Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Chasing Hope
AUTHOR: Gwen Martin
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 68K words
RELEASE DATE: February 19, 2021
BLURB:
Sean is only twenty-seven, but he’s already lost everything that gave him life. On the verge of losing hope for a future, he moves to a town where no one knows about him, the death of his child, or his failed marriage; but when his nightmares and his guilt follow him without the pitying glares, he realizes he can’t move forward on his own.
Jonah has worked tirelessly to keep his father’s memory alive and be a fixture in the small town he grew up in. Now, nearing forty, his dreams have been long forgotten to keep everyone else’s alive, and he doesn’t know how to reclaim his life as his own without losing his last connection to his father.
But when the two men’s lives collide, they’re forced to confront their grief and accept that there can be life and hope after loss—if you’re willing to chase it.
Chasing Hope is a ~70k small-town, second chance at love, M/M Romance. There are subject matters in this book that may act as triggers for some. Readers are invited to check out the complete trigger warning on the copyright page, which can be viewed by clicking on the “Look Inside” preview or by downloading the sample. These triggers contain spoilers for the book.
REVIEW:
Reviewer’s note: Please read the trigger warnings. The publisher’s blurb mentions the triggering event and this review references it as well, but I’ve endeavored to minimize my discussion of it here.
Gwen Martin’s Chasing Hope is not a book that contains a lot of actions and events; there’s not a lot of plot to describe. The blurb pretty much sums it up. This book instead takes the reader on a journey with our couple, Sean and Jonah, as they deal with grief and move towards healing and acceptance, and finding love again. It brings us the traumatized Sean and still-grieving Jonah, both lonely and scarred, struggling to find a way forward.
Sean’s tragedy is the driver behind the story. It is recent and devastating, having broken him and his marriage in its wake. Losing a child is horrific – unimaginable and unbearable for any parent. It’s a blow that Sean and his wife couldn’t survive together. They divorce and go their separate ways. Sean flees his family, friends and hometown and settles in Harmony Creek, a place where he knows no one and no one knows him. When asked what brought him there, he says “I’d never been here before”. And doesn’t that just sum up Sean’s struggle: he’s looking for a new place to call home so he can escape everything in his life before it. He wants to wall off his life and memories because they haunt him, keeping him mired in unrelenting grief.
Jonah has the benefit of more time and distance from his tragedy than Sean does so it isn’t quite as raw for him, but it is nevertheless painful and persistent. The death of Jonah’s sole parent, his father, a decade ago, persists in the forefront of Jonah’s mind even so many years later. Jonah has close friends and family so he has a support system to draw from. But he’s still struggling to find himself again after putting his dreams aside to maintain his beloved father’s memory. As he approaches 40 years old, he’s stopped chasing the hope of finding love because he doesn’t know how to make room for it in his life.
Reading this book is difficult. Your heart will hurt – both from heartbreak and also happiness as things get better. But it’s a message worth hearing. Jonah is one of the most giving, kind, real characters I’ve encountered. Ms. Martin exceptionally describes and conveys the complexity of his emotions and the complicated development of his relationship with Sean. Sean is barely holding it together and his grief is palpable. His treatment of Jonah is hard to digest at times because you want to be angry at Sean but you can’t because you recognize this is what he needs to survive. Ms. Martin deftly and delicately handles the knife-edge balance of Sean’s need to hide vs his need to be seen by Jonah.
The story isn’t perfect. With 20/20 hindsight, I think Jonah’s grief and isolation could have been expanded. Ms. Martin prioritizes Sean’s story over Jonah’s sacrifice and struggles. Also, a longer epilogue would have further built out the well-deserved HEA. And Parker, Sean’s best friend from home, plays a pretty prominent role in this story. Giving the reader more of his backstory would have helped round out the story more.
Overall, Chasing Hope is cathartic and redemptive but it’s a somber read to get there. The romance between Jonah and Sean is so much more than attraction or even love. A deep connection and bond of trust exists between them, wrapped in abiding love and dedication. The genesis and development of that relationship is beautiful to watch. Subject to the trigger warnings, I recommend you give Chasing Hope a read. This is one of those stories that lingers with you long after you turn the last page.
RATING: 
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