Check out what reviewers are saying about chasing Reese.

As a debut author, the moment you send out your first book to reviewers can be the most scariest and overwhelming experiences of your life. You sit on the edge of your seat, waiting with bated breath, until the moment you read your first review. I never expected these types of reviews, yet, I am utterly grateful for them. I have so much to give and I can only promise to grow writing-wise with each book.

Here are the thoughts of reviewers:

Nicola Anderson rated it 5 of 5 stars

I was lucky enough to be gifted an ARC of chasing Reese and WOW!! Where do I start?!?
Catalina Pardo is a journalist for a sports magazine, she is engaged and pregnant with her first child, life couldn’t get any better until a freak accident changes everything, her life as she knows it is turned upside down and nothing will ever be the same again. Fast forward four years and Catalina is sad, lonely and depressed. She is about to take off for 3 months well earned vacation time when she is forced to cover a story on Jackson Reese, the only problem is Reese is an Olympic champion snowboarder and Cat HATES the snow.
Catalina is assigned to work with Stryder Martynus, Jackson’s personal photographer.
Stryder is a freelance photographer, having had his heart shattered by his childhood sweetheart he now chooses to pick women up and have meaningless sex, never lasting more than one night and certainly with no prospect of ever having a relationship with any of them. All this is well and good but it doesn’t fill the void in his heart left when his ex fiancé betrayed him so badly.
Jackson Reese has it all! He is an A list celebrity and Olympic gold medalist but behind it all he struggles with his own personal issues.
When reporter Catalina Pardo shows up he feels an instant connection, he can’t explain it nor can he ignore it.
chasing Reese is a story of love, loss, friendship, hope and redemption. It is a beautifully written story and I cannot believe this is Imy Santiago’s debut book! It is so beautifully crafted it’s hard to believe it comes from a first time author.
5***** I can’t recommend this book enough!
Congratulations Imy, thank you for sharing such a wonderful and heart felt story. I’m now eagerly anticipating vol 2!

Ashley Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Wow wow wow and another shot of wow!!

This is a beautiful story and one that will stay with you.

Descriptive words to describe this novel would be – stunning, fabulous, emotional, flawless and amazing! 100% worth it.

I truly can’t believe this is a debut book by the author! *standing ovation for Ms Santiago*

Whenever I read a book I always find if that book makes me have feelings or think then it’s an awesome book!
Well with this one I felt it on every level and I also had so many questions in my head that I couldn’t keep up with them all.

I feel very blessed to have been lucky enough to receive an arc of this book.
I literally didn’t put this down from the moment I started reading and I actually read it in just over 24 hours, if it hadn’t been for the things in life like needing sleep and seeing to small children then I would have read through.

This book gripped me that much and had me on such an emotional roller coaster I really didn’t want to put it down. I wanted to continue reading through each new chapter that I came to because even though the ride may have been emotional it was a wonderful one.

Meet Catalina (Cat) – a woman that’s had so much heartache and personal loss throughout her life, that to just survive she builds these walls around not just herself, her heart too. After enduring yet another tragedy that robs her of her planned future, she recoils into herself and outwardly hides behind her image and her job as a journalist. Cat basically exists and doesn’t allow herself to actually live. That is until she gets sent on a new job assignment and encounters the gorgeous Stryder Martynus.
I love Cat and her sassy no nonsense attitude she gives yet underneath the shell she shows her soft vulnerable side you will want to hug her.

Meet Stryder – a man that at the age of 34 thought he would be living a different life to the one he is. Doesn’t the story normally go man meets woman, man marries woman, man and woman live happily ever after?! …hmm maybe in fairy tales. Nowhere is it written woman breaks mans heart. Stryder throws himself into his work as a photo journalist travelling around the world like a drifter of life. He disengages himself from people, from relationships, especially with women. His heart has been trampled once he has no desire to have it done a second time. That is until he meets stunning Catalina Pardo.
I love the go get it attitude Stryder gives when he sets his sights on something but he also has a sexy romantic side that you will find alluring.

From their first momentary encounter both Cat and Stryder feel the pull, the electricity that seems to draw them together even though their meeting is a fleeting episode. Then by a twist of fate they are brought back into each other’s lives. The common link for them both being Stryder’s best friend and Cats new job, Jackson Reese.

Meet Jackson – pro snowboarder with the world at his feet but Jax is also a troubled man that seems to have trust issues. He’s not the man the media portray. He should be wary of journalists yet he’s drawn to Cat like she’s some sort of an anchor in his crazy mixed up life. Cat and Jax seem to ‘get each other’ there’s an understanding, a bond, a beautiful friendship. Could having the two most important friendships in his life stop Jax from spiralling out of control before it’s too late?
I freaking love Jackson! He’s smooth, funny and adorable. He could charm the panties of you in a heartbeat 🙂

I absolutely love the real life element of this story, the plot could actually be anyone of our lives. The story is not just one of these boy meets girl, they fall in love novels. No not at all, not even close.
This is about relationships of people. Not only romantic relationships but friendships, understanding others and personal growth. The relationship between these three people cannot be defined as a love triangle in the romantic sense, for me I saw it as a triangle of interconnected souls.
I truly believe in soul mates of all varieties, a soulmate is anyone that touches your life in a positive, beautiful way either through romance or friendship. The connection and love you can have with someone can be amazing even when romance is not included.

The author brought this story alive by having a third perspective included because seeing the relationships of all three characters evolve and grow was mesmerising and simply quite beautiful to experience.

The emotional journey Cat and Stryder travel together is the roller coaster ride you as a reader will experience. It’s a very profound feeling to experience conflicting emotions at the same time but this book will make you feel frustrated for the characters at the same time as excited and sad.
The extra elements Jax brings is the icing on the cake, he has the perfect combination of being able to make you giggle and swoon at the same time 🙂
Two sexy hot males in one book – what more could a girl ask for?

All I can say is bravo and thank you to this fabulous author for bringing this story to my attention ……it’s one you DO NOT want to miss out on!!

I can’t wait for the sequel.

K.L. Shandwick rated it 5 of 5 stars

‘chasing Reese’ Imy Santiago ***AUTHOR!***
Some will know that I mentor Imy and as such, I was privileged with an ARC of this book and have been there as she shared some of the edits. With each excerpt she gave me I grew more and more confident that this DEBUT author was special. (Remember the DEBUT fact when you read it.)
I told her I would read and give my honest opinion and as she knows me, knows that I would only give her a rating based on my honest opinion and without bias no matter how personally invested. I’d never want to set anyone up to fail. I’ve just finished the final ARC as I write this and my head is…WOW! IMY SANTIAGO…remember the name. I enjoy reading books but THIS ONE is definitely something special. Last time I said that, the author had a publishing deal within days. This book has to be read.
The way ‘chasing Reese’ is written is just right and the scenes and actions of the characters are described in such as a way that it is almost directional in the characters observations. This creates a very vivid picture in the reader’s mind of the characters interactions and their observations of each other along with the emotional cues going on between them. I was totally there with the characters as the story drew me in.
The storyline is a modern day romance and Ms.Santiago’s flair for the use of extensive, but easy to understand language along with her choice of wording for each scene, brought multi layered non repetitive descriptive writing to the book. In my opinion these scenes were perfectly pitched to give the reader the maximum emotional investment in the story. The flow was seamless for me. Musicwise…”Voilin” Amos Lee…sigh. And, I loved the way the story was unhurried and the relationship developed at a believeable pace.
For me; a skiing fanatic, the ‘heli-skiing scene’ was cool and gave me sparks of an adrenaline rush, and recreated some of the feelings right before one hits the perfect virgin powder at high altitude and had me googling The *BSS site for the latest news *(British Ski and Snowboarding).
Now for the book, ‘chasing Reese’, it follows the story of Catalina, a journalist, who is a strong woman, but affected by past traumatic events. Stryder, an award winning photographer and close friend of their joint assignment, (Jackson Reese) are pulled together to document Reese’s story. I am not going to give any spoilers for this book. The only thing I will say is #oneclick.
‘chasing Reese’ is heart wrenching, humorous, touching and emotional with great dialogue. Ms. Santiago has managed to create likeable, strong characters that all have flaws as humans do and is written from mulitple POVs. If it doesn’t happen straight away Imy Santiago, this book will eventually float to the top. Well Done Ms. Santiago what a DEBUT. Almost everything was on point, so I know there is much more to come from you. After reading the special excerpt for the sequel can’t wait for ‘finding Reese.’

Rebecca Johnson Dye rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

This story gets 5 amazing stars ! This is the debut book by Imy Santiago. The story opens with Catalina’s tragic car accident. Move forward 4 years and we join Cat as she still is working through her grief over Blake’s’ loss. She is working as a reporter for Xsports magazine. Her biggest fear of course is anything with snow, so when she gets the call to have to take over on a press tour for Olympic snowboarder Jackson Reese, she is not thrilled at all. Stryder Martynus is Jackson’s Best friend and literally like an older brother to him. He gets the call from Jax asking can he be the photographer on the press tour cause Xsports needs one for their reporter. Sure and the next morning on the plan a raven haired beauty sits next to him he is taking in by her beauty and something else. Cat running late finally boards her plane and gets a seat next to a HOT guy with a great smile. After a plane ride, SUV ride and finally checking in low and behold yep!! Their working together. Cat finally meets Jackson and they just click and their friendship blooms. Cat & Stryder feel a connection, chemistry that neither can explain to each other. Both, have a lot of baggage to sort through and if it’s up to their friend Jackson Reese they will see that they are perfect for each other. In this beautifully woven story we are taken in by the story of Jackson & Cat’s friendship that is a starting point for them both to heal from demons chasing them. We also get the story of Cat & Stryder learning that they can love again. to find out how this all happens, how love can come out of tragedy. Read Chasing Reese !!IT IS A MUST HAVE BOOK !!!!! I stand up and give Imy Santiago a round of applause for the incredible tale she has told in Chasing Reese. I can not wait for book 2 Finding Reese.

Terri Gostola rated it 5 of 5 stars

What sort of story made me want to skip Christmas parties so that I could stay home to read? What sort of story made me stay up late at night reading when I should have been resting for my work day in the morning? This story! “Chasing Reese” by Imy Santiago was a pleasurable journey from beginning to end, and I shall be racing to read the next book in the series!

I cared about the characters from the start and was swept up in their problems. Catalina Pardo is a sassy journalist who buries herself in overwork as she tries and fails to forget her painful past. Stryder Martynus is a hot, award winning photographer who attracts beautiful women with little more effort than flashing his sexy smile, but he has pain in his own past he is trying to outrun. When Catalina and Stryder cross paths, the sparks are immediate. But this isn’t a story that rushes the reader to the bedroom. The sexual tension was exquisite! I read faster and faster as the love story between these two delicious characters unfolded.

I was a very lucky woman to receive this book as an ARC before date of release. I shake my head in amazement. This is a debut novel? No way! The writing is descriptive and articulate. The sex scenes sizzle off the pages and almost fried my Kindle.

Remember this author’s name. We shall be hearing a lot more about her! A star is born.