Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: New Beginnings: Abel’s Journey 
SERIES: Healing Hearts #2
AUTHOR: Nicky James
NARRATOR: Adam Gold
PUBLISHER: Self Published
RELEASE DATE: June 27, 2018
LENGTH: 10 hours, 48 minutes
BLURB:
Life is beyond our control. It can bring joy, laughter, and happiness, then turn around and rip your heart out of your chest without warning.
Abel Matheson received a cold dose of life’s reality six months ago when the man he loved most lost his fight against cancer.
Free-spirited, easy-going Abel doesn’t know how to cope with the rotting, festering grief growing inside him. What was once an easy life has become a struggle to put one foot in front of the other.
His grades are slipping, his job is suffering, money is tight, and the nightmares plaguing his sleep are relentless. Something has to give. He can’t keep going like this.
Desperate to end his suffering, Abel falls back on old habits. Self-destructive habits he knows are wrong. Every time he tries to stand, he ends up face-first in the mud.
On the advice of a counselor, Abel makes attempts to find a support system to help him handle his grief. Unexpectedly, during his quest toward healing, Abel makes a connection with the most unlikely of people.
His mind wants to rebel against the man who stands before him. Run far and fast in the other direction. But his heart forms a bond that annihilates his fear.
Why this man of all people?
Sometimes you find help and love where you least expect it.
This audiobook has been written as a follow-up to No Regrets. WARNING: This audiobook includes self-harm, substance abuse, grief and loss, anxiety, and depression.
REVIEW:
If No Regrets terrified me, I don’t even have words to describe my level of trepidation going into this book. I knew it was going to be painful. I knew I was going to get my heart ripped out, trampled on, mangled and that I was going to bleed – a lot. But I still had to listen to this story. I needed to know what happened to Abel after losing Landon. I needed to see him happy. So I stocked up on tissues and started listening…
We are thrown into the thick of it, it’s been six months since Landon passed and Abel is grieving. Floundering. We were there when they fell in love, every step of the way and it was wonderful. Only now we have to deal with the consequences, the aftermath of losing a loved one. The pain of have fallen for Landon and losing him all too soon.
This book is divided into two parts: Falling and Rising. Falling is painful in so many ways. It deals with Abel’s grief. We watch him spiral further and further down, become more and more self-destructive. He’s drowning in the loss of Landon and the only way he knows to numb the pain is with alcohol. We watch him turn into someone we don’t recognise and keep hoping that he will have the strength to pull himself up from the despair. The charming and funny guy we fell in love with in book one, has been replaced by a drunk who cares for nothing and no one. The pain Abel feels is so real, you feel it in every word and every moment. It wrecks you and you hurt right along with him.
The second part of the book, Rising brings hope, light in that dark despair. After hitting rock bottom, we see Abel slowly starting to live again, accept that life does go on. That even in the darkest of places there is hope, light. His came in the form of Landon’s ex-boyfriend Kieran. The only one that seems to understand and share his pain. Kieran helps him to start over, and putting back the shattered pieces of his life, heart and mind back together. Not only that, we also watch them slowly falling for each other. That from all the grief and sadness, love can still grow. And it was beautiful. Bittersweet, but still beautiful.
Adam Gold puts a lot of emotion into his narration and he did a wonderful job capturing Abel. The pain he felt, the despair. But also confusion and hope. He made it real, made the characters real. However, at times when there were longer paragraphs without any dialogue to break it up, the narration could be a bit stilted didn’t feel quite natural or effortless. It wasn’t all the times, but it was noticeable when it was there.
This book could probably be read as a standalone, but then you’d miss out on the wonderful journey that started all this. Miss out on falling in love. The pain will be there regardless, but at least you’d have some happiness before dealing with the inevitable loss.
Like I told you in the beginning; I was terrified of starting this book. I knew it was going to be painful, that I was going to use a lot of tissues. And it was, and I did. But what’s more, it was all absolutely worth it. To grieve for Landon, but above all to see Abel start over and find happiness and love again. So worth all the pain and tears.
Highly recommended!
RATING: 
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