The plot to Hopeless is somewhat overdone. This same scenario has happened in almost every new adult novel. With that said, my attention wasn’t exactly captured by the story. Sure, it was heartfelt at times. But, for the most part, it was a little silly with the way the characters acted. What kept me from tossing out this book (metaphorically as it’s a library book) was the fact that I was admittedly entertained by Holder’s creeper ways.
The first time Sky catches Holder’s eyes is anything but romantic. In fact, in normal situations it would be the precursor to a suspense or thriller novel. Girl meets boy at grocery story. Boy intrigues girl. Boy follows girl out to the car and asks for her name. Instead of accepting that it isn’t the person he’s looking for, boy gets mad and throws a hissy fit. See? Far from romantic. Sky drives away paranoid yet still smitten by the guy and his smoldering looks. Like come on! That should be a major indicator that he is psychotic and to stay away. If this was real life, the cops would have been called because I would fear being taken or killed. Not Sky.
She spends all her time thinking about this creeper she doesn’t even know. It consumes her thoughts so much that she must go for a run to clear her mind. And who’s house does she almost faint in front of? If you guessed Holder, you are correct! From this point on they start spending almost every day with each other. One thing is always constant, Holder’s outbursts of anger. He either ends up walking away or punching lockers. His temper worried me to the point where I feared for Sky. Did she think about the consequences? Nope. Sky remained very naïve towards things.
The main plot with Sky’s reason for memory lapses is incredibly sad. I did feel for what happened to her. It gave her character a good backstory. However, I wasn’t expecting it. I don’t need trigger warnings but for those that do: this book does contain references to incest and child molestation. The ending of the book did deal heavily with hard subject matter. I felt that it was dealt with too rushed and in a “fluffy” way. In the ending scenes with Karen (Sky’s stepmom), it is particularly rushed. I would have liked there to be a more realistic grasp on how Sky dealt with her situation. She did not have enough time to go through emotions. Most of it was centered on Holder’s reactions and his guiding her to feel a certain way. There was no allowing her to process it by herself, unless you count half a night. That took away from the plot. Maybe I was a little too hard on the book as I was expecting something completely fluffy.
Can we just please come up with different plotlines for NA books?
