Blog Tour: A Sliver of Hope by Karla J. Nellenbach

Welcome to my stop on the A Sliver of Hope blog tour, hosted by YA Bound!  Click HERE to see the full blog tour schedule!  

Today I have my review and a tour-wide giveaway for you!  Thanks for stopping by!

Title: A Sliver of Hope
Author: Karla J. Nellenbach
Published: March 25, 2013

My twin sister was the only person in the world I thought I’d known inside and out. Apparently, I was wrong.

Twin sisters share a unique bond, one that can't be broken by miles, time, or even death. Hannah and Hope Morton are no exception. When Hope takes her own life, Hannah loses a sister and a best friend, a catastrophe she isn't sure she'll survive herself.

With her family in ruins, Hannah is slowly disappearing, drowning in a sea of misery. Even her wild, energetic best friend can't pull her out of her grief. Desperate to help Hannah, her brother comes home from college, bringing his best friend Julian along, the first boy to break Hannah’s heart. None of their efforts are enough to pull Hannah off her self destructive path, though. Julian is the only one who can get through to her, working his way into her frozen soul with cocky remarks and genuine love that warms her from the inside out.

As Hannah works to find answers, she continues to uncover new secrets and people that reveal a side of Hope she had never shared with her twin. Alone now, Hannah must make a decision of her own: move on and start a new life with the people she has left, or let the weight of her grief drag her down with her sister.

Emotional.  Powerful.  Unique.  Those are the first three words that come to mind when I think of this book.

Hannah is broken, scarred, and completely lost.  She can't seem to move on with her life.  She's in a total funk after the loss of her sister... her identical twin... her best friend.  She can't seem to accept the fact that her sister, Hope, chose to take her own life.  Hope, who always appeared happy, apparently had a few things she was hiding from Hannah, as well as the rest of the world... and it didn't stop at whatever was bothering her.  Hannah searches for answers to why Hope would do this, and discovered more than she bargained for along the way.

Though this story centered around the loss of Hannah's twin sister, there was also a romance aspect that brought the story down a sweeter path now and then.  Just when I thought I would run out of tissues, the story would switch and have me smiling and giggling.  I fell in love with Julian right away.  Though he had his flaws - you know, being a teenage boy and all - he was still sweet, and caring, and had Hannah's best interests at heart.

A Sliver of Hope is written more as a journal - Hannah writing to Hope.  Questioning her and asking for answers.  I loved how creative a story it was.  The fact that we got to see inside Hannah, inside her thoughts and her feelings, really helped me to connect with her.  I could feel her crashing down, seeing no positive end in sight.  A loss such as Hannah experienced is hard to imagine unless you've been there yourself, but Nellenbach does an amazing job of portraying the raw emotion beautifully.

I would definitely recommend this story.  It's strong and often left me breathless.  It's one that I won't soon forget.

Karla Nellenbach divides her time between day jobbing, writing, and indulging in her Winchester obsession. The rest of her day is spent playing butler to a cranky old man masquerading as a housecat and two rambunctious puppies that closely resemble small horses. Born and raised in the wilds of Michigan, she knows two immutable facts: (1) it is entirely possible to live in a thumb, and (2) you definitely can go home again…you just might not survive the winter. Having resided in the sunscape of Florida for the last decade, she’s still on a quest to see a real live alligator outside of the “petting” zoo. Karla is currently at work on her next novel. You can find more information on Karla and her work at her website, The Last Word: http://www.karlanellenbach.com/.

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