Review: Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

Title: Hopeless
Author: Colleen Hoover
Pages: 486 pages
Format acquired: eBook (Kindle)
Publisher: Atria Books (May 7th 2013)
Published on: December 17th 2012
Source: Purchased from Amazon
Pre-order the book: Amazon / Barnes and Noble



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.

(Image and summary taken from Goodreads)

Review:

If there's one thing I learned growing up, it's to always listen to my mother. And when my mother tells me to read a book (she recommended) when I have the time, she actually means "you better read this book before I disown you". You think I'm kidding? I'm not. So obviously me being the obedient child I am, I read Hopeless as soon as my mom told me to. Add the fact that I absolutely love Colleen Hoover, it didn't take that much convincing for me to read Hopeless. When I say that I love Colleen Hoover, I literally mean, I love her. If she wasn't already married to Tina Reber, I'd totally tweet her everyday until she gave into my creepiness.

Hopeless exceeded my expectations and more. The story, the characters, everything latched onto my heart until all I became was a hopeless little mess. I laughed guffawed, I cried bawled and I felt experienced with the characters. While I was in Colleen Hoover's world, I was no longer Louisse, stalker and blogger extraordinaire, I became Sky, a home-schooled, technologically disabled teen girl. (I , unfortunately, didn't actually get to hook up Holder along the way, that was all in my head. Lucky Sky.) To say that this book was intense would be the biggest understatement of the year. I honestly didn't even see half the book coming, I felt like The Hulk threw a fourteen-wheeler truck at my head when the story started unraveling. If someone were to ever receive an award for the best/most plot twists in a book, it would have to be Colleen Hoover. You won't see anything coming.

Sky is definitely one of the best heroines I have ever read about. She's not your typical witty/snarky prtoag, Sky's is the type of girl who's mastered the art of deadpan. Being inside her mind was both fun and really painful. Sky is such an expressive person... on the inside. On the outside, she seems really closed off and pretty suspicious, most likely because she was raised by only her mom, Karen and no one else. She's been cooped up in her home for the last few years (and yes, she's home-schooled.) Sky is the perfect example of a teenager in the twenty-first century who can live without technology. I repeat, without technology. Nada. Non. El zip-o. I'm sure that you're all pretty suspicious yourselves as to what goes on at the Davis household but I assure you, nothing nefarious. I think that the only time I actually saw Sky get flustered was when she met Holder. You could just tell that a little something-something was going on between them but as I have said, Sky is the type of person who's always calm and collected. She's not the kind of girl who inwardly flails over a guy because of his extreme hotness, which is a relief. There's a consistency to Sky's personality that is really good and the way Colleen Hoover fleshes her out, she really does turn into a real human. A person that you can relate to and appreciate (and squee over Holder with.) Sky definitely has a lot of comical moments, moments where you will find yourself laughing out loud, like, legit LOL-ing. As the book goes on though, you'll definitely see different sides of Sky (no, she does not have a multiple personality disorder.) It was hard seeing such a strong person so vulnerable and I actually felt my chest ache for her. The way Colleen Hoover creates characters that you'll invest yourself in really amazes me. I got attached to every single one of the people in this book, and Sky isn't the only one who fell in love with Holder...

I'm the type of reader who falls in love with practically every fictional guy I read about but with Holder, I didn't just fall for him, I think I imprinted on him too. *cue Twilight music* But joking aside, Holder has to be one of the most complex male characters I have ever read about. He is so invested in Sky's life that you can actually see that he'd literally do anything for her. Most people judge Holder because of his past misbehaviors but I feel like people misunderstood him. He's been through so much, he's lost important people in his life and he just needed an outlet for all that anger. My heart broke for him reading about all the things he went through, all the pain and anguish he felt. You can clearly see that Sky was the only shooting star in his everlasting night, that she was his salvation. Holder treasured Sky and treated her with outmost care, but not too much to be doting. I love their chemistry together, they went so smoothly together that you can see how much they truly belong together. Sky and Holder's moments together never failed to warm my heart.

As I'm typing this, I'm actually recollecting everything that happened in Hopeless and there are literally tears in my eyes right now. Hopeless is easily the best standalone novel I have read (and is currently my favorite of Colleen Hoover's books. I'm still waiting for Losing Hope though.) I can still remember all those intense emotions I felt reading Hopeless, I felt hopeless myself while reading the latter parts of the book. I felt helpless and quite honestly, useless. I wanted so badly to be able to help Sky in her ordeal but I just knew that I couldn't. All I could do was read on and see what would happen next. I worried and worried but I knew that everything would be okay as long as Holder and Sky were together. I don't think Sky would've been able to to make it through without Holder to hold her hand throughout the whole thing, he was her rock and guide. Her very own guardian angel.

The scenes between Sky and Holder are absolutely the sweetest things you'll ever read. They are not only swoon-worthy but will also leave you hot and bothered. They're innocent and yet there's an underlying tension as well. Especially the Firsts! Someone fetch me a glass of cold water please! *swoons* So intense. *dreamy sigh*

I think that Sky had a lot of angels surrounding her though. Her mom, Karen, for one. Her best friend, Six and her Mormon friend, Breckin, too. They were all there for her even though they weren't completely in the know, they grounded her and they were her comfort. They were her "normal" when everything was in complete chaos. And some of them also had the answers she was looking for.

I am so completely amazed as to how Colleen Hoover wrote Hopeless. Even the smallest of details were carefully thought out and perfectly executed, you never would've seen it coming. I'm not sure if you've watched Book of Eli (starring Denzel Washington) but if you have, do you remember that moment when you found out in the end that he was actually blind, and you kept trying to remember his tells from the very beginning of the movie? It was exactly like this. As things will start to unravel in this book, you'll keep wondering how you missed those little details. You will be left speechless once you find out all these hidden facts. You'll realize how everything little thing is actually connected and when you find them, you'll wonder how you didn't see it. Colleen Hoover, you are a genius.

Hopeless was, in my opinion, Colleen Hoover's best book so far. I am so relieved that my mom is a complete Colleen Hoover addict that she bought Hopeless as soon as it was published in the Kindle store. There are moments where you will find yourself laughing and enjoying the book and then suddenly have 360-turn and find yourself crying your eyes out. Hopeless is what other books what to be but probably won't ever become, it's dynamic and powerful. It will rock you to your very core and then some. And the way it ended? It was perfect for me. I cried at the ending, btw. Like, literally at the very last page. I was both relieved and saddened with how it all went down, but I was completely satisfied. I cannot recommend Hopeless to people enough. This book will change you as much as it changed Sky's life. I lived this book and I will live it for many years to come.

Rating:

(This is the second book that ever gotten a 6/5 Star rating from me. It is so well-deserved and I feel honored to be giving this rating to Colleen Hoover and her book. Also, Hopeless is our 100th review on the blog! Yes, I totally planned this. Haha!)