Title: Finding Hope
Author: Aura Polanco
Publisher: XlibrisUS
ISBN: 978-1-5434-2041-8
Pages: 293
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Reviewed by: Allison Walker

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In one instant, Kate Connors’ life is changed forever. When a vehicle swerves out of control, injuring Kate and killing her young son, Kate is sure her broken heart will never love again. Desperate to dull the ache inside of her, Kate abandons her life in New York and flies to Japan where she hopes to learn to breathe again. Behind the wheel, Rey Aguilar watches with horror as a manufacturing error causes his vehicle to gain speed uncontrollably. Rey’s body suffers through innumerable surgeries and months of physical therapy, and meanwhile his mind recoils at the pain he unwittingly caused a young mother. He sets aside his saxophone and takes up a pen, writing a letter which will change both their lives.

In her novel, Finding Hope, author Aura Polanco tells a story about the depth of a mother’s love, and the heart’s ability to heal. Kate continually struggles with the loss of her son, Oliver, questioning not only her ability to experience happiness, but whether she deserves to be happy. Moored in the depths of her grief, Kate finds pleasure in simple things like the clean Okinawa beach beneath her feet, or the elegant tea service presented by the hotel’s proprietress. The depth of Kate’s mourning is complex; it is the ferocity with which one mourns the center of their universe crumbling to dust. As a mother, Kate’s identity is wholly that of a nurturer, and without her child to care for, her life literally falls apart. She quits her job, sells her condominium, leaves her family and friends and moves to a different country.

Polanco sets her novel in lavish locations and decadently describes her characters. Amid Kate’s pain is a singularly romanticized mood. Finding Hope balances on the precarious edge between terrible tragedy and beautiful recovery, as Kate struggles with this often throughout the pages. Her survivor’s guilt makes her wonder if she’s deserving of the blessings life continues to give her. She is simultaneously lost in despair while walking through a greenhouse of thriving orchids. As an author, Polanco attempts a difficult topic; combining pain so intense as to make it nearly indescribable, and how to come to terms with accepting and overcoming that pain. While Oliver’s memory remains a constant fixture in her mind, Kate does succeed in learning to breathe, live and love again.

Finding Hope is story which begins in tragedy, and ends in happiness and hope. The characters are classic romantics, and the novel is sad without being overwhelming and joyous without being overdone. It appeals to our desire for happy endings, and teaches us yet again that love can overcome any obstacle.