Happy Black Friday Bookworms!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Twenty-one-year-old Neka is a bit of an introvert, she also happens to be stunningly beautiful.
When she discovers her friend James is about to be dumped, she sees the perfect opportunity to escape from her quiet life. Can she summon the courage to leave it all behind?
James Copley comes from a ruthless family. It’s rubbed off.
Years ago, he disengaged from his brother’s smear campaign, but now his father has offered him an ultimatum, “Get married or lose your seat at the table.”
Plotting to stamp his design on the family business, he proposes to a woman, even though he doesn’t love her.
But his carefully laid plans start to unravel when she leaves him on the day she’s due to meet his family.
Could years of planning his comeback vanish with her departure?
A possible solution comes in an unexpected form: Neka. She’s not only a friend, but the daughter of his benefactor. And she’s right there, offering to support him.
But will her support stretch to marriage?
He attempts to win her over to his plan but collides with her powerful father who wants to leverage the situation for his own gain.
In their fight for survival and love, they are forced to face some uncomfortable truths.
Can they overcome thwarted dreams and missed chances to find true love, or does forcing destiny’s hand only lead to misery?
My Review
I had high hopes when I opened this book and sadly spent a lot of my time reading feeling disappointed. Not everything about this novel is bad, but what bothered me got to me so much that it eclipses what I did like about it, making this a tougher novel for me to review.
A Gateway to Hope is the story of James and Neka and is a very character-driven novel. One of the biggest things that bothered me about this pair was their age. When James met Neka he was in his late 20’s and she was seventeen. A minor! He would talk to her at her family’s parties and when I read that I instantly got creeper vibes that I couldn’t’ shake no matter what. James is immensely career-focused and seems like his sole motivation is to get promoted in his family’s company, so everything “nice” he does for Nika has this air of selfishness to it. It’s clear that he has self-serving intentions and though he tries to have a redemption arc I just did not buy it.
Neka’s family dynamic is strange. They did not come across as a loving family unit to me but more like manipulations to further confuse an already confused Neka. I respect and understand her parents and sisters motivations and commend them on standing strong on their faith and holding Neka accountable, but at other times it felt more like they were using these tactics as a tool for their own personal agendas. And don’t even get me started on Neka’s relationship with her parents and the fact that they treat her like she twelve. I’ll admit that Neka is naive when it comes to love but the actions by her family were, at times, a little sketchy.
Both Nika’s family and James’s family run their own companies, so there was a lot of business jargon that I also did not care for, but that’s just personal preference and no shade to the story or author whatsoever, but the way all the characters spoke felt unrealistic and a little too over the top for me. I found myself thinking over and over, ‘Who talks like this?’ and every time I asked myself this the more agitated I felt.
In saying all of that, this is the author’s debut novel, so I am extending grace, though this was not an enjoyable read for me. The overall flow of the story was actually quite nice, and the overall storyline was pretty cute. Neka’s ambition is admirable and even though the families were incredibly overbearing the fact that they were all together was something you do not see that often, which was very refreshing. There is a lot of Scripture that is quoted, which is always something I love seeing, and it’s clear that these characters are trying to do God’s will, which is always commendable.
One of my favorite parts of reading this novel was the sight-seeing that James and Neka do throughout the story. Hearing about St. Louis and some of the attractions was pretty cool, especially since I’ve never had the opportunity to visit there, and now I really would like to go and see these sights for myself.
I really wanted so much to like this novel, but sadly it was just ok. The few gleaming qualities were overshadowed by bothersome age differences and overbearing parents and partners, and though it had a happy ending I just wish the journey getting there would’ve been better.
Books in This Series
About the Author
E. C. Jackson began her writing career with the full-length play Pajama Party. Thirty-one years later, she adapted the play into Pajama Party: The Story, a companion book to the second book in the five-book standalone Hope series.
Jackson’s favorite pastime is reading fiction. She enjoys taking the journey along with the characters in the books. That also led to her unorthodox approach to story writing. Her vision for each book she writes is to immerse readers into the storyline so they become connected with each character.
“The Write Way: A Real Slice of Life” is the slogan on her Facebook author page. She feels that if every person reading her books feels connected to the characters, her job is done.
*I have voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book which I read through Kindle Unlimited with JustRead Tours.
All views and opinions expressed are completely honest, and my own.
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