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 rain forest.
With no way to reach civilization, 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.
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.
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Review:
On a scale of one to ten, I am rating this book a clear
TWELVE, plus an extra hundred brownies. How is it that when I read something
from Layla Hagen, “I love it” seems to be always an understatement?
I must admit I’ve had my doubts
with this one. Secondary characters are very important, and sometimes I end up
liking them even more than the main characters. I tend to get bored fast when I
don’t see anything but the endless interaction of the main characters. But Withering Hope doesn’t have secondary
characters for about 97% of the book, so I was bracing myself for a loooooong
read, and even prepared myself to write a review for an unfinished book.
Was it boring? Na-uh, nope.
Imagine my surprise when I actually
finished reading this book from cover to cover. That’s how much I enjoyed it. I didn’t even mind that there were
no supporting characters and all I can see are the MCs. That’s how good it is. The way it is written, it’s as if the author
was there, not letting me put the book down and just keep reading until I get
to the end. That’s how much I was
into it.
Do I think it’s amazing? Heck,
YES.
Withering Hope is not just a story of survival and inevitable romance,
but also of friendship, passion, hopelessness, fear, and hope. It’s not an
InstaLove (is that how they call it?) nor a love-at-first-sight thing (which
pleases me to no end). It’s a beautiful beginning of an unexpected friendship
and astonishing romance.
This book is incredibly
beautiful. It’s the type of romance that is very sweet without being
overdone. It pokes at your heart and, in some moments, squeezes it until you’re
holding your breath. There are some inconsistencies in the plot, yes, but it’s
nothing major.
There are too many moments when
everything is just too much and I just had to take a breath, and those breaths,
I later realized, were needed because something else is going to be thrown in
my way to catch me off guard.
Withering Hope is beautiful because Aimee and Tristan’s chemistry
and romance didn’t start instantly. Instead, it started as a necessity; each of
them making sure the other is safe, which then turns into a profound friendship.
You know that line that Fitzwilliam Darcy said when Elizabeth Bennet asked him
when he fell in love with her? He said, “I
cannot fix the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the
foundation. It is too long ago. I was in
the middle before I knew I had begun.” I think that’s the perfect
description of how I was feeling when I was following their story. I can’t pinpoint where exactly Aimee and
Tristan had fallen in love. The way the plot is weaved together took me right
into their world, and I was very carried away to pay attention to how and when
they fell in love. I was in the middle of everything when I realized that they
were. Does that makes sense?
I guess what I’m trying to say is
that, right there, is what makes this
book so much more beautiful. It has a natural
feel to it. It’s very easy to get lost in it. Have I mentioned how sweet this
book is? Yes, sweet enough that if I have a paperback of this in my shelf,
there’ll be an anthill beside it.
I do not know how else I can pour
my heart out in regards of this book, because my emotions are still all over
the place and too messy to make sense of.
Pardon me for saying it again,
but Withering Hope is just very
beautiful. Just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, it finds a way to
surprise you in a way that tugs at your heart strings. If you think it’s just
another sweet romance, just wait until you’ve read everything. It’s not your
typical Happily-Ever-After, but it’s equally sweet yet heartbreaking.
I believe this is Layla Hagen’s
best yet.
~ Zee
Author Bio:
My name is Layla Hagen and I am a
New Adult Contemporary Romance author.
I fell in love with books when I
was nine years old, and my love affair with stories continues even now, many
years later.
I write romantic stories and
can’t wait to share them with the world.
And I drink coffee. Lots of it,
in case the photo didn’t make it obvious enough.
