Review: Losing Hope by Colleen Hoover

OMG! OMFG! Colleen Hoover has a way of writing stories that will rip you to shreds, devastate you (according to Holder I can’t use the word devastate, but I AM!), and give you hope all at the same time.  Hopeless complete ripped me apart. While it ripped me apart and left me reeling, it also filled me with hope. Filled me with hope that no matter what, someone, somewhere cared.

Then I read Losing Hope. Once again, my faith in humanity was restored, while at the same time, I was ripped apart.

Holder’s story begins before Hopeless. It begins with him losing Les. Holder’s nightmare began many years earlier when he lost Hope. Now, he’s lost Less and his nightmare just got worse. He’s in pain. He’s losing it. He has no control and he doesn’t know what to do.

Losing Hope is the perfect conclusion to Hopeless. While Hopeless was complete in itself, Losing Hope brings closure to all those things that we need to know. Why did Les kill her self? How did Holder deal with it? What did Holder go through as he discovered Sky was Hope? Why did he wait to tell her?  All of it. All of it gets answered.

I loved getting Holder’s story. I loved the way Colleen Hoover did it too. She didn’t just tell retell Hopeless from Holder’s POV. She gave us Holder’s story. She gave it to us in a way that made the whole book that much better. We got it from Holder as he railed at Les for taking her own life. We got it as he discovered Sky. Both as Sky and as Hope. We got it all.

I absolutely LOVED this story! You MUST read this story if you read Hopeless! If you haven’t read Hopeless, go get it. Then get Losing Hope and read it!

Find it on GoodReads!

Review: Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

Choices.

Lies.

Secrets.

Our lives are made up of choices. The choices we make. The choices others make. Then come the lies and the secrets about those choices. All of these things conspire to shape our lives whether we want them to or not.

The choices made by Sky, Holder and her mom change Sky’s life forever. The lies and the secrets they keep about those choices will shatter her.

Sky is 17 years old and she’s been homeschooled her entire life. She finally talks her mom into letting her go to public school for her senior year. It’s that decision that changes her life forever. She meets Dean Holder. Resident bad boy. Only he’s not the bad boy everyone makes him out to be. He’s just…..misunderstood.

Dean Holder is feels he’s hopeless. He’s let two people down in his life and he’s scared to death he’s going to let someone else down. So, he holds himself back. Only he can’t hold himself back from Sky. She speaks to him in a way no one else has. He’s connected to her. She’s connected to him.

Sky and Holder’s relationship took me back to high school. With all the horrors and joys that only adolescence can bring. The horrors of the cruelty of high school kids. The joys of that first kiss, first touch, first date. It took me back to sneaking off to find a place to make-out, and finally ending up making out in the front seat of a car. And then there’s the emotional angst of boyfriends. Men are so moody when they’re teenagers, all those hormones!

I made the mistake of starting this book in the late afternoon. I say this was a mistake because I couldn’t stop reading until I finished it…at 3:00 AM!!!! I was riveted. I had to know what lies and secrets Holder was keeping from Sky. When I finally found them ALL out, I was shocked! But the biggest shock wasn’t Holder’s lie and secret. It was another one. One that left me speechless. And the person who held that lie and that secret made it all that much worse.

I felt the rage and despair that Sky felt. Then when all the lies and secrets were out there, I felt Holder’s as well. What doesn’t kill us will only make us stronger. So they say.

Add Hopeless to your GoodReads list.