Chasing the Dream by Isabelle Peterson

Phoebe Fairchild didn’t have a great first year of college. In fact, it stunk! She realized she’d chosen a major, physics, that didn’t suit her. And worse than that, a boyfriend who was a first-class jerk.

When she visited her mother in New York for Spring Break, Phoebe decided that a transfer to a new university, a thousand miles from her current one, and a new major were definitely in order. With a little assistance from her mother’s friend, Jack Stevens, Phoebe worked a transfer to NYU and better still, an internship at a major TV network.

Phoebe moved into her mother’s old apartment, made a new friend, and figured out the Big Apple. But one of her biggest challenge was to be her internship assignment. Working in Public Relations, she had just gotten comfortable with the daily routine when she’s suddenly assigned to be the Personal Assistant to mega star, Chase Smythe. Since she was nine years old, Phoebe had been starry-eyed for the blond haired, blue eyed actor. Her room had been practically wallpapered in Chase Smythe pullouts from the teen magazines.

But Chase Smythe wasn’t the charming, sexy actor on TV and in the movies he starred in. He was still as good looking as ever, but seemed that over the years, stardom had jaded him. In real life, Chase was full of himself, lazy and left a path of destruction in his wake that had been well concealed by his former ‘handlers.’ Now it was Phoebe’s job to rein him in.

Nonetheless, there is a spark. Phoebe was warned to not cave into his charms, as fake as they are, but there’s more than just his charm. There’s chemistry. Is it real? Or is it an act? Will Chase let Phoebe in to see the real person, not the just TV personality? Did she even stand a chance with him? Especially as she faced new challenges herself? Or was being with Chase just a dream?

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Review by Brittany

Phoebe Fairchild is going through a break-up. Her ex-boyfriend is a total jerk face. I would say more really bad things about him, but Amazon doesn’t allow bad words in their reviews. Just know he’s pretty bad. And I hate him.

            Anyways. Phoebe decides to transfer to NYU and accept an internship at NBC. She takes over her mother’s old apartment in New York City, excited to live on her own. You can learn more about Elizabeth Fairchild in book one, Ditching the Dream.

            When her job suddenly takes an unexpected turn, she ends up as Chase Smythe’s personal assistant. Chase Smythe is a television and movie star, a twenty-something heart-throb. He has a reputation as a playboy and drunk.

            After Phoebe makes a pact with herself that she will stay single all summer, she tries her hardest to resist the charm of Chase. Soon it gets hard, and she lets herself fall. But he’s an actor. She can’t decide if what he says to her is just a line or not.

            I want to say so much more about what happened in this book, but I’m afraid of spoiling it. There is so much more than what I gave you. This is probably the best book in the Dream series, the best book that Isabelle has written. That is my opinion and may be because the first two books revolved around older characters, and Phoebe is nineteen, the same age as me. I could really relate to her.

            Isabelle did an amazing job with this book! I could really feel the emotion and the chemistry between these two. With the small snippets of Chase’s point of view at the end of most chapters, I felt that I could really feel each of them.

            Isabelle is also very good with details. She describes the city beautifully. She describes the country perfectly. She can write really well. The way she can write so that the reader feels what she wants them to, is a wonderful gift for a writer to have.

            There is a traditional problem in this book that Phoebe faces. I can’t give you details. But her solution isn’t the traditional answer, which I like. I am so tired of reading the same thing over and over again and it ending the same way all the time. It’s refreshing and I like that.

            I also really loved seeing the two characters evolve over the course of the story. Yes, characters always change in books, well most of the time. But these two underwent a major transformation. They both grew up and handled things like adults. It took Phoebe a little while, though. You can’t blame her, she’s only nineteen.

            Five stars for Chasing the Dream, book three in the Dream series. I will stand by my opinion that this is Isabelle’s best book yet. I know you should take a chance on this one and fall in love! I know everybody loved books one and two because of the character’s ages; they weren’t the typical new adults you always read about. I know this is about a new adult, but this isn’t your typical story. Read it! You won’t regret it.

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About Isabelle Peterson

I started out as a screenwriter - and still am - but after i started Fictional Boyfriends on Facebook, a story started growing in my mind.. one to be told in a book. 

I am lucky to have an adoring husband & two extremely talented and bright teens & a scrumptious 9 pound dog. They are all so super supportive of all my writing and I couldn't do it without them.

I live about an hour from New York City.

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