I was provided with an ARC of this book by the publisher via NetGalley.

Goodreads Blurb

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…

My Review

I read and liked Colleen Hoover's Hopeless, so I was excited about reading Losing Hope which tells the same story from Dean Holder's POV. It was an OK read for me, but I was disappointed since I expected much more of it.

The emotions, the drama, the tragedy we know from Hopeless (and some more) were all there but they were already familiar and lack the excitement of unravelling of a new story.

The novel starts with events preceding the meeting of Holder and Sky, including Les's suicide. All this was new and interesting, giving a useful background the Holder's character.

I liked Holder in Hopeless but here his friend Daniel stole the spotlight. He was funny and entertaining and I really enjoyed his presence in Holder's life. He provided a much needed comic relief in contrast to the gloomy and depressing tone of Holden's musings.

I didn't not like very much the idea with the letters Holder wrote to Les. I am not really fond of the letters being used as a literary device for plot development. In this particular case Ms Hoover used the letters to present Holder's feelings which created a distance between the character and the reader and made it difficult for me to fully connect with him. The letters were also used for the introduction of major plot developments thus giving them the same weakness - lack of connection and a feeling that these events were not genuine to the plot but somehow they were superimposed on it. 

It is Holder's book, but still I think Sky/Hope should have been more prominently placed in it. She had such a strong presence in Hopeless and was an intriguing heroine to follow, but here I felt like she was missing from the story completely. 

Although the book does have a sweet happy ending, it felt too sugary sweet to be real. It was like both Holder and Hope recovered from their past overnight and everything suddenly felt into place. I am also not happy with the things shared in Les's suicide letter and the way her family handled the whole situation. It just didn't seem right to me and came in conflict with some personal beliefs of mine. 

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I expected initially and now having read it and also having read This Girl, I can definitely say that I am not a fan of separate books telling the same story from different POV. Even though I did like This Girl (see my review) more than Losing Hope, I still feel it is better to have single book with dual/multiple POV.