*REVIEW* "Hidden in the Pages" by Mindy Haig

 

Reviewer: Angie

Rating: 5 Stars

 

Hidden in the Pages is a touching story of magical love, loss, and family. It’s a story that has you believing in true love, everlasting love, and fate. It is told from the POV of Jantzen, a lonely young man, forced to grow up too soon, who questions if he will ever know the love his parents had, and Patrick, a father who struggles to live life, after his true love dies. Their relationship, most times with the son taking care of the father, is touching and real.

When Zoie enters the picture it seems that Jantzen’s dreams have been answered, but their relationship seems to bring him just as much heartache as it does joy. He dreams about her, day and night, but has promised himself to the girl he was fated to in the journal that has been passed down through generations of his family. This was his Angel, the girl that he could write to as a young boy, when his mother died and his life was turned upside down. His guilt about feeling love for Zoie, when his fate is waiting for him with Angel, has him wondering if the journal is a blessing or a curse.

Patrick has always struggled with what his doctors labeled Bipolar disorder. That was until he met the love of his life. They married, had a son, and had what he had always dreamed of, until she died unexpectedly. It was all too much for him and he abandoned his family and business to live the life of a homeless person. This was the only way he knew to stay close to the love he lost. His son, now in college, visits him daily and is running the business while Patrick is ‘gone,’ but it is soon evident that things must change.

I was touched by the love story and cried over the relationship between father and son. It had me looking at mental illness and homelessness in a different light. Their story touches your heart. It also leaves you wondering, “If you knew that there was someone ‘fate’ had promised you, but you met someone else you fell in love with, which would you choose; fate or your heart?”

*ARC Received in exchange for an honest review*

 

When his mother unexpectedly died just before Christmas, Jantzen Burke's world fell apart. He lost his father to his grief and the cold grandfather he never knew came to stay. Lonely and afraid Jantzen looked to his grandfather for some comfort, but instead of sympathy he was given a journal with a magical power; the power to find his perfect match.

A decade later, Jantzen's life is in status quo. His time is spent running the company his father signed over to him, finishing his education and maintaining an empty house. His only companion is the stranger who writes back to him in the journal, the person he's promised his heart to though he's never seen her face.

But one day an accidental meeting changes all he thought life had planned for him. Suddenly comfort wasn't enough. A decision had to be made. Would he break the promise he'd made and take a chance on love or was his fate tied to the words in the journal?