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.

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