and has published six novels, available on Amazon.com.
The author weaves three decades of experience into her novels, which sets them apart and lends authenticity to the characterizations.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 20, 2010
This review is originally posted at Layers of Thought.
About a persistent woman who holds onto her dreams. It is about her life during the sexual revolution, developing feminism, and the war in Vietnam.
About: A contemporary story about the life of Merrilee Hennessy, a woman born in the US during the late 1950’s. It extends through her life experiences into the early 2000’s. With an omnipresent narration we see her life and what she feels and thinks, as a strong and driven woman, at first in her late teens and then into her middle age. With the historical back drop of the Vietnam war, the sexual revolution and the growth of feminism, it is a look inside a woman, her beliefs and the myths of her life and the generation.
Thoughts: Chasing Stardust starts out slowly, almost like a diary, with the issues being resolved through the main character’s ability to hold on to her dreams through pure perseverance and positive thinking - an important perspective for understanding the character and her life during that time. As she struggles with her dreams of a romantic ideal, akin to the romance novels she devours, she is strengthened by the ideals (held internally and supported culturally) of the perfect home and family. While things are not quite right for her, she perseveres by pushing the acknowledgment of her difficulties out of her consciousness; a key element for the story.
Some significant themes within the novel are - contrary to our internalized myths about motherhood, at times and even with a woman’s best efforts, bonding with one’s child is not a possibility; the love of a woman’s life is not necessarily a romantic love, but can be the love of a child; issues related to drug and alcohol abuse; the US legal system and its methodology for placing children from neglected and abusive homes.
My recommendation for the reader is to be aware that the first part of the novel moves along with Merrilee with her ups and downs just a bit slowly – as readers we are sometimes accustomed to the “drama and trauma” contained in the very beginning of books. It is, however, important for understanding this character. The story significantly picks up about a third of the way through and becomes heart wrenching and insightful where the consequences of the main character’s choices are made clear.
Highly recommended if you enjoy women’s fiction, strong female characters, this recent era in period fiction, and/or if you like stories with addiction and recovery as a theme. It is a wonderful self published and edited novel, amazingly without any errors in syntax as well as spelling. I give this excellent effort and book 4 stars.
About a persistent woman who holds onto her dreams. It is about her life during the sexual revolution, developing feminism, and the war in Vietnam.
About: A contemporary story about the life of Merrilee Hennessy, a woman born in the US during the late 1950’s. It extends through her life experiences into the early 2000’s. With an omnipresent narration we see her life and what she feels and thinks, as a strong and driven woman, at first in her late teens and then into her middle age. With the historical back drop of the Vietnam war, the sexual revolution and the growth of feminism, it is a look inside a woman, her beliefs and the myths of her life and the generation.
Thoughts: Chasing Stardust starts out slowly, almost like a diary, with the issues being resolved through the main character’s ability to hold on to her dreams through pure perseverance and positive thinking - an important perspective for understanding the character and her life during that time. As she struggles with her dreams of a romantic ideal, akin to the romance novels she devours, she is strengthened by the ideals (held internally and supported culturally) of the perfect home and family. While things are not quite right for her, she perseveres by pushing the acknowledgment of her difficulties out of her consciousness; a key element for the story.
Some significant themes within the novel are - contrary to our internalized myths about motherhood, at times and even with a woman’s best efforts, bonding with one’s child is not a possibility; the love of a woman’s life is not necessarily a romantic love, but can be the love of a child; issues related to drug and alcohol abuse; the US legal system and its methodology for placing children from neglected and abusive homes.
My recommendation for the reader is to be aware that the first part of the novel moves along with Merrilee with her ups and downs just a bit slowly – as readers we are sometimes accustomed to the “drama and trauma” contained in the very beginning of books. It is, however, important for understanding this character. The story significantly picks up about a third of the way through and becomes heart wrenching and insightful where the consequences of the main character’s choices are made clear.
Highly recommended if you enjoy women’s fiction, strong female characters, this recent era in period fiction, and/or if you like stories with addiction and recovery as a theme. It is a wonderful self published and edited novel, amazingly without any errors in syntax as well as spelling. I give this excellent effort and book 4 stars.
August 10, 2008
I wrote this book after the first four...But I published it third. My main character is a woman enchanted by illusory stardust dreams. She reads romantic stories, listens to rock stars, and envisions a life that will be straight out of her fantasies. Reality hits her hard...But she somehow makes a life for herself, stumbling along the way...Until finally she realizes that the only true happiness comes from working hard to find out who you are and what you need.
November 9, 2014
Compassionate, Gripping & Emotional!
June 10, 2008
This book chronicled the life of Merrilee Hessenney, who started off as a fat teenager full of fantasies about her perfect prince. However, Merrilee's entire world changes when she gets pregnant and her so-called prince charming abandons her to raise the baby, who she names Colin, on her own. The rest of her life is a battle against alcohol as well as her son Colin, as well as her profession and personal problems.
This story was only ok; it was interesting to read from the perspective of a single mother, who must work to support herself and her son. I was hooked into this book. Whether I liked it or not, I wanted to find out what would happen to Merrilee. I read it in 2 days.
This story was only ok; it was interesting to read from the perspective of a single mother, who must work to support herself and her son. I was hooked into this book. Whether I liked it or not, I wanted to find out what would happen to Merrilee. I read it in 2 days.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews