379 pages.
Science Fiction

This story of a society that is such a contrast to the destructive one we currently have worldwide is full of hope. But, sneaking pervasively beneath the surface, lies a hint of threat, an unspecified suggestion that all may not be as it seems.
We follow the eponymous Hope as she leads a difficult life, caring for her seriously ill father and her teenage sister and living on the poor wage she is reluctantly paid by the wealthy woman she cleans for. But things rapidly change when a truck hits her small car as she’s returning home after a disagreement with her employer.
For Hope, the world has changed irrevocably when she awakes years later to a place barely recognisable after a group of terrorists pulled the plug on all trade and monetary transactions on the day she met her accident. To begin with, we are unsure whether she is alive but asleep and dreaming, existing in some fantasy world, or somehow has been transported to an alien future.
Once she becomes fully conscious and emerges from her medically induced coma, she begins to learn the reality of the new world that has developed since she almost died.

The characters in this extraordinary tale of love, tragedy, hope, conflict, and uncertainty are very real people. The author’s attention to detail in setting the scene for her imagined future world is crucial to the unwinding plot, making the apparent utopia credible, while allowing the underlying threat of some unknown aspect to slip almost unseen below the calm and wonderful surface.
I was engaged at once, and never lost my interest in the experiences, emotions, and adventures involving Hope and her new friends.
The imagined technology, and the substantive societal changes resulting from a world without money are brilliantly handled. Many readers, especially those deeply mired in the material world of capitalism we currently occupy will find this new world as difficult to accept as does the protagonist. But those with open minds will be readily transported to a place where everything seems possible and, more importantly, positive.
This is the first book of a projected trilogy, and this part of the story ends as our female lead moves toward an unknown future in an attempt to discover the hidden aspects of her new world. I will definitely be looking out for this continuation of a story that had me turning the pages and constantly wondering what new marvels I would encounter as I travelled with Hope.

[Any review is a personal opinion. No reviewer can represent the view of anyone else. The best we can manage is an honest reaction to any given book.]