Nick secured a job for Eloise after a situation in the 2nd book found her without one. Her assignment, to head with the demolition team to Duval Springs to do a valuation on the buildings/properties there for state payouts. Alex Duval is the mayor of Duval Springs, has fought a long battle with the state already and has been in love with her for years. This book is filled with twisting sub plots that add a sense of intrigue/suspense and don’t let up til near the end as far as trying to guess who’s behind what. Thoroughly enjoyed this whole series and learned a lot of interesting things about the advancement of water quality and water/sewer systems.
A complimentary copy of this book was provided by Bethany House and NetGalley. A review was not required and all thoughts are my own.

3.5 stars

A Desperate Hope is book three in the Empire State series by Elizabeth Camden. This series has followed the Drake family and this time, it was cousin Eloise's turn in the spotlight.

I really liked Alex. He had such a fiery determination to help, to try to make things better and it was so easy to root for him. It took me a little while to warm up to Eloise. She was very much a strict rule follower and came off a bit cold at times. Knowing her past though, it made her attitude more understandable. I will say that I was a tad disappointed in the romance. The chemistry felt a bit lacking and things felt forced sometimes.

I really felt for the residents of Duval Springs. What was happening to them, to their homes, to their town, was just heartbreaking. But their undeniable hope was endearing and inspiring. It was a great reminder that when things look bleak, there's always hope.

I've really enjoyed this series and while this book was probably my least favorite of the bunch, it was still good. I'm really looking forward to reading whatever this author comes out with next.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed it. All thoughts and comments are my honest opinion.

Not what I was expecting and felt a touch disappointed by it. Although an enjoyable read with a bit of suspense throughout to carry you to the end.

A Desperate Hope
By Elizabeth Camden
This is the third book to Elizabeth Camden’s Empire State series. The characters from the previous novels are mentioned but do not play an imperative role in understanding this novel.
Duval Springs, New York, 1908. Secluded and alone most of her childhood Eloise Drake craves for the sense of family like those she watches in the valley of Duval Springs. Passionate and full of life Alex Duval is struggling with his school work. After coming upon Eloise lost in the woods the pair find what they are wanting in each other. Their chance meeting becomes a scheduled meeting as the two quickly fall in love. And they lived happily ever after…
Rather Eloise’s guardian discovers the two in a scandalous way, sending Eloise away and sending his workers to teach Alex a lesson. Years pass as Eloise and Alex change becoming two different adults than their younger selves who fell in love. Alex is now the Mayor of Duval Springs and Eloise is a prim and proper accountant for New York City.
The city of New York desires to flood the valley of Duval springs to create a water reservoir. Alex has been fighting for years to keep this from happening. Finally, he no longer has a choice but to accept defeat. The city has won and Eloise is coming on the appraisal and demolition team to determine the town's value for property payouts.
No longer young and naive Eloise enters Duval Springs with business in mind but Alex who has been pining and waiting for Eloise’s return does not let his feelings go unknown.
Can this pair work together to save to save the town that sparked their love?
I enjoyed reading this book and could feel the tension throughout. The ending came as a bit of a surprise for me. I felt the last bit was drawn out but the conclusion gave reasoning to why it was so. Overall this was an easy historical read. Since it was based on similar events it was all the more interesting.
The Empire State series:
1. A Dangerous Legacy
2. A Daring Venture
3. A Desperate Hope
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion which I share here.

Alex Duval is the mayor of a town that's received its death sentence. The residents will all receive compensation from the government and then their homes will be demolished to make way for a large reservoir to support the city of 1908 New York. Having lost his lawsuit against the government, Alex is prepared to accept the inevitable--until an old flame comes to Duval Springs, and with her, a big idea!

When big-city accountant Eloise Drake shows up to assess the buildings and offer payouts to the residents, she finds herself back in the one place where she thought she'd never return. She and Alex have a past together, one that ended in him getting beaten up and her getting sent to a convent. She's not interested in returning to that phase of her life, especially now that she has a potential relationship with her boss, Fletcher Jones. 

When ebullient Alex and sensible Eloise make a plan to move the town instead of tear it down, they must work together to launch a municipal bond, galvanize the town's inhabitants, lay railroad tracks, prepare foundations, transport buildings of all shapes and sizes, and discover a mysterious saboteur who is out to stop them. Despite all the backbreaking labor, equipment failure, and opposition from the state, the hardest obstacle Alex must face is the one he cares the most about--winning back Eloise, the girl that never should have got away. 

This book had a unique setting and a lighthearted quality that made it a pleasure to read. Alex Duval is an optimist, a dreamer, and a man not afraid to cry, cheer, or tell the world that he's in love. Eloise Drake is a prim and proper mathematical wizard, nursing hurts from her mother, her father, and Alex himself. Together, they can, as Alex believes, do absolutely anything. I enjoyed their second chance romance and how Alex took the bull of small town gossip by the horns, declaring to everyone that he's doing what he should have done years ago--try to marry Eloise Drake. 

Although the town of Duval Springs is fictional, Elizabeth Camden based it on several historical towns near New York that were either demolished or relocated for the sake of the reservoir. Over all, this was an enjoyable read on a relatively obscure topic in American history. I didn't even realize that this book was part of a series until I looked it up on Goodreads, so clearly it can stand alone quite well. I am interested to read more books by Camden.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This book is not what I have come to expect from Elizabeth Camden. I love how she weaves history into all of her stories and I feel like I really learn something every time I pick up one of her books. But, I did not feel the chemistry between the main characters. There would be a spark of something they used to have, but then the next scene made me believe they didn't really care for each other all that much.

I finished the book, but I found myself skimming it at the end, ready for it to be over.

I love books by Elizabeth Camden, but felt like this one was not her best. She is still one of my "must read" authors, but if you are new to her, I would suggest one of her older works before reading this one.

I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This was a great conclusion to the Empire State Novel series. Eloise Drake has worked hard to overcome her past by adhering to rules and regulations. Her job as a CPA fits perfectly with that. However, when she is called to work at Duval Springs, the sight of her first love and shame, things aren’t as cut and dried as she’d like them to be. Alex is the complete opposite of Eloise. He grapples with whirlwinds and casts visions and dreams. He has never forgotten Eloise and needs her to help him with his latest grand scheme.
I loved Alex. It’s refreshing to see someone who cares for people so much, who is faithful to his first love, and is hopelessly optimistic. It was hard to imagine how his plans could ever come to fruition but I was cheering him on.
This is a story of dreamers and realists, courage and sacrifice, betrayal and skullduggery. There is a beautiful picture of community that makes you long to be a part of it. I would highly recommend this book and series. Thank you to Bethany House for providing me with a complimentary e-copy via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Empire State Novel series
Book 1: A Dangerous Legacy
Book 2: A Daring Venture
Book 3: A Desperate Hope

A Desperate Hope
By Elizabeth Camden
4 Stars

The third book in this trilogy comes to a close and I think I enjoyed this book the best out of the three.
The author is in a league of her own in the historical inspirational fiction genre when it comes to women in days gone by having interesting careers not usually given to women.
Our main character is a certified accountant in the early 1900s. She loves rules and guidelines. It's not until she meets an old flame that all the rules go out the window and maybe a little adventure comes in.
I enjoyed the townsfolk that we meet and the bond they all share in a town they all love.

I received this ebook through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed the story of "A Desperate Hope", although some parts of the story surprised me. I had to double check to make sure this genre was "Christian". The story was an excellent one, with mystery throughout. It kept me guessing until the final chapters! I LOVE that! The story begins with two young lovers, then jumps twelve years, when they are brought together because of a new reservoir. The interaction between the characters flows easily. An enjoyable book that definitely held my interest!
#AdesperateHope #NetGalley

Eloise Drake has a good, safe job working as an accountant in New York City. She enjoys her job and the possibility that her supervisor might be interested in her--a good, safe man is exactly what she needs. When she is assigned to go to upstate New York to Duval Springs, a town which is going to be demolished in order to create a reservoir for New York City to have clean water, she doesn't want to go--because it will mean seeing Alex Duval, whom she hasn't seen since her guardian drove him out of town after finding out about Alex's and Eloise's clandestine relationship. Eloise goes to Duval Springs and sets about doing her work appraising the properties in the town to determine how much the City will have to pay; while running into the man she gave everything to isn't something she can avoid, she's certain that she can be mature and professional. When she actually runs into Alex, though, that becomes a lot harder than she expected. As the mayor of Duval Springs, Alex has fought long and hard to keep his home city intact; when that's no longer possible, rather than throw in the towel, Alex comes up with the crazy idea to relocate the town--he wants to move the buildings out of the valley and onto higher ground--but he needs Eloise's math skills to figure out how to make that happen. And while he's at it, he wants to win back the woman he still loves, but Eloise wants a safe life with few risks, not the risky, big dreams that Alex has to offer.

There were some really interesting elements to the plot--the idea of moving all of the buildings in town was so fascinating. I loved the fact that Eloise is a CPA at a time when few women were, and the mystery element, as someone is sabotaging the camp where workers for the reservoir are staying, was interesting.
However, there were also some parts that were disconcerting to me. Alex and Eloise had premarital sex when they were teenagers, and while Eloise feels badly about it, it almost seems she's more embarrassed and worried about people knowing about it than she is about how than the fact that she sinned, and Alex doesn't seem to have any remorse about it whatsoever. From a Christian novel, I definitely expected more about grace and repentance, and it just was really odd to me that those things weren't there. (Side note: Eloise realizes her boss in NYC won't be compatible with her because he doesn't really believe in God, but I didn't see anything that demonstrated Alex believed, either.) If this weren't a book from a Christian publisher, that wouldn't have been a problem, but I really found myself wishing for it here--not to be preachy but as a beautiful affirmation of God's grace and how He forgives and redeems.
As for characters, I had mixed feelings about Alex. I liked his passion for his town and his big dreams, but there were times when he was just rude to Eloise and didn't even really apologize for it, and I hard time with that. I'm all in favor of a realistically flawed hero, but I couldn't get behind him 1oo-percent.
Is it fair to judge a book differently because it's Christian? I don't know. If this weren't a Christian book, I'd say it's a 4-star book. As a Christian book, however, I didn't feel like there were actually enough Christian elements and even Eloise didn't really come across as more than a surface Christian, which makes it hard for me to endorse as a Christian novel. With those mixed feelings, I'll give it 3.5 stars and I hope I've provided enough information for readers to know whether the things that bothered me would detract from the book for them as well or if they'd be fine with it and thoroughly enjoy the story.

I read an ARC via #NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

#ADesperateHope #NetGalley

Elizabeth Camden is a gifted author, she knows how to keep the reader interested. Eloise, dreams of getting married and having children, but is an accountant for the city of New York instead. Alex is the mayor of the small town, of Duvall Springs, he still thinks of Eloise and the days when they were younger. The city of New York is offering a pay out, for those living in Duvall Springs, so they can build a reservoir. Eloise doesn't want to fall for Alex all over again, and she plans on keeping her guard up, There is an element of suspense. I had a hard time with the reference to having sex. I usually don't have to worry about content in Elizabeth Camden s books, there was no graphic details.

A Desperate Hope was written by Elizabeth Camden and takes place in the late 1800s-early 1900s. It is book three in the An Empire State Novel series.

Summary: Alex Duval is a fly-by-the-seat of your pants, creative, emotional whirlwind. But, he’s also mayor of tiny Duval Springs-the community in which he grew up-and he takes that job very seriously.

After a five-year struggle to keep the town from being demolished to build a water reservoir, it now looks like the town he loves will be completely destroyed.

Eloise Drake has had many disappointments in her past, but that is why she enjoys the predictability of her new life in New York City. Accounting isn’t an exciting job, but she is good at it. She enjoys being needed to solve others’ problems, and the fact that numbers don’t let her down. Yes, being an accountant for The State Water Board is the perfect stable job for her.

Until, that is, she’s sent to Duval Springs to help with the demolition of the town. Now she must not only do her job, but face her past and Alex Duval-the man who betrayed her trust-and her heart.

My Thoughts: This book is wonderful. Elizabeth Camden is one of my favorite authors. She seamlessly weaves historical events into the lives of ordinary people to create fascinating tales-and this book is no exception. I truly enjoyed it, and it was one that I just didn’t want to put down.

This book is well-written, entertaining, has unique and diverse characters, and is so descriptive, I felt like I could see the town of Duval Springs.

It is not at all necessary to have read the first two books of this series. And, if you enjoy historical fiction, with plenty of plot twists and community spirit, you will like this book-it is definitely a keeper!

A Desperate Hope was an interesting tale combining the woes of past broken relationships with the grief of the destruction of one's hometown.  I have read several books by Elizabeth Camden and enjoy her perspective and unique historical viewpoint through her characters.  Although I did like this book overall, there were several times when the storyline was lagging, making me want to skip past some chapters. However, sometimes this helped the reader empathize with the long struggles the characters were facing.  I enjoyed the characters, plot, and issues the characters faced in this work, but it didn't seem to have a good flow of storyline.
Eloise Drake is a precise, proper mathematical genius working in New York on engineering projects. She presents herself to the world with a very calm and calculated demeanor, yet her stoicism hides her difficult past which isn't as far behind her as she thinks. Eloise is shocked when she is given the task of helping deconstruct the town from her past---the past she has almost forgotten. But what scares Eloise most, is the man in charge of the town of her past, Alex Duval, her former friend and the one who broke her heart and made her retreat into cold calculations and stoicism.
Alex Duval is already dealing with a lot as mayor of a doomed town, but he is frozen in shock to discover the woman he loved and who broke his heart is part of the team tasked with demolishing his hometown.  The state has decided to flood the entire valley where Duval Springs rests in order to develop a water reservoir for New York state, but Alex comes up with some risky ideas to attempt to preserve his hometown.  Although Alex has the support of his family, neighbors, and friends, he desperately needs the help of his former love--Eloise.  Will she help him?  Can she move forward and forget their past? Can they work together to save this town? Will the town be destroyed, and all chance of restoration between Eloise and Alex along with it?

Eloise Drake's past comes back to haunt her as she must return to the town so near where she spent much of her childhood and the man she fell in love with so many years before. Her relationship with Alex Duval ended badly 12 years ago, but Eloise is bound and determined to keep her heart safe and follow the rules as she works for the state on a project which will demolish the town Alex grew up in and is currently the mayor of.

I really wanted to like this book, but there were too many big problems for me. As a clean read fiction I'd give it a solid 4 stars. The characters are interesting, if infuriatingly hard-headed, and the emotions are definitely rampant with everyone involved. I don't think the characters really grew enough for my liking, but I had a really big problem with people overlooking big sins and character flaws.

I will preach God's grace until he takes me home, but if that's the only part of the gospel that you get then you're in big trouble. Eloise and Alex had some youthful transgressions which are more or less brushed off as just that. I don't want characters to live in guilt, but Alex, at least, didn't even acknowledge that what they had done was wrong. It seemed justified because they were in love. The same goes for Eloise's guardian. He's not a good man. He has some redeeming qualities and acts at the end, but there seems to be no repentance for any of the characters. They brush off their sins as everyone makes mistakes and as long as you do some good deed here and there then you're all right. A very works based religion.

So if you read the book as a clean read romance then you'll probably enjoy it. If you're looking for even a hint of biblically based spiritual truth then you will not find it here. The Christianity is sparse and seems thrown in to appease the publishing house, but it would have been better off left out all together.

Elizabeth Camden is a wonderful storyteller. There is only one of her stories that didn't work well for me. Don't worry. I won't tell, but you can find all my reviews on Amazon. Anyways, A Desperate Hope finishes her first series. I have enjoyed all three novels. I love how her heroines are educated and don't mind helping the little man. In this book, Eloise wants a place to be needed, but she returns to her home and runs into Alex, her first love. It is tangled emotions at first sight, but eventually, they learn to grasp and control their emotions and allow love to blossom. I really enjoyed the plot. It was different than anything I have ever read. Camden kept me engrossed in the plot, and I finished the novel in a little over three hours. I had a hard time putting it down. There is even a hint of a mystery in the novel, which I loved. Overall, A Desperate Hope is a wonderful ending to the series. I really enjoyed the characters and anxiously await what Camden comes up with next. If you are a fan of Camden's other stories, then I recommend you pick this book up.

I received a complimentary copy of A Desperate Hope by Elizabeth Camden from Bethany House Publishers, but the opinions stated are all my own.

This one will keep you up late, folks. I read the first book in The Empire State novels, A Dangerous Legacy, and loved it, so when this one came up for review, I was excited to take it on. And in true obsessive-reader fashion – especially with a book that has good tension – it only took me a few days to finish.

This series focuses on the Drake family, and with this newest installment, we get to know Eloise (with some revisits to Nick and Rosalind). She’s a fascinating character plagued by conflicting desires – one, to be logical and reasonable because following her impulses didn’t work out so well the last time. And two, to throw caution to the wind and join Alex on his mad crusade to literally move a town before the state has it demolished to make way for a drinking water reservoir.

And then Alex – Lord help us all – Alex is a gambler and a white knight and has a serious case of tunnel vision. As much as the sparks between him and Eloise make fantastic things happen, their biggest obstacle might be the fact that he’s slightly obtuse and she’s afraid. It’s comical, frustrating and rife with tension.

Characters aside, the history was fascinating! I was aware that building could be moved, but I didn’t realize they figured out out to do it by the early 1900s. There’s some great history in this one inspired by the very real relocation of entire towns. Once again, I recommend reading the author’s note when you get your hands on this book in February. It always makes the content so much more interesting.

I highly recommend this book with a caveat. While the story line does not take the reader into any inappropriate situations, pre-marital sex and its complications are discussed. The Christian themes are also light in some aspects and for Eloise, have a Catholic bent as she spent several years living in a convent, which may be different from what readers might expect. For some of you, this might be fascinating, for others, it might not be the right fit.