Book Review: Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

Hopeless (Hopeless #1)
by Colleen Hoover
Published: December 19th 2012
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance
Format Acquired: egalley from Netgalley
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

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.

It's quite scary going through all the ratings and reviews of this book on Goodreads. You won't find a lot of low ratings. That's why writing this review is kind of scary for me. I feel like I'm stepping on a minefield when I say that Hopeless is just okay for me.

I think the main reason why I'm not that much into this book is the pacing. The first half of the book was confusing for me. Sky meets Holder early on and right off the bat you know something's wrong with him. The guy has a bad temper but of course Sky would look past that because she's curious of the hot guy who may or may not be a stalker. I was mildly annoyed but I have to admit I was hooked because of the mystery that surrounds Holder. I wanted to know what was making him tick. So yeah, I got a bit of feels when they were getting cozy. There were plenty of lines that were sweet albeit cheesy but what the heck, right?  That was still entertaining.

Then it got to the core of the story and the big plot twist and... woah, woah, woah, woah, woah! (woah!) I knew some kind of big revelation would happen but I wasn't expecting something this big! And this is where the pacing becomes problematic for me. The book was going slow in the first half and I didn't quite see where it was going, then we're given this chunk of information that was just too much to digest! I feel like I wasn't prepared for any of it. It was a shocker and I like the twist but as a whole, it didn't quite work out for me.

SPOILER ALERT!!!

After everything that happened, it was surprising how Holder and Sky were able to joke about their sex life. It was uncomfortable for me to read that, even if it was kind of a funny moment between them, because the book deals with sexual abuse. It didn't make sense to me how easy it was for them to joke about it. Furthermore, I didn't like how both of them handled Sky's shock upon learning the truth. I may not be an expert on the matter but I'm pretty sure having sex with your boyfriend for the first time would erase the emotional pain from childhood sexual abuse.

One other thing I didn't like, and this is just a teeny tiny rant, was how mature 6 year old Holder was. I have vivid memories from when I was in kindergarten but I don't remember being so... wise. Holder told Sky some pretty deep stuff about stars and friendship (I think. I can't remember much anymore) that it sounded way off. Am I supposed to believe a six year old came up with that sort of wisdom? I know kids say the most grown up things sometimes but young Holder didn't sound believable to me. Holder getting hung up on finding the girl he lost when he was six is believable because it was something traumatic so it definitely left a mark in his memory. But Holder sounding so profound at age six? Nope, I don't buy it.

It's sad rating this below 3 stars considering I stayed up all night (I went to bed around 6 a.m.) finishing this book. I guess I had trouble liking the whole of it. I liked it in parts but as a whole I think it wasn't all that. Had the pacing been smoother I think I would've enjoyed it more. Maybe I should've started with some other Colleen Hoover book because Hopeless clearly wasn't for me.