Book Review: Losing Hope (Hopeless #2) by Colleen Hoover

“But I’ve learned over the past year what it really means to be able to miss someone. In order to miss someone, that means you were privileged enough to have them in your life to begin with.”

― Colleen Hoover, Losing Hope

The impassioned tale that has warmed thousands of hearts is told by the endearing and captivating Dean Holder in the follow-up to Colleen Hoover's #1 New York Times bestseller, Hopeless.

Synopsis from Goodreads...

In Hopeless, Sky left no secret unearthed, no feeling unshared, and no memory forgotten, but Holder’s past remained a mystery.

Still haunted by the little girl he let walk away, Holder has spent his entire life searching for her in an attempt to finally rid himself of the crushing guilt he has felt for years. But he could not have anticipated that the moment they reconnect, even greater remorse would overwhelm him…

Sometimes in life, if we wish to move forward, we must first dig deep into our past and make amends. In Losing Hope, bestselling author Colleen Hoover reveals what was going on inside Holder’s head during all those hopeless moments—and whether he can gain the peace he desperately needs.

My reaction to this novel...

With much anticipation, I picked up this book because I had read and loved Hopeless, the previous one. The tale in the first book stuck with me even though I had read it a long time ago, so I was eager to read what was in the second. I had no clue how the narrative would go because I hadn't read the summary or any reviews before beginning this. Since the earlier book didn't appear to focus much on them, the first few pages look fine to me. It wasn't until I was reading that I realized this was actually written from Holder's perspective. 

I was curious in Holder's perspective, so I decided it was OK after realizing that this was largely about him. I was delighted to read it at first, but as time passed, I became bored. It's as though I'm simply reading the first book again. I'm looking for a different narrative, but the one I'm reading is a lot like the one I read before, so it's growing old for me. When that's the case, it's quite frustrating. It is similar to gradually growing weary of the same dish that you consume over and over again.

I found the opening section of the story—which concerns Holder's twin sister—to be rather interesting. Even though Holder was the one who saw his twin sister after the horrific occurrence, I didn't think he placed a lot of guilt on himself, thus that should be a really painful experience for him in my opinion. It did not appear to be good enough. Although Holder's struggles as a result of what transpired were documented, I still felt like something was missing. Feeling the feelings with the readers might make it better. Because in the tale, it appears like they were concealed and subsequently vanished. It's a little disheartening, then.

To make reading the second book less taxing, I think Colleen Hoover could have simply blended the perspectives of the two significant characters in just one book. Additionally, because this second book gets monotonous, it's best not to read it immediately after the first. The plot might have been a stand-alone novel; it was simply overly drawn out. It's frustrating because the first book was excellent and was written by Colleen Hoover, a well-known author in this genre. I was somewhat disappointed after reading this since, despite my great hopes, the novel fell short of my expectations.

I was somewhat dissatisfied, therefore I can't highly suggest this. The first book is enough for me, I don't mind that it ended a little loosely compared to this second book that is very dense. It gets monotonous. I won't read the third book anymore because I'm already tired of this story.

My Overall Rating: ⭐(1/5)