{Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway} of Withering Hope by Layla Hagen

Withering Hope by Layla Hagen
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

GENRE: New Adult
THEME: Contemporary and Romance
RECEIVED: Tour

BLURB:

*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.

REVIEW:
Oh man… I don’t even have words, but I can say this story pulled at all my heartstrings. I was emotionally invested in these characters lives, hoping for survival and loved the raw and realness of their emotions being in such a stressful and scary situation.

Withering Hope follows Aimee who is on her way to her future husbands ranch in Brazil. She is nervous and exited about her wedding day and cant wait to get to her destination. But what she doesn’t expect is her plan to go down, luckily her pilot Tristan, who works for her fiancé lands the plane. Now in the rainforest with no communication the duo must learn to trust each other and survive in an unknown environment. But the dangers of the forest aren’t the only challenges, the closeness and trust between Tristan and Aimee is growing with each day and neither are prepared for what their hearts want.

Aimee is a sweet young woman, who at a young age is already successful and even found a man whom she wants to spend the rest of her life with. She has dealt with the tragedy of losing her parents but her best friend Chris and now future husband has been her support. She usually has everything planned but the accident takes away all her safe guards and she becomes stronger and hopeful for survival. I adored her strength, devotion and the risks she takes to survive and help Tristan no matter the dangers. At the beginning I was unsure if she was going to be more or a princess but she is anything but. She is a team player and wants to help Tristan as well as protect him. Her heart is really big and I loved how careful and sweet she was with him.

Tristan is a quiet man; he has been through a lot as a solider. Losing people in the war and eventually having his wife leave him, it makes him closed off and unsocial. He noticed that Aimee was different, always sweet to everyone. He learns her strengths and weakness in the rainforest, the both become in sync with looking for food, building shelter and preparing for the worst. There are a ton of challenges thrown their way and Tristan is the one that takes many of the heavy hits. Aimee starts to slowly get him to open up and she learns about his past, while also helping him fight away the nightmares.

Overall this was such a heart pumping, nail biting story, I was so worried about the characters that I knew I was hooked. The writing was faced paced, emotionally character driven and made me feel like I was really there surviving with them. I loved that the romance was not rushed, there was so much to gain in trust, learning of each others lives and seeing what is really important, before it really hits off. The only issue I had was the epilogue, I swear… It hurt my heart but was totally sweet. This is definitely one of my favorite books of 2015 and I look forward to many more from author Layla Hagen.

View all my reviews

Goodreads

Purchase: 

Amazon: no pre-order available. Purchase link will go live on January 19th
Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo

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

Author links: Author | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway