Review: Withering Hope by Layla Hagen

Withering Hope
by Layla Hagen
Published: July 18, 2015 by Layla Hagen
Source: Purchased from Amazon
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N

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.

*This read is recommended for 18+ due to romance and sex and mature themes.*

My Thoughts:

Very rare is it that I have the chance to sit down and read a book in entirely one sitting. While books catch my attention and interest me, it takes a special kind of book to catch me from page one and hold me til the very end without any interruptions. Layla Hagen did just that with this book. I had no clue at all what I was getting myself into with this one, but I stumbled upon it on Amazon and the synopsis sounded interesting. Interesting soon became one understated word.

I do not read many "survival romance" type of books, but I am thanking every single star I have ever thanked before that I did not pass this up. Aimee is on her way to her fiancee to get married in a week - when the plane goes down. She and Tristan, the pilot hired by her fiancee, find themselves having to survive in the Amazon for a good amount of time - all hoping and praying that someone will come and save them. While focused solely on surviving to make it out of there - somewhere along the way, things take a turn in a direction neither of them saw coming.

Maybe it's true what they say, that without darkness, you can never truly appreciate the light.

Tristan has the background to make it through something like this. His head is where it needs to be, but at the same time - things neither can control keep springing up and just when thinks start to look up, something makes it bleak again. He's a man. He has eyes. He has feelings. He knows that everything he thinks and feels goes against everything he knows to be right & the secrets he carries around with him would be enough to scare anyone away. How exactly does one convince himself that he deserves to be happy to - while focused completely on saving himself and the one woman he deems himself unworthy of?

Aimee is one tough chick. In all honesty, from the original description of her, I thought this was going to go a completely different direction. She was the best surprise of all in this novel. She is strong willed, has a strong heart and she refuses to let anything be stacked against her. She has secrets of her own, but she tried to use them to shift her life in the direction she thought it was meant to go. She is in this jungle with a man she barely knows anything about and is trying her best to stay focused to get back to the wedding that should be taking place in a week. Along the way though, she starts to see life a little differently. I guess that was bound to happen when you don't know just how much time you really have left.

"He loved her so much he never wanted to say goodbye to her. He wanted to leave with her."

While reading the synopsis some might think there are some love triangles, or even some stupid back and forth drama that some books have. That is so far from the case in this novel. The entire think is so flawlessly handled that it flows with a complete smoothness that you almost miss things because you are just assuming as you go along that certain things will happen. From cover to cover ladies and gents - this was one epic home run.

It is not rare to see me cry when reading a book, but this one came out of nowhere. The parts I thought I would cry at, I was able to make it through. Then BAM! Out of left field comes something I never saw coming. I won't lie and say this is a straight forward book. Roller coaster ride seems to be a better way of describing it. It keeps you enthralled and you go through just about any emotion you can think of, more than once. It was a fantastic read and I look forward to more books from this author. If you like suspense, romance and being emotionally drained - then you should grab this one!

Book Raiting:

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