Withering Hope by Layla Hagen (Jan. 19, 2015)
Genre: Adult/Contemporary Romance
Source: I received a free copy for an honest review for a tour from the author through the Xpresso Book Tours.
Synopsis: *This will be a STANDALONE CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE.*
Aimee’s wedding is supposed to turn out perfect. Her dress, her fiancé and the location—the idyllic holiday ranch in Brazil—are perfect.
But all Aimee’s plans come crashing down when the private jet that’s taking her from the U.S. to the ranch—where her fiancé awaits her—defects mid-flight and the pilot is forced to perform an emergency landing in the heart of the Amazon rainforest.
With no way to reach civilisation, being rescued is Aimee and Tristan’s—the pilot—only hope. A slim one that slowly withers away, desperation taking its place. Because death wanders in the jungle under many forms: starvation, diseases. Beasts.
As Aimee and Tristan fight to find ways to survive, they grow closer. Together they discover that facing old, inner agonies carved by painful pasts takes just as much courage, if not even more, than facing the rainforest.
Despite her devotion to her fiancé, Aimee can’t hide her feelings for Tristan—the man for whom she’s slowly becoming everything. You can hide many things in the rainforest. But not lies. Or love.
Withering Hope is the story of a man who desperately needs forgiveness and the woman who brings him hope. It is a story in which hope births wings and blooms into a love that is as beautiful and intense as it is forbidden.
My Review
Withering Hope is pretty much your run of the mill contemporary romance, luckily with some splashes of unique color among its pages. It is mainly a romance novel with some survival stuff thrown in. My favorite part was reading about how Aimee and Tristian were trying their best to survive in the Amazon rain forest, which I could never imagine myself being able to do. There are many interesting scenes involving bugs, many animals, and hard to find water and food, but I would have liked to see even more.I also would have liked to see a little more comic relief thrown in, but I can understand why there wasn’t since the whole situation was serious, but it would have been nice.
Now let's talk characters. Aimee is a little hard to relate too, but a cute girl who may be a little annoying but handles herself pretty darn well in the wild considering she doesn’t even like camping. Tristan is the sexy pilot who is determined to protect Aimee at all costs since he sees a strength and kindness in her that he admires. Although the book is mostly told through Aimee’s POV, I like that we get snippets from Tristan’s POV here and there throughout the novel.The main thing, the romance, wasn’t as steamy as I would have liked it. I just felt a kind of disconnect with this coupling, I have no idea why.I was very happy to see that their relationship wasn’t insta-love. That was very nice. I was worried the minute they crashed Tristan would do something heroic for Aimee and she would immediately forget about her fiancé, but luckily that wasn’t the case. On the other hand, I still felt that the romance was unrealistic and a little forced.However, at the end of the novel I did finally feel something for them, they were cute. I can say that Tristan and Aimee do make a good team.
Although Withering Hope didn’t hold too many surprises inside its pages, I did take joy in reading it. I liked watching the closeness between Aimee and Tristan unfold while they tried to stay alive in the rain forest. I really loved the unique setting.
The Author
Great review, Kay! I love the whole rainforest and the survivalist aspects. It sounds like a fun read even with the lack of surprises. Glad you liked it overall! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for having me on the tour! :)
DeleteThank you for the review Kay :) I am glad you liked the rainforest/survival aspect!
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Layla
You are very welcome! Thank you for writing the book. :)
Delete