Withering Hope by Layla Hagen Published by Self-Published on January 19th 2015
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Format: ebook
Source: Purchased
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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.
Liezel’s Thoughts:
Aimee’s life is great. She has a successful career, good friends, a wonderful adoptive family and in a weeks time she will be married to her oldest and dearest friend, Chris. Everything is perfect …that is up until her private plane makes an emergency landing in the Amazon rainforest. Being in such a dire situation she has to rely on her pilot, Tristan for her basic needs.
Without a choice in the matter they become a team. A team with the primary goal of survival. Tristan doesn’t hesitate in putting her first and at first I thought that it was out of obligation but it is so much more than that. Aimee’s presence in return offers him the peace that he’s been always been seeking. As the days lead into weeks their friendship slowly develops into something so deep.
“Maybe it’s true what they say, that without darkness, you can never truly appreciate the light.”
I am going to be honest and say that most survival stories read practically identical. Same story – different setting and at first I thought that Withering Hope would be one of the same. Obviously there are similarities but made this story transcend above the rest were the emotions. The writing was superb where I couldn’t help but feel empathetic to Aimee and Tristan’s situation.
I felt Aimee’s despair during those first days without her Chris. I also felt her turmoil when she became more aware of Tristan. Even with Tristan, he rarely had a voice in this book but you could truly sense his intense longing. When they finally come together it was somewhat bittersweet.
In any of such survival books I need the characters to have a favorable ending, which would be to be rescued. What was surprising to me in this story however was even if they were in thrown in various dangerous situations I didn’t want them to be. Their time alone together was blissful I didn’t want it to end.
I enjoyed every moment of Aimee and Tristan’s story. I would have to say though that the Epilogue was one of the best part of the book. It was literally heartbreaking.. but crazy as this may sound I thought it was the perfect ending to such an amazing love story.
The Verdict:
