Hope Beyond the Waves

Such real characters and wonderful story! Unputdownable!

My first thought was, “this is a long book”! But it only took a few pages in, that I was hooked, and I read this book of almost 500 pages, in two days. I was fully spellbound with the storyline. It is a dual timeline that starts in 1993 with Emily a pregnant teenager that is being hidden from society. She is shipped off to her grandmother, away from everything familiar and all her friends. When she finds a photo and queries her grandmother about it, the story unravels from 1916. A story of abandonment, sacrifice, suffering, love, forgiveness and ultimate faith. The characters are intriguing and engaging. The historical research was evident with all the detail descriptions. I highly recommend this book

What I like about Author Heidi Chiavaroli’s writing is that her books are filled with facts that she has intricately researched, they tend to take me out of my comfort zone, and they teach me lessons about life. Hope Beyond the Waves does all of those things and more! Chiavaroli has written this as a dual timeline swapping between 1993 and 1916 and is the story of two generations of one family and the price they paid for the secrets they chose to keep. Chiavaroli takes on two subjects that made this family scramble to hide their girls – leprosy in 1916 and a teen pregnancy in 1993. When you think about it, both of these situations cause others to see each of the girls as “unclean” and are sent away to deal with their respective illnesses. Chiavaroli takes readers on an emotional journey as she paints an exquisite word picture of the young women’s transformations upon finding redemption in their relationships with God. Because of this redemption, they were able to discover the freedom that forgiveness brings for the first terrible things done to them by both family members as well as others. It is also a story of redeeming love and two outstanding men who looked beyond the exterior and loved and cherished these so-called “unclean” women enough to marry them. It is a story that will stay with you long after the last page is read! I was provided a complimentary copy of this book by Hope Creek Publishers and NetGalley. The opinions expressed here are completely my own and without prejudice.

Massachusetts, 1993: Emily Robertson makes a life changing mistake and is sent away to Cape Cod to live with her Grandmother. Emily finds herself feeling very isolated. The only person that completely understands and shows any compassion to Emily is her Gram. Emily finds an old faded photo buried in a drawer. She recognizes the people in the photo, but how can it be? Massachusetts, 1916: Atta Schaeffer is planning to marry the man of her dreams. She plans on taking her sister with her to save her from their abusive father. But Atta is soon diagnosed with a deadly and terminal illness, and she is forced into hiding. She hears of a doctor, Harry Mayhew, who wants to heal her no matter what the cost. Atta places her hope in Harry but when the treatment fails, she loses all hope not only in the doctors but also loses her faith in God. This story was so amazing and overwhelming on so many levels. I was very moved by the faith that Atta actually had. She overcame so many obstacles in her life while at the same time wanting to protect her family. This book was written with such emotion that it overflows through the pages. If you need examples of faith, hope and love in your life, then this is surely the book for you. The development of the characters and the relationships of the family members in this story will definitely pull at the heartstrings, they were so inspiring. This phenomenal story is one that will certainly stay with me for a long while. Absolutely wonderful! Thank you Heidi Chiavaroli for such a wonderful story with an extra dose of both faith and hope. I enjoyed it very much and I highly recommend it.