Book Review: What Hope Remembers by Johnnie Alexander

“In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” Isaiah 30:15 is the opening quote for this Christian romance novel and sums up the journey for the main characters. What Hope Remembers is book number three in the Misty Willow series from Johnnie Alexander. I thoroughly enjoyed book number 2, When Love Arrives (read my review here) and this one doesn’t disappoint. These characters are as multilayered and interesting. Amy and Gabe have both suffered hugely and their growth during the novel is uplifting and encouraging. The insidious characters and the mystery to be solved keep up the pace and it is a swift read. I enjoyed the biblical truths tucked throughout! I give it a 4 out of 5 on the en-JOY-ment scale.

A warning to the sensitive reader: horses do die in this novel, personally I am so sad when animals die, I cope better with people.

From the back cover:

When Amy Somers loses her job as a lobbyist, she moves to Misty Willow, well aware that she’s crossing bridges she’d burned years before. With all the mistakes she’s made and the uncaring things she’s done–even to her own family–she can hardly believe that happiness will find her, especially when Gabe Kendall, her first crush and her first kiss, rides back into her life atop a buckskin mare.

A former Marine, Gabe is at loose ends after serving a prison sentence for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He sees beyond Amy’s hard exterior to the girl he once knew and loved, and he longs to see her open her heart. Yet with his vision clouded by shame for his past and fears about the future, he finds it difficult to see the path ahead.

But the memory of that long-ago kiss just may have the power to reignite a romance that brings out the best in both of them.

Thank you to Netgalley and Revell for the advance copy.