Scoundrels and Dreamers

by Deanna R. Adams

Rock singer, Charlee Campbell, aka Echo, cannot wait to start her new life-as Dusty's wife and mother to their newborn son. Then the unthinkable happens. Baby Dylan is taken from the hospital in the middle of the night by a woman posing as a nurse. The kidnapping soon threatens the couple's once-solid marriage, as well as Charlee's musical career. As the years pass, Charlee begins to doubt that she will ever see her child again. Little does she know, her son, now named Ben, is as close, and elusive, as her next hit record. 
From the dawn of MTV and shoulder pads, through leg warmers and grunge, Scoundrels & Dreamers picks up where Peggy Sue Got Pregnant left off. Charlee's story brings back beloved characters while introducing new ones, whose affairs of the heart create the inspiration from which cherished songs are made.

349 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2014

About the author

Deanna R. Adams is author of both fiction and nonfiction works. She is a speaker, instructor, and award-winning essayist. Her first book, Rock ’n’ Roll and the Cleveland Connection (Kent State University Press, 2002), was named a finalist for the Ohioana Award for nonfiction, and the ARSC Award (Association for Recorded Sound Collections) for excellence in research.
Other books are Confessions of a Not-So-Good Catholic Girl, Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Roots, Cleveland's Rock and Roll Venues, and novels, Peggy Sue Got Pregnant, Scoundrels & Dreamers, and The Truth about Justyce (May, 2020). Adams also contributed an article on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum for the 2007 Encyclopedia of the Midwest.
Deanna is also coordinator of The Western Reserve Writer's Conference, the longest running annual conference in Ohio. Her book for writers is, The Writer's GPS: A Guide to Writing & Selling Your Book, See her website at www.deannaadams.com

Reviews

[Jennifer Robb · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 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.

[Jeni Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't decide if I like the first book or second better so I'll just say they are both great reads. I loved the travel through time and the memories of my generation. I loved the devotion and true relationship issues that were written instead of the sunshine and rainbows of most books. Grab a comfy spot, a good drink and allow yourself to be whisked away in this rock n roll familystory.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deanna Adams bases her books in Cleveland, my hometown, and always with music themes. That’s enough to make me love her books. But she also has something else—as a storyteller, she is never predictable. The entire second half of Scoundrels & Dreamers had me so involved, I could not stop reading until I was done. Brava, Deanna!

[Wilma Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book.

[Linda Calkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another delightful read from Deanna Adams. Great character building. Fun nostalgia of Cleveland locales and music in the 80s.

[Rosemary Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

To have carried a child for 9 months, to go through labor and to have that infant stolen from your hospital room would be debilitating, no matter who the parents of that infant were.
This is the story of such an event and its effect on both the biological parents and their extended family, but the child and his new 'mother'.
Each chapter is titled for a song of that era, as well as the relevancy of the title to the events that chapter portrays. For those of that generation, and time period, those titles also carry their own personal memories.