Hopeless (Hopeless #1) by Colleen Hoover

Title: Hopeless
Series: Hopeless #1
Author: Colleen Hoover
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: December 19, 2012
Pages: 327
Source: Audiobook, Audible

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.

Review

Was I reading the same book as everyone else? Because there are an overwhelming amount of glowing reviews for this book and I just don’t understand it. At all.

Holder is not likeable. Maybe Holder was a good guy in the last 1/4 of the book but what about the first 3/4? I don’t care that his most controversial behavior is explained in the end, it is not at all excusable or justified. He was temperamental, invasive, controlling, insulting, selfish, threatening and unpredictable. His behavior was so off-putting to me that “off-putting” is putting it mildly. How is it ok to show aggression toward a girl, stop talking to her for weeks with no explanation, and then CLIMB IN HER BEDROOM WINDOW IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. Not to apologize. He didn’t want Sky to forgive him (he said this). He just needed her to need him there more than she needed an apology (he said this too). This is just one example. Excuse me while I go throw up in my mouth.

I like Sky only slightly better than I do Holder. I have no respect for her because she has no respect for herself. And that has nothing to do with the several boys she lets take advantage of her (although that certainly doesn’t help) and everything to do with how she is so accepting/forgiving of Holder when he gives her every reason not to be. She admits to being TERRIFIED of him on SEVERAL occasions and yet she lets him continue to control her. And I thought that she acted pretty irrationally, selfishly, and without thought in the second half of the book. I understand the horribleness of her situation and I am not trying to be insensitive, but I’ve read books involving sensitive subjects and they were handled much better than this.

Now I am not going to say this book was ALL bad. I liked the friendship between Six and Sky. I think Breckin was awesomesauce. And I think Karen was a really good parent to Sky. There were some good lines in this. And the ending wasn’t terrible. Then again I could have been misplacing my glee over finally finishing this book. That is the extent of the things I liked. And sadly, the things I didn’t like totally overshadowed them.

So no, I don’t think I can recommend this book. There are so many books either of the contemporary, swoony boy, and/or sensitive issue variety that are better than this one in my opinion. Then again, I seem to be a black sheep.

And for the record, There were an awful lot of panty dropping references for a girl who considers herself a virgin and a book involving child molestation. Just saying.