Review of “Emily’s Hope”:

“Emily’s Hope,” by Ellen Gable, is a fascinating and poignant story about two women separated by years but bound by painful family ties. Their life experiences are similar, yet strikingly different.

At the start, petite seventeen-year-old Emily is a student looking for love and going along with modern attitudes despite the resulting conflict with her Catholic faith. This 353 page book is a fascinating journey through Emily’s emotional life as she makes many mistakes, marries for love, experiences tragedy, and uncovers a dark secret from her family’s past. Through it all, Emily grows in maturity and faith in a believable way, and the reader grows to love Emily while identifying with her trials and tribulations.

The story of Emily’s great-grandmother, Katherine, is interspersed skillfully throughout, and gives a disturbing picture of Katherine’s hard but selfish life. The consequences of her choices affect so many innocent souls, bur her heart is hardened to the truth, and the reader wonders if there is any hope for Katherine.

Keep in mind that it is certainly not a novel for children or young teens. Many unsavory situations arrive in the course of the story, such as pre-marital sex, suicide, infidelity, and abortion. These things are not used gratuitously, but are essential to the plot, illustrating the far-reaching consequences of such actions.

From a Traditional Catholic perspective, the book does have many modern “Novus Ordo” touches. “Guitar masses” are included and Natural Family Planning is used by the main characters as soon as they are married.

That said, decent modern Catholic novels are difficult to find, and this one has a lot of redeeming qualities, and the author obviously put her heart and soul into the writing. Also, the novel promotes saving sex for marriage and frowns on contraception.

In conclusion, “Emily’s Hope” is an absorbing novel with many admirable messages. The characters are vivid, the story engaging, and it may move you to tears while inspiring you.