Portobello Book Blog

Holly Martin seems to have a knack at writing books that just draw you in and instantly like her characters. The Summer of Chasing Dreams was no exception. Eva Blue is looking through her late mother’s possessions when she comes across a box containing dreams her mother hoped to achieve during her life. They were written before Eva was born and Juliette became a single mum. Juliette was a vivacious and outgoing person but being a single parent put paid to her dreams of travelling the world. Eva, very different from her mum in temperament, decides to honour her mum’s memory and try to tick off as many of the dreams in an extended trip round the world.

I loved the idea behind this story and I loved reading about Eva’s adventures, not all of which go to plan. Being wary of travelling on her own, she hires a tour guide to go with her on the trip but an accident sees her with gorgeous Thor as her guide, rather than Rebecca who had helped her plan the trip. What can I say about Thor? I had a little Twitter exchange with the author about who she envisaged as this Danish heart-throb and this is who she came up with.

I mean really, who wouldn’t want to go on a trip with him? Thor was well named looking a bit God-like himself. And after his initial grumpiness, he revealed himself to be a caring and conscientious travel guide. Okay, maybe a bit more than a travel guide! Perhaps inevitably, Thor and Eva are attracted to each other but with his determination to be ethical with his client, there is a lot of temptation to be resisted!

I loved watching Eva blossom as her travels went on and she became braver in what she wanted to do. It was lovely that she also found out more about her mum during the trip too. Her joy at achieving her mum’s dreams, mingled with sadness that she never managed to do these things herself came across so well. I particularly liked the postcards Eva wrote to her mum, as if she was still at home, telling her about all the places she had been and how she had achieved what her mum had wanted to do. You can guess at some of the places Eva visits from the front cover of the book.

I smiled a lot as I was reading this book and if that’s not the sign of a good book, then I don’t know what is. The Summer of Chasing Dreams is a gorgeous romantic story which will take you on a journey around the world with Eva and Thor and leave you feeling uplifted. Eva achieves so many of her mum’s dreams but also finds that dreams of her own can come true. Sweet, sexy and satisfying.

My thanks to the author for my review e-copy of this book. The Summer of Chasing Dreams is available now as a paperback with the ebook to follow on March 29th. It will also be available in a large print edition. You can order a copy online here: The Summer of Chasing Dreams

From the back of the book

Eva Blue is about to go on a trip of a lifetime, but one adventure she didn’t count on was falling in love…

Eva is quite content with her life in London. In her job as a cover designer, she works at home, and often in her cosy pyjamas. She’s happy to stay in her safe little world and not explore much outside of it.

She is the opposite of her mum, a free spirit who craved finding adventure and thrills in all corners of the world. But on the day her mum’s will is finalised, Eva finds a list of all the dreams her mum wanted to achieve in her life. Things she never did because she fell pregnant with Eva.

Eva decides these dreams will not go unfulfilled – she is going to be brave and complete them for her mum. As Eva has no experience travelling the world, she hires a guide to go with her on this holiday.

Gorgeous but rude Thor Anderson is not the person she would choose to accompany her on this journey, but somehow she gets stuck with him. As they discover the world together Eva starts to think he might not be as bad as she first thought. She is swept away by Thor’s kindness and mischievous sense of humour. But will it be a simple holiday romance or could this wonderful adventure lead to so much more?

About the author

Holly lives in a little white cottage by the sea. She studied media at university which led to a very glitzy career as a hotel receptionist followed by a even more glamorous two years working in a bank. The moment that one of her colleagues received the much coveted carriage clock for fifteen years’ service was the moment when she knew she had to escape. She quit her job and returned to university to train to be a teacher. Three years later, she emerged wide eyed and terrified that she now had responsibility for the development of thirty young minds. She taught for four years and then escaped the classroom to teach history workshops, dressing up as a Viking one day and an Egyptian High Priestess the next. But the long journeys around the UK and many hours sat on the M25 gave her a lot of time to plan out her stories and she now writes full time, doing what she loves.

Holly has been writing for 8 years. She was shortlisted for the New Talent Award at the Festival of Romance. Her short story won the Sunlounger competition and was published in the Sunlounger anthology. She won the Carina Valentine’s competition at the Festival of Romance 2013 with her novel The Guestbook. She was shortlisted for Best Romantic Read, Best eBook and Innovation in Romantic Fiction at the Festival of Romance 2014. She is the bestselling author of 18 books

Follow her on Twitter @HollyMAuthor