Losing Hope by Colleen Hoover

At the end of July, I had the absolute privilege to get a tour of the Atria ( +Simon & Schuster ) offices in NYC. During my visit, I was given 2 books by one of my favourite writers, Colleen Hoover ; one of them was Losing Hope.

I guess it needs to be said that this review is based on the ARC, and my opinions are those of my own, and not because I was given the book.

I love Hopeless. I love Hopeless to the extent that I own 3 copies of the self-published version, and go out of my way to make sure that bookstores are displaying it a way that everyone can see it.

I feel like I’m going to get lynched for what I’m about to say next, but since a few people know where I actually live, I’m not that worried. Hopeless absolutely pales in comparison to Losing Hope. While Hopeless is ‘to the moon and back’, Losing Hope is ‘to infinity and beyond’.

I’ve had my heart ripped out by a few books, and I’m honestly not sure what I was expecting with this one. I can say for certain though that I was not prepared for the absolutely brilliant way that my heart crumpled for Holder from the very beginning. It takes a lot for me to cry while reading a book, and with Losing Hope, I went through a whole lot of tissues.

There is no question that this is the story of Holder, and while the author managed to knock the ‘supporting’ characters out of the ball-park (I don’t speak baseball, but it’s one of those hits that lands in the parking-lot the next block over), I cannot compare her stunning portrayal of Dean Holder to anything I’ve read in the last while.

I finished Losing Hope several weeks ago, and I’m still at a loss in trying to figure out how a person can capture such ugliness and exquisiteness in one book. The only reason that seems to make sense so far is that it’s because she is Colleen f***ing Hoover.