Chased Dreams (Chasing Nikki #3) by Lacey Weatherford with Chase Walden

Chase's life is perfect. He is married to his beautiful wife, Brittney, and has a baby on the way. His dreams of playing professional football are on the verge of becoming a reality. After everything he has been through, Chase finally feels like life is starting to go his way...or so he thought. When an injury jeopardizes all of his plans for the future, Chase struggles to figure out who he is and hold his relationship with Brittney together. Chase also finds himself plagued by dreams from the past that stir up confusing emotions. As everything falls apart around him, Chase finds himself wondering if all he has left is chased dreams.

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I was surprised to learn that there was going to be another book in this series. The Chasing Nikki series is an emotional roller coaster from start to finish, and made me ugly cry on more than one occasion. It is a heartbreaking story about love and loss, and I thought it was brought to a perfect conclusion after the last book. I really didn't see a need for a third book, but having loved the first two so much, I didn't hesitate to pick this one up. In retrospect, I think I should have...

This book was written by Lacey, in conjunction with Chase Walden, who is the cover model for the series. While I had absolutely nothing against the writing style, I was not at all happy with the direction the story took in this book. I loved Nikki, and I was devastated by her death, but I also really loved Brittney. Watching Brittney and Chase fall for and heal each other in the second book was emotional and I swear that I went through all the stages of the grieving process right along with them. I has glad to see them get their happy ending. After everything they had been through, they deserved a happy ending.

Then Chased Dreams comes along and obliterates their (and my) happy ending. I don't want to give too much away, so writing this review is somewhat challenging. I have the feeling that people will be of one or two minds after reading this book: they will either love it, or they will hate it. While I think "hate" is too strong a word for how I feel about this book, I was definitely not happy with it. I'm not even sure what the right word to describe the feeling I had upon finishing the book, but it was something akin to betrayal. I felt like everything that I had suffered and overcome while reading the previous two books was for nothing, and as such, I had a really hard time embracing the new ending of this story. In hindsight, I wish I had stopped after book two. However, I know that there will be many out there who will love how this book plays out, and will be thrilled with the new ending. Loving or hating this book really comes down to which ending you prefer.