{New Adult} Review: Losing Hope by Colleen Hoover

Title: Losing Hope
Author: Colleen Hoover
Series: Hopeless, book #2
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication Date: July 8, 2013 for ebook, October 15, 2013 for PB
Source: from publisher via Netgalley
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

In the follow-up to Colleen Hoover’s #1 New York Times bestseller Hopeless, the charming and irresistible Dean Holder tells the passionate story that has melted thousands of hearts.

In Hopeless, Sky left no secret unearthed, no feeling unshared, and no memory forgotten, but Holder’s past remained a mystery.

Still haunted by the little girl he let walk away, Holder has spent his entire life searching for her in an attempt to finally rid himself of the crushing guilt he has felt for years. But he could not have anticipated that the moment they reconnect, even greater remorse would overwhelm him…

Sometimes in life, if we wish to move forward, we must first dig deep into our past and make amends. In Losing Hope, bestselling author Colleen Hoover reveals what was going on inside Holder’s head during all those hopeless moments—and whether he can gain the peace he desperately needs.

“I wonder if it's possible for people to fall in love with a person one characteristic at a time, or if you fall for the entire person at once.”

I am in complete awe that an author could take the same exact story, write it from another character's point-of-view and still make me fall in love with it all over again.  And even though I knew the story, knew how it would end, I still found the novel thoroughly engaging.  Reading this book was just as addictive as reading Hopeless...maybe even more so since I was seeing everything through new eyes.

I'm having a hard time with this review.  I kind of just want to say everything I said in my review of Hopeless again.  I think I did a good job of reviewing the actual story in that review, so I'll concentrate on some of my favorite aspects of Losing Hope in this one.  Besides Holder, I mean.  ;0)

Like Daniel.  The guy initially comes off as a tool, but he's the equivalent of Six to Sky for Holder, and he does seem to mean well.  Even with those obnoxious nicknames.  He calls Holder all manner of vial things, including but not limited to dickweed, cunt nugget (me and my sis actually thought we coined this phrase years ago, but a quick Google search tells me it is more widespread than we ever thought), and whisker biscuit.  This kid takes insulting his best friend to a whole new level, but it's all in good fun.  And the more he was in the picture, the more he grew on me.  He provided the comic relief that Holder definitely needed during some rough patches.

Dean Holder is everything I expected, after seeing him from Sky's perspective for so long.  Except there's even more depth to him than even Sky could perceive.  His pain over losing Hope and Les is raw and real, and it's led him to make some poor decisions, but even so, those same decisions make his character feel genuine.  And immensely likable.  And swoon-worthy.

And those letters to Les!  They broke my heart a thousand times over!  I think those painted the best picture of what Holder was going through, how he was dealing (or not dealing) with everything.  It almost felt like I was spying on him because the thoughts in that notebook were so intimate...there's no way he would have uttered things like that to anyone but Les or Sky.  But it does help to show that maybe he's not so hopeless afterall.

The story from Holder's perspective is still just as poignant and gut-wrenching and emotionally-charged as it was from Sky's point-of-view.  It's still not a PG story.  And I'd have a very difficult time trying to decide which of these books is my favorite.  Especially since the romance is essentially the same in both books, but it's still very different seeing it from both sides.  The love story is still my favorite aspect because of how it evolves, but I'd still be hard-pressed to determine which perspective I prefer seeing it from.

The thing is, this book isn't just Hopeless retold from Holder's point-of-view.  There are a lot of the same scenes from his perspective, yes, and those are just as phenomenal as they were in the first book.  Maybe even more heartrending because seeing Sky's world fall apart from the outside is painful, and Holder's heartbreak for Sky is palpable.  But like I said, there is more to Dean Holder, and in this companion novel, you get to see just how much more, from beginning to end and everything in between.

“If I could pre-order a girl, I wouldn't even come close to the version standing in front of me right now.”

Rating:  

the Hopeless books

 
I believe I shared this when I reviewed Hopeless, but it still captures some of the best parts of these books, so I'm sharing April's book trailer again:

About the author:

Colleen Hoover is the New York Times bestselling author of Slammed, Point of Retreat, Hopeless, and This Girl. Colleen lives in Texas with her husband and their three boys.

Find Colleen:

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