HOPELESS (Hopeless #1) by Colleen Hoover-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date ebook December 2012/ paper May 2013

Sometimes discovering the truth can leave you more hopeless than believing the lies…

That’s what seventeen-year-old Sky realizes after she meets Dean Holder. A guy with a reputation that rivals her own and an uncanny ability to invoke feelings in her she’s never had before. He terrifies her and captivates her all in the span of just one encounter, and something about the way he makes her feel sparks buried memories from a past that she wishes could just stay buried.

Sky struggles to keep him at a distance knowing he’s nothing but trouble, but Holder insists on learning everything about her. After finally caving to his unwavering pursuit, Sky soon finds that Holder isn’t at all who he’s been claiming to be. When the secrets he’s been keeping are finally revealed, every single facet of Sky’s life will change forever.

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REVIEW: With the July 2013 release of Losing Hope (Hopeless #2) by Colleen Hoover I am posting my review of Hopeless for anyone who is considering reading this particular series.

HOPELESS is the first installment in Colleen Hoover’s YA/NA contemporary series focusing on Sky Davis and Dean Holder. I am not sure where to classify this particular series as the main characters are 17 and 18 years old but must deal with many adult situations. And in doing so, so too, does the reader. But it is probably a storyline that crosses between YA and NA as there is the typical mean girl club in school who all but destroy Sky’s reputation and the ultimate bad boy hero type who falls immediately for the new girl as well as the sexual aspect of the main characters relationship. Although not sexually graphic, it is sensual and leaves nothing to the imagination.

The novel is a story told in present day and flashbacks from Sky’s POV. Sky is a homeschooled seventeen year old young woman about to embark on her first taste of public school. But her life long BFF ‘Six’ is moving to Europe and with that there is no one that Sky considers a friend. And her friendship with Six has tainted Sky’s reputation (by association) before she has ever had a chance to build one of her own.

Hopeless is a story of one young woman’s journey to discover or uncover the secrets she has buried in her mind. Her dreams-whether awake or asleep-are filled with a little girl who wants nothing more than to be loved but discovers that the monsters are the people who profess to love and care for you.

As the storyline develops, we discover that Sky and Holder have a history but a history that Sky can no longer remember. And it is not Holder she is trying to forget but a childhood of pain and betrayal. As the memories slowly reveal the truth about Sky’s family, the relationship between Sky and Holder becomes closer as the pain increases. And in the end, Sky and Holder have more in common than ever thought possible.

The storyline is simple. There is the usual YA fair of mean girls, jocks, harassment and name calling, which to me is always over the top and unnecessary in most storylines and in this case, to me, felt out of place. The world building and character development are smooth and build over the story.

The likeability of Sky and Holder is immediate. Both have unnecessary or exaggerated reputations but in Holder’s case what happened becomes fodder for the gossip mongers and school big mouths. The big surprise is not unexpected but Colleen does a wonderful job building the tension for the reveal and in doing so holds the reader’s attention.

The overall flow of the story is well paced and even. There are not too many issues of the storyline getting caught up in flash backs. There are several flash backs that help push the storyline along and in each case adds to the tension and plot building so that the reader is not unprepared for the heartbreak of the truth.

HOPELESS is a fascinating storyline that will break your heart, but it is also a story of second chances, falling in love with your soul mate and finding forgiveness in a world of pain and betrayal. Losing Hope is the second installment (July 2013) and it is basically the re-telling of Hopeless from Holder’s POV. I am not necessarily a fan of flipping storylines over from various POV, because there is always too much overlap if the main characters are omnipresent in both stories.

Reviewed by Sandy