Hopeless and Losing Hope by Colleen Hoover

              Hopeless by Colleen Hoover as such an amazingly written book. When I picked it up in the library at school I thought it was going to be something simple and similar to a ton of other books that I’ve read but boy was I wrong.
             Characters: I am most definitely a character girl. I love an extremely well written character and this novel was full of them. I especially liked the relationships that Sky had with the other characters. Her friendship with Six, even though we don’t see them actually together too much is something unique. They understand each other and can pick on each other without the other taking offense. Also her relationship with Breckin is very cool. I really liked how he walked right up to her when they met and wasn’t afraid to tell her about himself. Now Holder on the other hand was sort of confusing at first. He was a very complex character. His temper seemed slightly out of hand at times and maybe a little frightening but when you learn why that is you learn that he had a semi-legitimate reason to act the way he did.  Sky was another complex character. She wasn’t like most teens with her lack of electronics and her lack of friends before attending public school. She and Karen’s relationship is another odd one. They are super close and although Karen was hiding things from Sky, she was a great mom to Sky.

               My Favorite Quote from the book can be found on page 125. Holder is explaining to Sky the reasons he can’t kiss her. I think that this shows just how complex and sweet Holder is.

                                “Sky, I’m not going to kiss you tonight but believe me when I tell you, I’ve never wanted to kiss a girl more. So stop thinking im not attracted to you because you have no idea just how much I am. You can hold my hand, you can run your fingers through my hair, you can straddle me while I feed you spaghetti, but you are not getting kissed tonight. And probably not tomorrow, either. I need this. I need to know for sure  that your feeling every single thing that I’m feeling the moment my lips touch yours. Because I want your first kiss to be the best first kiss in the history of first kisses.”

                Plot: Now at first this seems to be a simple book about a teen boy and girl falling in love but it is so much more than that. Colleen’s introduction of the true events in Sky’s life are really shocking and how Sky chooses to discover things about herself is also shocking, something I would never have the guts to face.

I really liked the way the book was written and the little cryptic flashbacks of Sky’s are also interesting and add a lot to the story. It wasn’t one where I was able to entirely predict the ending, not even close. My opinion of this book is that out of a 10 it deserves a 9.9 solely because I’m left with a few questions about the past and Holder which will hopefully be answered in Losing Hope, which is the same story told from Holders perspective.

              Losing Hope which is the same story told from Holder’s perspective. I figured I might not enjoy it as much but I was wrong. I enjoyed it just as much as Hopeless. The story although the same is entirely different. To be offered it from his perspective as well as hers is something not many authors are able to do well but Colleen does a very nice job with it.

                The characters are kept basically the same and we aren’t introduced to more really but we do learn a lot more about Les and Holder. I especially like the little letters he writes to her in the notebook. They offer a deeper Holder and it tells us exactly how he feels about certain things.  And the last one was the best. They are kind of like the flashbacks that Sky has in Hopeless.

My favorite quotes/passages are:

                “For the next few minutes, we’re completely lost in what feels like sheer perfection. Time has completely stopped, and all I’m thinking about while we kiss is how this is what saves people. Moments like these with people like her are what makes the suffering worth it. Its moments like these that keep people looking forward and I can’t believe I’ve let them slip by for an entire month (219).”

                “I didn’t want to let you down, Sky. I’ve let everyone down in my life that’s ever loved me, and after that day at lunch I knew I let you down, too. So… I left before you could start loving me. Otherwise, any effort to try not to disappoint you would be hopeless (223).”
                “And while seventeen years doesn’t seem like near enough time to have spent with you over the course of a lifetime, it’s still seventeen years more than the people that never knew you at all. So if I look at it that way… I’m pretty damn lucky…… I’m gonna live my life now, Les. A life I’m actually able to look forward to, and I honestly never thought I’d be able to say that (321).”