Chasing the Dream Books in Order

Chasing the Dream is Elizabeth Briggs' contemporary romance series about creative work, ambition, and the very messy overlap between professional dreams and personal lives. Unlike her fantasy series, this one stays grounded in the real world, but it still has big feelings, fast pacing, and the same interest in people getting pushed into high-pressure situations.

This time, the pressure often comes from reality TV.

The books are connected romances rather than one long single-couple arc. Different characters step forward in each story, but they all belong to the same wider friend group and creative scene. That means you get recurring faces, shared history, and a sense that everyone is building a life at the same time, even when the spotlight shifts from one couple to another.

Music is a big entry point into the series. More Than Music brings in Maddie and Jared through a televised band competition, while the prequel More Than Exes reaches back to an earlier battle of the bands setup. From there, Briggs widens the world in fun ways. More Than Comics heads to Comic-Con and follows collaborators finally meeting in person. More Than Fashion moves into a fashion competition. More Than Distance turns a road-trip reality show into the setup for a romance that has been simmering for years.

That variety is part of what keeps the series lively. The books all care about love, of course, but they also care about what these characters are trying to make or become. Musicians want to break through. Writers and artists want their work seen. Designers want to be taken seriously. People chase jobs, audiences, prizes, and second chances. The romance matters because it collides with those ambitions, not because it exists in a vacuum.

The tone is warm, contemporary, and often openly geeky. Briggs clearly enjoys writing characters who love music, comics, fandom, design, and entertainment culture. That gives the series a friendly, specific texture. These are books where creative people flirt backstage, at conventions, on camera, and while trying not to wreck the opportunities they have been working toward for years.

Because each novel centers a different couple, the series is flexible. You can jump in with the theme that sounds most fun to you, but reading in order lets the side characters grow naturally and makes the callbacks more satisfying. If you want romance without supernatural elements, but still like strong chemistry, interconnected casts, and stories about people chasing something bigger than a relationship alone, Chasing the Dream is Briggs' clearest fit.