Losing Hope by Colleen HooverSeries: Hopeless #2
Published by: Atria Books on July 8, 2013
Genre: Abuse, Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 336
Source: NetGalley
Buy on Amazon • Book Details
Rating: ★★★★
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.
Losing Hope and I didn’t quite start off on the best foot, but it quickly corrected itself and rocked hard from there!
I didn’t like Holder at the beginning of Losting Hope. The first thing he does is threaten a guy because he’s cheating on Holder’s sister. Rightly so, Holder is outraged. Then like 15 pages later he’s having sex with a girl who he KNOWS has a boyfriend. So he’s helping her cheat on him. What the hell??? I don’t care what your reason or excuse is, cheating is not okay. And the fact that Holder was so hypocritical about it pissed me off!
But other than that, Holder was everything I remembered from Hopeless. Sweet, thoughtful, funny, and intense. I’m actually kind of pissed that his awesomeness was tarnished by that cheating scene at the beginning of the book. It didn’t feel necessary to me at all; it just made me get off on the wrong foot with Holder.
Overall, I really liked Losing Hope, but I didn’t love it quite as much as Hopeless. I think the problems with these kinds of books is that you already know exactly what happens so some of the surprise is taken out, and when that happens it isn’t quite as exciting. For me, one of the best parts about Hopeless was the whirlwind that was the ending. Twist after twist after twist, like BAM BAM BAM. And obviously that still happened in Losing Hope but it didn’t feel as intense or as shocking since I already knew all the answers.
But I LOVE the emphasis on Les in Losing Hope. We learn so much about how Holder struggled with Les’s suicide. Sometimes, that extra element made Losing Hope feel like a completely different book from Hopeless (in a good way). It felt like its own story rather than the same story from a different point of view. Holder writes letters to Les in a journal after her death, and just the way he dealt with it was so interesting to read, but also saddening. So many of those letters (and Holder’s thoughts in general) broke my heart in half! Colleen completely jerked my tears around.
Just like Hopeless, Losing Hope was so quick and easy to get through. It was heavy and intense, but really captivating and that enabled me to breeze right through it! I loved being inside Holder’s head. It was kind of hilarious the way he analyzed some things, and he was so in love with Sky that he acted like such a love-struck teenager. It was kind of cute!
“So how are you liking Sky?” my mom asks. [..]
“She’s great,” I say. “I like her a lot.”
My mom puts down the paper and cocks her head. “She?” she says with an arched eyebrow. I don’t understand her confusion. I just stare at her until she shakes her head and laughs. “Oh, Jesus,” she says. “You’ve got it bad.”
Still confused. “What do you mean? You asked how I liked Sky and I answered you.”
She’s laughing even harder now. “I said school, Holder. I asked how you were liking school.”
Oh.
Or when he’s remembering a conversation Les had with her friend. Les’s friend says that if you just want to kiss a guy, you wear jeans. If you want something more to happen, you wear a skirt or a dress with easy access. Then when Sky wears a dress, Holder completely over-analyzes it.
What if Sky doesn’t know the rules to “make-out” clothes? What if she’s wearing this dress just for the hell of it? What if she’s just wearing this dress because her washing machine broke and all her jeans were dirty? What if she’s wearing this dress because she didn’t have time to change into jeans before I showed up at her house? What if she’s wearing this dress because she went to some sort of random church today that has service on Saturdays?
Ultimately, I loved this book and I definitely recommend it if you liked Hopeless! The only reason I didn’t enjoy it quite as much was because the epic twists no longer felt like twists, which made it a little less exciting and thrilling. But otherwise, it had the same emotional whirlwind feel and was equally romantic!
The Verdict
I loved Losing Hope so much I can’t even really explain it, Ashley. And the fact that he cheated in the beginning of the book made me realize just how out of it he was after Les’ funeral, and that it was as if he didn’t even feel alive at all. I’ve heard of people doing worse things when in the midst of horrible grief like that – so I guess I wasn’t as shocked as you were.
Excellent review, and I love your banner 🙂
I’ve been unsure about going in and reading this series. The hype and reviews so far seem convincing though.
But OMG! That first quote is simply adorable!
Lovely review, Ashley! <33
LOL I know!! I love that first quote so much!
I have a real problem with characters I am suppose to like cheating. I just can never get over it. No matter how great a person they are. But I will be reading this one.
Gosh, I need to read this book asap, it sounds really good and I LOVED Hopeless. Glad it wasn’t just a Hopeless 2.0, but you get more in this and learn a bit more about Holder.
I really have to read this one. If I add any more books to my TBR list, I’ll have to live a hundred more years. 🙂 Thanks for the great review Ashley.
Agreed! I’m not a huge fan of these books that just go over the same story from a different POV, but I thought that this one was better done than others. Okay, well, I’ve actually only read one other, but Losing Hope was better than that one. But, I agree that it lacks the element of surprise, which takes away some of the fun of the story.
I loved Losing Hope so much! Definitely more than Hopeless. I don;t like cheating at all but since we were in Holder’s mind and can see how much Les’ death affected him, I can kinda okay with it, and Lexxie mentioned, people do worst things than that during grief. The best part in LH were the letters. Oh, how much I loved them. They were really touching. Great review, Ashley. Damn, you make really good banner, I didn’t realize his eyes were that green.
I’m so glad you loved it! That’s awesome! 😀 I really liked the letters too; that was such a nice touch.
I actually made his eyes greener in Photoshop! 😀
I’ve heard much made of Colleeen Hoover’s work in the past and I believe I picked up Hopeless a few months ago when I found it on sale for Kindle one day. I’ve yet to read it as I haven’t always had the best luck with the New Adult genre. That said, after going back and reading your review for Hopeless, I’m definitely more interested in reading the first novel in the series! I may choose to skip Losing Hope though, as I often find that familiar stories told simply from a different perspective tend to lack the same spark as the original novel and can be a little repetitive.
I really need to get a move on and read both Hopeless & Losing Hope. There has been a ton of hype surrounding these two and thankfully the people I trust most in the bookish world appear to have LOVED it.
I loved this book. Normally the cheating would bother me but because Holder wasn’t the one in the relationship and also due to the circumstances, it didn’t change my opinion on Holder in the slightest. I get why it put you off though. Great review Ashley.
I still haven’t read this one even though I really loved Hopeless a lot. But.. just like you said in your review, often these books do not offer more story, it’s just the same story from someone else and that makes me a little weary to pick them up. Still, it seems like Losing Hope actually tries to deliver some additional info so I’m giving it a shot!
I really like how this one focused more on Les and how Holder dealt with her death. That was definitely a new element that got me interested!
I think the only bummer was that Hopeless was really big on the twists and turns. Those floored me! But in Losing Hope, we already know exactly what the twist is, so that made it slightly less enjoyable.
wonderful review, I gobbled this up on release date and will share my thoughts in August. I love that even though it’s a companion book it was fresh, with new information and of course Holder is wonderful..LOL
Completely agree with everything you said. I was confused why he was being such a hypocrite in the beginning. And the first scene was so sad! But after all that it got really good. I wished it was a little more different than Hopeless, but it was still pretty good. Great review.
I loved this book ~ my only bummer was how the book ended. You can guess as to what happens from there but would love to hear more about if Skye totally understood why she was taken from her dad & how was Karen related to it all & so much more as to what happens between Skye & Holder. They leave Karen hanging…. UGH! I want more 🙂