Hopeless by Colleen HooverPublished December 17th 2012
Source: purchased
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Goodreads summary: 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.
"Good books don't give up all their secrets at once." ~Stephen King
I thought of this quote more than once while reading Hopeless. From my initial expectations, over what this book started out to be, to what it turned out by the last page-we've gone a long way together and I'm glad to attest to the fact that it is a very good book.
The first few chapters raised a red flag or two; I just don't like the brooding stalkerish emo hot guy character who, more often than not, doesn't have any reason to act the way he does besides being a a-hole. Not Dean Holder. His concern for Sky was sweet and genuine. It was incredible to watch him picking her up time after time as the past comes to catch up on them. There's this sentence in the summary that bothers me: " Sky soon finds that Holder isn’t at all who he’s been claiming to be." Misleading? It's the reason why I expected that the story would go in another direction. So glad it didn't.
This book is carefully constructed so that it's impossible to see the full picture until the end, when all the pieces fall together. If you think you know what the big secret is (I assume, if you've read some reviews, you already know), I'm sure you're in for a few surprises. The full extent of it comes to show at the end. There are consequences for almost every character involved, and I suppose that is my favorite part of this book. Consequences, people. No cop-outs that drive me insane, but tackling the issue from every angle, with honesty and sincerity.
