The Heart's Discovery

Original Title: The Heart's Discovery (Hope Valley Saga #1)

Author: Amy McGuire

Published in: February 14th 2012

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In her opinion he’s a judgmental snob who thinks he knows everything. In his opinion she’s beautiful, yet spoiled. Can they set aside their preconceptions take a chance on love? Or will they be forever separated when a tragic accident claims the life of someone close to them both?

Anjaline Rodriguez plans to live forever in her hometown of Quito, attend the prestigious Cotopaxi Academy and become a world-famous journalist. Then her stepfather’s job as an anthropologist takes her away from all she knows and loves. When she arrives in Hope Valley she is immediately attracted to the shy mountain boy with the fathomless eyes. Does her new home hold promise after all?

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. Getting this book for free has not affected my opinion on this book.

I was super excited to read this book and thought it had a great decription. In addition, Amy McGuire’s a self-publishing author and it’s always great to read their stories, because they’re usually not that mainstream and it’s good to give them a great reviews and ratings because it feels like they’ve worked even harder than the ones who’ve got published by major publishers. Self-published authors have ideas that may be a little clicheé, but they’re not something publishers consider mainstream or good enough in order for them to publish these books. Sometimes these authors write the most amazing and heartwhelming stories. I mean look at Jamie McGuire or Tammara Webber – their books are absolutely fantastic and they have done all their work, promotion etc all by themselves. Okay, enough with this rambling, let us continue with the review :)

I liked this book because it had potential and there were pretty good illustrational descriptions. I liked Damian – he had so much angst in him and purpose for doing the things he did. He was also the only one who made me smile/laugh more than twice while reading this book. Moreover, I was intrigued by his storyline. I also liked Robin, he gave some really good advice and was a great friend to Anjaline. I was sad that Jose and Angie’s cousin did not appear so much in this book, because they were actually pretty sweet and fun.

I found most of the things in this book quite cute, but there were parts in it that I didn’t find funny in the best meaning of this word. The description of the book was intriguing, but I had the impression that it was about a bit older young lovers, not 14-15 year olds (I think their age wasn’t mentioned in the description and the cover art just got me fooled). I’m sorry, but it was hard to take this seriously, because everything they felt seemed too.. I don’t know. My first boyfriend was in the 5th grade and I thought he was the love of my life, turned out to be a childish crush and we didn’t even make out like crazy. We’re friends right now and we laugh about being “in love“ at such a young age. I didn’t even know what love is and I probably still don’t know the answer to that question, therefore, it was hard to take any of this seriously. If I would have been able to forget this little age fact I’d probably have given this book a higher rating. The story itself was pretty decent. I thought that because of their youth all the characters were too naive. Also, they had moodswings more than an avarage pregnant woman.

The plot itself had some interesting twists and I cannot say I didn’t enjoy this book at all, I did, it was nice, but it was so hard for me to forget that they were so young, the concept would have suited for a bit older people. The overall message from this book was nice. The writing style was decent, but the character development needs a little bit of work, plus I think that there were too many time gaps bewteen some major scenes. All that said, it was an okay read, but I do think that this author has some major potential in her and I’ll probably be checking in on her improvement with the characters, plot, writing style etc in the next book, just to see how it all continues and how the author improves.

Rating: 2/5.