Wicked Faerie's Tales and Reviews: Resurrecting Hope by Shell Taylor

TITLE: Resurrecting Hope

SERIES: Home for Hope #2

AUTHOR: Shell Taylor

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

COVER ARTIST: L.C. Chase

LENGTH: 65,800 words

RELEASE DATE: December 25, 2015

BLURB: Adam Lancaster can’t imagine how his life could possibly get any better. He’s on the cusp of moving in with his boyfriend, Elijah Langley. Their charge, Kollin Haverty, finally has a loving, stable home environment, and Home for Hope is up and running, keeping over fifteen LGBT youth off the streets at night. One phone call from his birth mother, Jessica Lancaster, is all it takes to unravel Adam’s carefully constructed new life.

Informing Adam his grandfather has died, Jessica expresses remorse for abandoning Adam to the state and begs him for a chance to be part of his life again. Jessica’s true colors eventually shine through her façade, and Adam is devastated all over again when he discovers she is only using him to get her hands on the valuable inheritance his grandfather left him. Jessica’s betrayal forces Adam so far inside his own hell, not even Elijah or Kollin can keep him from abandoning all of his responsibilities and running away. Adam will have to dig deep to find the strength to confront his birth parents, heal once and for all, and earn back his place with his new family.

“Hey, Chloe,” Elijah said as he waltzed into the foyer. He carried two trays. “I brought you a sundae.”

“Oh. Thank you, Elijah,” Chloe said, her wide eyes darting between Adam and Jessica. “How thoughtful.”

“I try every now and then,” he said as he placed both trays on her desk, wriggled one of the cups out for her, and bent down to pick up Adam’s forgotten water bottle. “Did you drop this?” Elijah slid the bottle into Adam’s hand and allowed his fingers to linger against Adam’s. The grin he offered was solely reserved for Adam. Elijah hadn’t noticed Adam’s mother yet. His back had been to her since he walked in the door, but with that small smile, Elijah unknowingly bolstered Adam’s confidence. Adam smiled back.

“Thank you. Maybe Chloe can call someone out here to collect those. There’s someone you need to meet.” Elijah swiveled around to see Adam’s birth mother sitting in the corner. He closed the distance between them and held out his hand with all the confidence of a multimillionaire CEO.

“Hi, there. I’m Elijah Langley. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Terror written all over her face, Jessica stared at him for a moment and then looked toward Adam.

“This is Jessica… Lancaster.” Adam spoke quietly, but he knew Elijah heard because his entire body tensed. He could imagine the look on Elijah’s face, given the way Jessica quickly averted her eyes.

“Oh.” Elijah dropped his hand and returned to Adam’s side.

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4.5 out of 5 stars

Resurrecting Hope is the follow up to Redeeming Hope and should be read in order.

Resurrecting Hope opens up not too long after Redeeming Hope concluded and drops us right back into Adam and Elijah's world. Things are going well for them, they're mostly living together, their relationship is growing, and Kollin is settling into his new home with them. Until a call from Adam's birth mother throws him into a tailspin. It only gets worse as he spends more time with his birth mother and finds out things are not as they seem. It brings out all the feelings he had as a young boy feeling like he was thrown away and not good enough for anyone.

Adam descends into a really bad place, lashing out at everyone around him, distancing himself from the center and his family. Elijah and Kollin stand strong, hoping to bring him back to their family once he can move beyond the ghosts and damage of his past.

I thoroughly enjoyed Redeeming Hope, so was very excited t to read and review this book. While this one is a bit of a darker book emotionally it is a very strong, solid follow-up to Redeeming Hope. All of the characters from the first book stop in, including a brief visit from Riley. I see a strong opportunity for the author to follow up on the bits of story from Riley's visit. Hopefully she's going to take that story further, maybe not in this series but in a separate book. Resurrecting Hope definitely gave Adam, Elijah, and Kollin opportunity for adding emotional depth and growth to their storylines. This book tried them, particularly solid, strong Adam, in many ways. The characters and the story rose to meet those challenges and still continued to build the readers connection with the characters.

From my understanding there is going to be another book following this one, and I for one am anxious to see where the author takes these three characters next. Especially Kollin, who I have a particular soft spot for him. He's been through so much and with the challenges of Adam's losing it in this book, his new normal was tested. What happens next for him in the story will be very interesting to read. Of course I also want to see Adam and Elijah happy and solid in their future together.

If you've read Redeeming Hope, you must pick up this book. If you haven't read either this is a series you should pick up and give it a try, you won't be disappointed.

Shell Taylor is a full-time mother of three exuberant and loving kiddos and one fur baby, a tiny but fierce Yorkie-poo named Rocco. As a Christian who practices love, grace, and humility rather than hatred and judgement, she tries her best to instill these same virtues in her rowdy kids. She just recently learned how to crochet to start bombarding new mothers with matching hats and booties. She is a huge Marvel fan and because of the superhero-plastered tees paired with jeans and Chucks has been told when helping out in her son’s classroom that she looks more like the students than a parent. Her favorite way to procrastinate is to binge watch entire seasons on Netflix. Best of all, she’s been married ten years to a man who’s turned out to be everything she never knew she needed.

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