Hope Engel’s love of reading began at University Park Library. After her parents taught her to read at age three, Hope’s grandmother would take her to the library and encourage her to choose her own books. During one visit, a librarian was skeptical that someone so young could read the book titles well enough to make her selections. Hope happily proved her wrong by reading them aloud.
From that moment on, books became a constant part of Hope’s life. She read voraciously throughout her childhood and discovered a love of writing along the way. As a junior at Woodbridge High School, she received a Sentinel Award for excellence in American Literature — an early sign that writing would play an important role in her future.
Hope went on to study English in Portland, Oregon, where she explored nonfiction, short fiction, poetry, and playwriting. After graduating, she returned to Irvine and began a career in marketing, sharpening her writing skills while creating communications for technology companies. Throughout those years, she continued borrowing audiobooks from Heritage Park Library, turning her daily commute into reading time…