Hopeless Review: This Highly Passionate Love Story Is Not What You Think It Is
Hello Bookaddicts, I am back with another Colleen Hoover novel. I liked Hoover’s Confess a lot so I decided to pick another book of hers. Hopeless is nothing like Confess as it contains far more romantic scenes and deals with a really serious topic. This book is hopelessly sexy and passionate and if sexy and passionate is your type then read on to know more about this book.
Hopeless by Colleen Hoover
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.
(Synopsis from Goodreads)
Points I Liked About Hopeless
Twist: The synopsis of the book is completely different from kind of topic the book actually deals with. Even from the first 200 pages, I could not deduce that I would be led to a path that dealt with some serious issues. The characters in the book were so clichéd that I thought I was in for some regular teenage romance but the story suddenly shifted gear and I was gobsmacked by what confronted me. I will not say that the topic was handled in the most appropriate manner but it certainly was depicted decently.
Angsty Romance: I love characters that are jaded or wounded because then the story is all about how they heal and how the other character is present to help them with it. In Hopeless, Sky is immune to love and affection. She does not cry easily and feels absolutely nothing when making out with a guy. She feels almost emotionless till she meets Holder who invokes feelings she felt never existed in her. Everything about him makes her nervous and she wants him to make love to her even when she can’t reciprocate it. Holder too has a painful past as he has lost a sibling and is still reeling from the pain. They both help each other get over their pain as they find out how deeply connected their lives really are.
Points I Did Not Like About Hopeless
Mushy Romance: I am not exaggerating when I say that after a point I felt like I was reading a Mills and Boons novel. I am a romance lover but there is a limit to how much romance I can take. I enjoy romance when fed in healthy doses after certain intervals. Continuous exposure to graphic make-out sessions and lovemaking scenes makes me cringe. Holder is big time kisser. He kisses Sky at every opportunity he gets. I have gorged on hundreds of romance novels and never have I read the word ‘kiss’ as many times as I read it in this book. I was especially tired of reading ‘he kisses the side of my head’ over and over again in the book. I get it, ‘the side of her head’ must be his favourite spot by c’mon, spare me the torture.
Stupid Heroine: In the novel, Sky’s mother has brought her up in a very protected environment. Her mother worries a lot about her but does not think twice before agreeing to allow a stranger to run with her teenage daughter every morning. She’s just ensuring that someone is around to help her daughter the next time she happens to collapse. She won’t have her see a doctor but will appoint a young strange boy as her bodyguard. But Sky’s mother is not the only stupid lady, Sky is even more stupid than her. I was exasperated with Sky and Holder’s initial interaction. She is instantly smitten by Holder from the moment she first sees him. After that, she gets to knows that he knows a lot about her i.e. he has been stalking her. But that does not creep her out as she agrees to drink from the bottle that he offers her. Try to understand, Sky does not know Holder personally and has seen him only once before in her life whereas he knows practically everything about her including how much distance she covers each time she goes for a run. But Sky is so lost admiring his dimples and body that she ignores everything that screams ‘CREEP’ about him. I genuinely fell in love with Hoover’s heroine Auburn (from the book Confess) but Sky confused me with her principled promiscuous behaviour. (She only makes out with random guys but never sleeps with them. Huh? So, making out is fine?)
A major complain I have is with Holder’s dialogues. I believe that Holder is an extremely passionate and romantic guy but certain words he mouths that make his too unrealistic because guys do not really speak like that. Read some of the examples below and decide for yourself.
“Because, you know I’m right. I can’t kiss you tonight because kissing leads to the next thing, which leads to the next thing, and at the rate we’re going we’ll be all out of firsts by next weekend. Don’t you want to drag our firsts out a little”
Okay, he has a lot of self-control. Bravo!!
“Seeing my breathless reaction causes him to break out with a smug grin. “That was our first official kiss as a couple.”
Did he just say ‘our first official kiss as a couple’? Do guys really speak like that? I had to re-read the sentence to check if it was Sky who said that.
Convenient Characters: The story does not have a lot of characters as it is majorly focused on Sky and Holder. But the few decent characters like Six and Brecken are used and shoved as per Hoover’s convenience. I personally liked Six a lot but was disappointed when the book concluded without anything any hint about how Six’s life continues. Breckin too disappears suddenly without a trace. I felt Hoover should have added at least one line in the end explaining where these two characters end up in life.
Final View: If you like angsty romance then Hopeless is the best pick for you. It is cheesy but still a good read. I enjoyed the book and will recommend it only to a romance lover.
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