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A review by eesh25
Chasing Hope by Gwen Martin
3.0
The book had a very strong beginning but, by the end, it lost me completely.
The beginning of the relationship was very tentative. There were small conversations and glances. There was a friendship formed. It moved slowly, and I was fully on-board. I liked both Jonah and Sean.
Honestly, for the first two-thirds of the novel, I was really liking it. And there are still parts of it that weren't ruined for me by the last third. I think the author did a good job of showing us Sean's grief. The writing in the book was good. I also liked some of the side-characters. And just the theme of healing, by giving yourself time and distance, was done well. I still had a couple of issues—like the L-word coming too soon—but no major complaints. But at around 65%, I started to get bored.
At that point, it felt like the plot of the novel was done. There was no conflict, and it was like the book paused to have an early, extended epilogue (there's one at the end, too) for a couple that I wasn't fully sold on yet. It was tedious to read.
And then, after like 40 pages of that, we finally got a conflict, except I didn't like the way it was handled. There were time jumps, lack of communication on Sean's part, and things glossed over. And by the end, I kinda wanted Sean and Jonah to not end up together. That, for a romance novel, is not good.
Overall though, this wasn't a bad read. Like I said, it started off strong. It just starting going downhill for me after a certain point. But that is, once again, an unpopular opinion. Most people who've read the book loved it. I wish I could have as well.
The beginning of the relationship was very tentative. There were small conversations and glances. There was a friendship formed. It moved slowly, and I was fully on-board. I liked both Jonah and Sean.
Honestly, for the first two-thirds of the novel, I was really liking it. And there are still parts of it that weren't ruined for me by the last third. I think the author did a good job of showing us Sean's grief. The writing in the book was good. I also liked some of the side-characters. And just the theme of healing, by giving yourself time and distance, was done well. I still had a couple of issues—like the L-word coming too soon—but no major complaints. But at around 65%, I started to get bored.
At that point, it felt like the plot of the novel was done. There was no conflict, and it was like the book paused to have an early, extended epilogue (there's one at the end, too) for a couple that I wasn't fully sold on yet. It was tedious to read.
And then, after like 40 pages of that, we finally got a conflict, except I didn't like the way it was handled. There were time jumps, lack of communication on Sean's part, and things glossed over. And by the end, I kinda wanted Sean and Jonah to not end up together. That, for a romance novel, is not good.
Overall though, this wasn't a bad read. Like I said, it started off strong. It just starting going downhill for me after a certain point. But that is, once again, an unpopular opinion. Most people who've read the book loved it. I wish I could have as well.