Review: What Hope Remembers by Johnnie Alexander

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About:

Sometimes prison bars are real; sometimes they’re traps we create in our own lives. Amy and Gabe each search for a way to forgive the past and find a second chance at love.

My Thoughts:

I have followed The Misty Willow series from the beginning and I was very much invested in Amy’s story. After her cousin A.J. and her brother Brett have found true love, Amy’s life seems to be going nowhere.  All three of them have known heartache and searing loss with the loss of their parents and now recently their grandmother. However, Amy’s cousin and brother seemed to have moved on with love and happiness in their new families.

Amy was a hard character to like at first, as I remembered how callous she seemed in the first book. By the second book’s ending I was looking forward to her story and happily ever after. Carrying a load of guilt, she had made some really poor decisions in her life. Struggling with an eating disorder and the shame of letting men use her, she certainly does not think she is worth much and not only that but the lure of prestige and money is a temptation to her.

Her first crush and true friend, Gabe Kendall has come back to help his aunt out with her stables. He has never forgotten Amy but due to some darkness in his past and sorting through what his now future looks like, he does not believe he can offer Amy much.  These two have a lot to sort out and sometimes I just wanted to sit them down and make them both listen. But both were dealing with feelings of inadequacy and loads of guilt that they needed to find their own path through.

This was a heartfelt and bittersweet read of two young loves who meet up again years later after many mistakes. I think there was a lot of lessons here of learning to let go of your past and the shame that goes with poor choices and life decisions and to grasp your second chance and live the life you were made for.

There is much more going on in this novel, the love story just really stood out for me and I recommend the whole series about this family and the lessons of not letting prior generations mistakes be the only way to continue.

I received a copy of this book for free. I was not required to post a positive review and all views and opinions expressed are my own.