Hold the Dream

Just adding the book. Loved it many years ago when the subject and kind of characters still impressed my young soul :-)

after finishing A Woman of Substance I read this sequel, and as in the first part, the author frequently goes overboard in details. Houses, rooms, people and clothes are described in the minutest particulars.The story is kind of predictable, has its moments, and has lots of repetition, in itself as well as of the first part. The characters are not really interesting and really predictable, too, once they are established. I mostly enjoyed reading it, anyway, like one enjoys watching a really bad [...]

DNF. will later.

well where can i start, i really loved the book , loved paula's charater what a strong wise woman can do how she loved her gra. well they all loved her so much and tried to please her, little emily was a wise although of her young age well she is not little anymore she is a lady now. hated that bastard ross and what he did, saddest part was the tragic death of david and jim but after all he she made back it to dear shane whom were perfect for each otherked what emma did with her will was really [...]

I really do love this series of books, I've read them multiple times since I was about 15 and each time something new comes through the story to me and its like its the first time I've read it, and I can't stop turning the pages. In some ways I enjoyed the second book much more than the first because the family really comes into its own in the present day, rather than looking back over 80 years as the first book does. Without the first book though, I think it is impossible to appreciate the seco [...]

I adored A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE (read it twice) but struggled through this book. Emma was such a complex character in WOS that I expected waaay more of this book. Whatever she accomplished in book 1was celebrated in this book olised even. but she never developed further. Her handling of her offspring was spectacular when a certain event (that will not be spoiled) took place. but beyond that her children and grandchildren lacked depth of personality. They were either good and like her following in [...]

I love Barbara Bradford and i like her style, Hold the dream conveys her style clearly, the characters are well formed and develop in the most logical and normal ways, it was a delight to read this book I loved Paula, Emma, Shane, Emily, and Winston not to forget Blackie too, however there were LOTS of unneeded conversations and descriptions specially business ones and they didn't add anything to the plot, the book is 835 pages, if you removed those unneeded pages the book will consist of 500 pa [...]

This is a 6 book series but I only read 5. I tried to read the 1st book, Woman of Substance, no way could I get into that book. I actually read the 4th book 1st & really like it. So I tried to start from the beginning & went to the 2nd book. I just loved this series. They are about a very wealthy family & friends. Good love stories & the drama in thier lives with Johnathon. I hope that the author writes one last book, if you read this series you will know what I am talking about. [...]

Love the Emma series! Great characters, history, and settings.

This book was just as interesting as Woman of Substance, the first book in this series. Barbara Taylor Bradford knows how to keep a story going. In Hold the Dream the saga continues with Emma going strong in developing her business and guiding her children. There comes a time when the family begins to break apart and turn on Emma. All except Daisy her daughter and also Paula her granddaughter. Emma pursues her life regardless of the heartbreak she endures with this family breakdown. She grooms P [...]

This excellent book of Barabara's tayolor is so thrilling ans so whelmed with suspense It never ceases surprising you, even after deceiving you with some predictable events This book, is a real thought and emotions provoking, greatly written by a great woman She's born to write luckily this year one of the best books Ive read well I haven't had the chance to read the first Emmas Harte saga I started with hold on the dream and to be the best so excited to read the other books of this legendary se [...]

2nd in series, read because book club was reading the 4th book

I read A Woman of Substance, the first book in the Emma Harte series, a few months ago, and I loved it. I wasn't sure the second book would measure up, but it certainly did. Emma was still around in this one, but it mostly focused on Paula, her granddaughter, who took over the company when Emma went into semi-retirement. There isn't much to say about this one. It was much of the same corporate intrigue and family drama that populated the first book in the series. I don't know why, but these book [...]

I would have given it another star except that the author chose to make Emma pass away, instead of having her live to be 100 as I really thought she would. The saga is just not the same without her, and for that reason I lost all interest in reading the next book. "To Be The Best": how could it be, without Emma?But I did enjoy the Paula/Shane storyline, and liked a lot of the minor characters, such as Emily and Winston. I also got to learn a bit about business deals, what goes on in a coroner's [...]

Definetly not as good as the first one. Like the first book this is really long. A lot of detail in the begining and then a real quick wrap up in the end.The storyline was sort of all over the place. The story of the grandkids brought in too many characters. There were Emma's grandchildren then Blackie's grandchildren. She had cousins hooking up with each other.She tried to bring in a mystery with the murder but then she never followed through. All the suspisions were left open ended. I was not [...]

After reading mostly thrillers and fast-pace fiction these days. This slow but steady novel was really relishing. Just like after enormous rides of bumpy and thrilly roller-coasters, one settle in a ferris wheel. No matter how thrill lover one is, he always enjoy those therapeutic rides. That was exactly the case here. As for the story, it was really slow at the start, then it started get interesting every minute. I really liked the character of Shane O'Niell, it was really interesting and well [...]

Read Woman of Substance again after many many years and now ready to tackle the series. Lots of repetition in Hold the Dream in case one forgot since Substance. Like the characters as adults. Sad loss of older characters but realistic as they can't all live forever. Enough mystery and conflict to keep me guessing. Agree with reviews that this book had too much detail of places, clothes, furnishings, but I'll keep reading as I'm Interested in the characters and how the author moves them into the [...]

Love a series and this one is the summer of 2012 for sure. I did have a series sob near the end when death affects the family, but it had to be when people are in their 80's in a book that is over 600 pages. So many characters's a good thing there was a family tree because I did have to refer occasionally. A bit soap opera in moments but heck the book was written in 1985 and soaps were still in. A good escape, I love Emma and the old fashioned love storydivorcesath.drenavell making good fiction. [...]

The only thing I don't like about these books is the tendency of the author to use big words when a simpler word would have done just as well. I find myself using the "look up" feature on my Nook much more when reading this series. I am enjoying finally reading the whole series in order and one right after the other after not having been able to do so before. The story of Emma Harte and the legacy she left behind is touching and enthralling and soon you wish that you were a part of her family.

This is the second in the Emma Harte series. Emma has done quite well for herself and her family. She has lost some very important people in her life, Paul the man she adored and by whom she had her favorite child Daisy, Winston and Frank her beloved brothers. This book brings the next two generation of the Harte family. I enjoyed this book very much, hope you do also. Can't wait to start the next one.

This is another beautiful historical romance/saga series of the Emma Harte clan, the second after A Woman of Substance. This deals with a lot of family drama and suspense with plenty of romance and love and intrigue. Last week, I've read To Be the Best, which is the fourth book, after Emma's Secret. I'll read those two books next year. I'll be starting to read Unexpected Blessings, the last book in the series, tomorrow. A beautiful read.

Hmmmmml I can say is that the first one in this series was pretty good. Read it about 3 years ago. It followed the life of Emma Harte from her teenage years until she is 60 years old. This one picks up where the other left off when Emma is 60 years old and is so confusing since all of her kids and grandkids either hates each other or is sleeping with each other but they are all related. Not worth the 600 + page read. Made it until about page 200 and decided to call it quits.

The continuation of the Harte Saga continues where Emma Harte's favourite granddaughter Paula has taken center stage. We get to follow her in this book and the plot thickens. I can highly recommend this book too. The tv adaptation starred yet again Jenny Seagrove and Deborah Kerr, but this time Jenny plays Emma's granddaughter Paula. As Emma's longlife friend Blackie O'Neill we see Liam Neeson and as his grandson Shane we see 7th Heaven's Stephen Collins.

Another epic saga of the rich and faaabulus (needs to be said with a nasal annhhh sound for full effect). This follow-up to the wonderful Woman of Substance novel is a bit more predictable. I felt like I knew how the story was going to unfold, and I did. But I surely enjoyed the journey. BTB's books are a great escape for me. Fabulous wealth and jewels abound alongside tragedy and great challenges, and good will always win.

Sequel to 'Woman of Substance'. Emma is 80 and has been training her grandchildren to continue her vast business empire. Fairly readable although I wasn't very interested in the business side; rather spoilt by too many flashbacks to the previous book, pulling in unecessary details that simply filled space.

Well, I'm only a few chapters in, but so far it's just as well-written as A Woman of Substance, the first book in the Emma Harte saga by Barbara Taylor Bradford. It's very much a girl-book, and very Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights-ish.

Even though the writng style is very clunky, and the cast of characters is starting to get unmanageable, I still love this sequel to A Woman of Substance. Something about the luxury lifestyle, and the strong female characters makes it a great bit of escapism for me. Quite a big bit though, as it's very long!!

I loved this series. A Woman of Substance was without question the best of the series, but I enjoyed following the story with the other books. There is only one Emma Harte so the rest of the characters seem not quite so interesting but I still enjoyed reading them. Never gone back and re-read any of them like I have the first book.

I loved this book, even though I liked Woman of Substance better. The things that stand out in my mind are how surprising that more characters aren't alcoholics since all they do is drink, and the amount of cigarettes consumed is astounding! So glad Shane and Paula got back together at the end. I hope he finds out about what Ross did to her!

menurut saya, hold the dream adalah seri yang paling menarik dari trilogi emma harte. alur ceritanya menarik, karena pada seri ini terjadi peralihan kepemilikan departemen store dari emma ke paula, cucunya dari suaminya yang sangat dia cintai, paul.