Review - Hopeless by Colleen Hoover

Title: Hopeless

Series: Hopeless #1
Author: Colleen Hoover
Release Date: 2012

Pages: 327

Goodreads Rating: 4.48 stars

My Rating: 5/5 stars

My Content Rating: Very Mature YA/NA (Sexual content, Abuse)

Summary from Goodreads: 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.

I don't even know how to begin reviewing this book.  It's the type of book that sticks with you.  That you can't stop thinking about.  It was touching, funny, heartbreaking ... I could really go on and on.

The negatives:

• Holder doesn't start out on the best foot.  Okay, Holder is admittedly creepy at first.  Sky herself mentions a few times that he scares her and that he's on the verge of being stalkerish.  This isn't okay - it shouldn't be okay.  And it isn't at first, even to Sky.  But then she starts to get to know him a little better and realizes that he's not that scary persona that he's been portraying.  And, in fact, we learn later in the story that there are actually some really good reasons for the connection between Holder and Sky and for his "off" behaviors. This is what saves it for me and what stops me from removing any stars at all.

What I LOVED

• The mysteries unraveling.  This book, at its heart, wasn't really about a bad boy and the girl who breaks through his shell (well, okay, it is to an extent, but it's much deeper than that).  It's the circumstances around Sky's connection to Hunter, her upbringing, her past - all of these mysteries that unfold throughout the story.  A lot of them I saw coming before they were actually revealed, but that didn't cut down on the suspense because there were always new mysteries unfolding. And there were a few real surprises in there.  Even though some of these mysteries are made relatively obvious almost from the beginning, I don't want to really talk about them here because that will spoil that unfolding process.  I knew that people loved this book, but that was about all I knew about it, and I'm really kind of glad of that.  
• Sky and Holder. Once again, I can't even talk too much about the connection between these two without feeling like I'm giving stuff away.  Suffice it to say that their relationship starts out messy (at best) and works its way up to amazing.  We all want a Holder in our lives - someone who makes you feel so much more than you ever do alone.  Someone who wants nothing more than to make you happy and to protect you from what can sometimes be an ugly world (and, yes, the world in this book is sometimes ugly). Someone who supports you and trusts you enough to let you face that ugly world anyway - and who stays by your side through it all.  That's Holder.

Hopeless is an amazing story.  I really can't describe it any other way. I give it 5/5 Stars