Hope When It’s Heavy
Amy Eaton
Independently Published (2025)
ISBN: 978-1736341919
Reviewed by Courtney Lowry for Reader Views (11/2025)
How do you have hope when it’s heavy?
The answer is subjective. But writer Amy Eaton shows that faith produces perseverance in Hope When It’s Heavy: Trusting God Is Good When Your Season Is Not. Every chapter is raw and heart-wrenching. The loss of a parent, the longing that comes with being a military mother and wife, and navigating health issues are some of the main topics of this book. She also discusses rejection, losing friends, knowing when to leave, and coping with church hurt.
Ms. Eaton’s expressions on how grace prevails above all were the biggest takeaway from the book. She offers practical steps with reflective questions called “Prayerful Application.” At the end of each section, there’s an opportunity for the reader to pause. Here, she recommends ways to respond like Christ during moments that leave us speechless. She reminds the reader that we cannot and should not do life alone.
Something that stands out about the book is its tone. The author’s writing style feels like a conversation with a friend. Grief, pain, and struggle are inevitable. Though she is right there to hold your hand through it all, as she recounts her own experiences. Hope When It’s Heavy models that we all go through ups, downs, lefts, and rights. However, what keeps us anchored is what matters the most.
Though there are Christian elements throughout the book (and the audience for this book is for Christian women, according to Amy Eaton’s book trailer), you do not have to be a Christian to understand that healing is universal. She notes the importance of forgiving others and yourself, which can be helpful to anyone. She speaks about the benefits of rest. Some solutions given for the tired and weary are: setting boundaries, asking for help, and attending therapy.
Hope When It’s Heavy teaches you how to come up for air—in your own timing and God’s. Its pacing meets you where you are. Not abrasive or urgent, this book offers the space to break down, give up, and stand again. Ms. Eaton states in the introduction: “It’s not just the big hard things like loss, the little things that feel like a leaking, never-ending faucet can be hard and heavy, too.” We can’t always be the plumber, the electrician, and the roofer of our lives. We can’t fix everything at record speed. Sometimes, we’ve got to allow things to hurt and watch the faucet drip while we sit on the couch.
Hope When It’s Heavy is for the sorrowful. It’s for those weathering the storm of devastation. It’s for the person still dismantling what was spoken over them during their youth. Hope When It’s Heavy: Trusting God Is Good When Your Season Is Not by Amy Eaton carries a certainty that the weight of this world is hard to bear. But in the midst of our journey to find the light, hope is possible.