This review is also available on my blog, Bows & Bullets Reviews
Dean Holder will never forgive himself for walking away from Hope. That moment alter his life in ways his childhood self couldn’t even imagine. Now, many years later, after facing tragedy and completely giving up on ever finding Hope, he is just making his way through life….until he runs into Sky. Sky looks so much like Hope that he seriously thinks she’s lying when she says otherwise. Then she shows him her license and that’s something you can’t argue with. But he is filled with the desperate need to know her anyway. The more he learns about her, the more he hopes his first impressions were wrong. Please, don’t let this girl be Hope. It will ruin her life and she likes her life. But all of us who have read Hopeless (and you should really read that first), already know where this is going and all we really want is to see how Holder takes it. Just prepare yourself because it’s everything you imagined…and more.
What is there to say about Dean Holder? I’m already in love with they guy before this novel started. Holder stole my heart in Hopeless. He’s devotion to Sky was heart-breakingly awesome. That’s the only term to describe this set of novels, heartbreaking. Colleen gives us what we want, we get a couple so in love that gets to have that happily ever after that all girls dream about, but she rips us apart along the way. Holder’s perspective is just as devastating as Sky’s was. The things he learns, especially about his sister just rip you in two. I found myself crying along with him as he learns about Sky’s past and why Karen took her and the whole thing with Les. The whole thing brought on deep, body wracking sobs. But, getting behind his eyes just made me love him more. As much as his love for Sky shines through in Hopeless, here, we get to experience it first hand. We get to see how he felt that day when he saw Sky wearing Les’ bracelet and his emotions over getting back with Sky after that break. He’s perfect, in that amazing imperfect way.
Obviously, we get more of Sky, but I don’t have much to say about that. She’s the same as she was in Hopeless, so there is nothing new to say. I will say that I officially love Daniel. That boy is hilariously awesome and I want to see more of him. I was a little sad once we start picking back up on the Hopeless timeline because we didn’t get nearly enough from goofy Daniel. He’s need to give everyone nicknames cracked me up on more than one occasion. I will be finding any possible way to squeeze Finding Cinderella into my reading list soon because I need more of him.
I actually really love novels like this, where you get the same story via a different perspective. Actually, what I love is novels told in dual perspectives, but beyond that, this is the next best thing. It might be better because you still get all the mystery in book one with not knowing what the other person is thinking and then everything is laid out in book 2. You get to see your favorite scenes over again in a new light and it’s awesome. I honestly don’t understand people who complain about them because they are “the same book.” Dude, the description tells you that. You know exactly what you are going to get when you go in, so if that’s not your thing, WHY THE HELL ARE YOU READING IT? Sure, new scenes will be added, but it will be the same scenes and dialogue over again. I really love that.
I love getting in Holder’s head and understanding his thoughts. I don’t think I loved it more than Hopeless because…well, there is no logical reason, but Hopeless broke me. Hopeless was that novel that just spoke to me and made me fall in love with Colleen Hoover. Sure, I really liked Slammed. I would even go so far as to say that I loved Slammed, but Hopeless was better and it has a special place in my heart. This is a close second to that. I adored it and I’m so glad that I have that pretty hardcover special edition now (::cough:: signed by Colleen and Griffin (if you don’t know who Griffin is, fix that!)).
Audio Notes:
I really thought I had listened to something else by Kirby, but I’ve perused his whole list on Audible and the only other thing I’ve read by him was This Girl and I read an e-ARC of that, so I know I didn’t listen to it. He does a pretty amazing job. He’s voice is nice and he has great pacing. He doesn’t hold back on the emotion. This book contains some difficult subject matter and he does a great job letting that emotion shine through. I definitely enjoyed him and I look forward to listening to more of his work.
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