REVIEW: Chasing Dreams by Carolyn Brown

Chasing Dreams: Three Dreamy Stories by Carolyn Brown: What better way to spend comfort reading than to have three Carolyn Brown stories all compiled in one book. They are each fun and charming in their own way.

In CHASING DREAMS, three friends who are almost 80 decide they want to go on a bucket list trip. They even fix up an old van that looks like something out of the 1960’s. The only thing is they don’t want to drive it themselves. They want to have fun watching things and not have the stress of driving. Nita, Sharlene and Billy Joe decide to call on Ford, Billy Joe’s great-grandson. Ford has just gotten out of the Air Force and is taking some time off before deciding his future. Sharlene decides her great-niece Joelle would be a big help also. Joelle is a schoolteacher with the summer off.
As they travel around, Ford and Joelle discover that they are having as much fun with all the activities as their senior passengers are. I especially loved the honky tonk scene.

In THE MATCHMAKERS, Dottie, Minnie and Sookie have decided that instead of going to an assisted living community, it will be cheaper to go on endless cruises. They have been best friends forever, so they know they will get along and have fun. They even work it out to have double staterooms and single staterooms so they can switch things up.
After several cruises, they decide to take on a challenge. The food and fun on cruises are great, but why not get into matchmaking.
On their current cruise they meet a lovely young woman named Ava. Ava tells the three ladies this her first cruise and it was supposed to be a fifth anniversary celebration with her husband. She has come on her own since since her husband seems to care more about work and his domineering mother. While she is first telling the three, Ava sees her husband Vince across the room. Can three three women with a lifetime of experiences mend the rift between Ava and Vince?

A SUMMER TO REMEMBER is a prequel to the Sisters In Paradise series. Great Aunt Bernie is still running the Chicken Coop, a bar of her own. She has fun, but is wondering it’s time to sell the bar and retire and to move back to Spanish Fort near relatives after all the years. She gets a sort of hint that maybe things will work out after she meets Nash. He promises to work without pay for six months and hopes she will sell him the bar after that.
Next, Bernie’s niece Clara shows up looking for a job. Clara is the granddaughter of Bernie’s twin sister Vernie Sue. Vernie Sue has a “holier than thou” attitude and has always disapproved of Bernie. Clara shows Bernie she different from her Grandma and willing to work hard.
Into the mix come Hershal, an old flame of Bernie’s , and a dog he gives her named Pepper. All involved have plenty of adventures and have to make quite a few decisions along the way. Can you still find “the one” when you are closing in on thirty? Can you make big changes and still “go home again”?
It was really fun to learn more about Bernie’s past. It explained some of the things that happened in more recent Paradise series novels.

This three in one book is a triple treat for fans and those who want to get started. Author Carolyn Brown has written so many lovely stories, I doubt I will ever catch up with her back list, but it will be fun trying.

Book Info:

Publication: January 6, 2026 | Sourcebooks Casablanca |

**3 stories for the price of 1!**

New York Times bestseller Carolyn Brown pens three contemporary love stories of fun, adventure, matchmaking, and romance.

Chasing Dreams

Nita, Sharlene, and Billy Joe, all about to turn 80, enlist Billy Joe’s great-grandson, Ford, who has just gotten out of the Air Force, and Sharlene’s great niece, Joelle, a schoolteacher who has the summer free. Their mission—to drive the three bickering old people on a road trip to remember. Each of the octogenarians is determined to tick off at least a few bucket list items before they go. Somewhere along the journey, Ford and Joelle discover that their elderly companions aren’t the only ones who need to take some risks in life…and in love.

The Matchmakers

Dotty, Minnie and Sookie have been best friends for decades, so when they all retired they decided that living on a cruise ship was cheaper and a lot more fun than living in an assisted living facility. But after a cruise or two, they got bored and decided to become matchmakers. Not knowing that they were choosing a couple that was already bound for divorce, they had their work cut out for them. Could they get this poor couple who evidently were still very much in love back together?

A Summer to Remember (Sisters in Paradise series prequel novella)

Before she moves to the Paradise in Spanish Fort, Texas, Great Aunt Bernie runs a bar where she listens to all kinds of people’s problems. One day, Nash, Hershel, and Clara walk into her bar and change the trajectory of Bernie’s life forever. After seeing the sparks between Clara and Nash, Bernie decides to try her hand at matchmaking. If she’s good at it—and it turns out that she is—she intends to retire and get to work marrying off her seven great-nieces.