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You never forget your first love. And sometimes that hurts your chances at a second love. Anjaline has moved to Ontario and soon realizes her dream of becoming a journalist for one of Toronto's leading newspapers. Gabriel has stayed behind in Hope Valley and has embraced his dream of becoming a skilled carpenter. Together they were two kids in love. Apart they have a chance to grow into the people they were meant to be. If part of that growth means taking a chance on new love, will they embrace it? Or will they cling to what they once had and miss out on what the future has to offer? And if they do take a second chance on love, does that mean they will never see each other again? Or is there something even better in store for them both?

370 pages, Paperback

First published December 22, 2012

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Amy McGuire

14 books6 followers

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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
Profile Image for Emily Eitniear.
134 reviews4 followers
May 13, 2014
This was a very good book. The beginning captured me the most, as I had read the first book and was very interested in where the second one would lead. The mid section of this book seemed to drag on a little bit but still kept me interested enough to keep reading. This is a great young adult series when so many young adult books can take strange turns unexpectedly. I would highly recommend it to my high school students.
Profile Image for books are love.
3,163 reviews23 followers
April 15, 2014
First I have to say 2 things. Love love robin and Gabriel. victoria no she is not nice and what she did to Gabriel ugh. But seriously after what Gabriel has gone through why are people surprised he's angry and not being kind. I will be surprised if he doesn't get angry and not kind to others for a while. He has been stomped and crushed in the love department too much and the last one with that letter from Charity (Anjaline) at the same time is just the last straw.

This is a book about maturing and finding love after one door closes or you think it has closed. You never really get over your first love. Gabriel and Anjaline try during high school to have a long distance relationship but they are two far apart and need to mature. Misunderstandings occur and even a friendship is tenuous. As they break apart new relationships with others are formed that help them on their way to new discoveries of who they are and what they want. For Anjaline, Kevin and Tom and for Gabriel Victoria. Ugh Victoria. I still can't believe she goes and is like I am so sorry I did that but can we be friends. I mean you just crushed him took his heart and put it in the blender. He was supportive and loyal to you and you were just ugh ugh. No don't ask him to be your friend between you and Anjaline the dude needs a vacation and I am surprised he doesn't want to join the monastery to get away from women.

Anjaline goes on to college and Tom is her third love. The one that gets Gabriel back in her thoughts. She to me becomes selfish and wishes for his friendship after all this time of not writing to him and wants him at her wedding. Gabriel never let go of Anjaline. He tried even was loyal and loving to Victoria but he always held out hope. Poor poor guy no wonder in the end he feels duped and has a lot of pent up anger that is just constantly coming out. dude has been put through the ringer. Anjaline not as bad as Victoria.

Robin is a great supporting character and friend to Gabriel. gabriel does feel bad about his actions towards Robin in the end but his hurt and anger over everything is clouding his judgement. Robin understands this and is being a friend at a distance until gabriel can come to terms with things.

As for Anjaline, her dreams come true and Tom is her guy. In her subconscious though Gabriel is never far from her thoughts and heart. That is why she writes the letter. Me it's selfish and when Gabriel finally gets to read it it puts him over the edge. I hope we get sweet kind Gabriel back. I do miss him but understand where he is right now. Two girls ripping his heart out. One unintentionally and will always be there the other through betrayal.

I hope that Gabriel and Anjaline are able to come back together and work things out. They obviously still love one another and this time apart allowed them to grow and mature. Find themselves and what they want. Now that Anjaline is back in Hope Valley lets hope this means these two get a HEA together. a heartbreaking book but sweet and beautiful just the same.
Profile Image for Anita Dawes.
Author 16 books128 followers
April 17, 2014

I was half expecting a typical YA romance, but the fact that this was a trilogy in the making had me intrigued. Whereas this type of material is usually hard pushed to fill one novel substantially, Amy McGuire has created a classic romance that just grows on you from the very first chapter.
As far as romance stories go, in my opinion The Hearts Desire has more depth than the classic Romeo and Juliet. They only had each other to worry about and it all seems a little flat compared to Amy McGuire's romance with all its complex relationships.
There are more characters involved, more drama, more difficult choices to be made and agonised over. In short, it leaves you eager to read the sequel Worlds Apart.
Worlds Apart is the second book in the Hope Valley Trilogy, where the romance between Anjaline and Gabriel struggles to continue, despite their being so far apart.
The clear distinction between their locations is well written. The reader shares the experience of being in two very different worlds, exploring all the facets of this long distance relationship.
But complications inevitably arise when they each meet many new interesting and attractive people, subjecting them to temptation and despair. They are young and inexperienced, quite unprepared for the complicated jealousies that tend to grow out of uncertainty.
They discover that writing letters in substitute for what they had shared, and that time has a way of dimming reality, making them doubt what they had and if in fact it was real. Will they continue to drift apart as the years pass, or is their romance doomed to die? Will they ever meet again?
You desperately want them to, for despite all the twists and turns that life has thrown at them, you have the feeling they are meant to be together.
The title of the last part of the trilogy Dreams Come True might lead you to believe that they do, but maybe not.
For this trilogy is not just about Anjaline and Gabriel. There are a wealth of complicated relationships in these books and each and every one of them deserves a happy ending. But because of the complex romantic tangle that Amy McGuire has so cleverly devised you know this will not be the case for everyone...

Profile Image for Mary Findley.
Author 99 books73 followers
April 16, 2014
I read the first book in this series, and won the second book. McGuire is doing a fine job building her characters and "growing them up" as the story progresses. Anjaline undergoes some startling changes in this book, even a name change to Charity, and the surprise reconciliation impressed me a lot. This book covers every possible perspective on relationships. Misunderstandings and secrets in families can cause unnecessary hurt. Gabriel learns that loyalty among friends can stand the test of time and turmoil. Both of them discover that romantic love is not always as strong as the distances, the careers, and the many changes the characters go through. But Hope Valley is well-named, because there's always a flicker of things turning slowly toward a hoped-for ending. Sometimes it's a wild ride with some hairpin turns, physical and emotional. Charity is back in the valley as the books ends, and faithful readers can't wait to see who she's running to meet and hug, and what will happen next!
Profile Image for Sharon.
153 reviews15 followers
August 6, 2016
I received this book in exchange for a review. I wanted to like this book but it was very hard to follow. The time periods didn't follow. I think it kept jumping back and forth in time. The characters would also change in the middle of a paragraph. The character would fall in love almost upon meeting. This wasn't very believable.

The book could use some editing. This might solve a lot of the problems with the story.
Profile Image for Celesta Thiessen.
Author 46 books42 followers
June 16, 2015
The good thing about this book is that it was clean - no sex, swearing or violence.

At 342 pages this is a long book. And it felt even longer. There was a large cast of characters that came in and out of the story. It was like a soap opera with no real overarching plot. It also never had and ending at all. Just stopped.

If you like books centred on people talking and thinking about what they're feeling then this may be the book for you.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews

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