A reader’s delight

Exploring the triumphs of love, relationships and hopelessness with Colleen Hoover’s novels

Colleen Hoover is a bestselling author, with 11 novels and five novellas making The New York Times bestsellers list. Her stories are characterized as young adult or women’s fiction. Hoover goes into great detail when writing each character’s inner thoughts. Her descriptions are so relatable the reader becomes fully immersed in the plot and lives of the characters.

Hopeless

By Eleni Probonas, Contributor

Hoover’s 2012 novel is the first of the Hopeless series, preceding Losing Hope and Finding Cinderella. It is a captivating story that explores fear, pain and love in the most vulnerable way. It’s a real page-turner. Sky was homeschooled by her adoptive parents until deciding she wanted to experience high school like everyone else her age. Entering this new environment, she meets Dean Holder, who isn’t the person he claims to be. Holder is irresistibly drawn to Sky’s mysterious and blurred past. The two teenagers experience a beautiful and difficult romance. With Holder, Sky can love for the first time, and his presence jogs memories of a past she has repressed.

Hopeless explores the rocky journey Sky and Holder experience together. It also draws the reader in with an intense revelation about Sky’s past and the people around her. The plot is heavy, unexpected, heartbreaking and beautiful. The book’s title, Hopeless, which is also a tattoo on Holder’s arm, refers to more than just a lack of hope. It’s a sentimental part of the revelation.

 

 

 

 

 

Ugly Love

By Mia Anhoury, Assistant Life Editor

The novel Ugly Love (2014) is the perfect blend of attraction, intensity, beauty and ugliness. Hoover’s unique and incredibly well-written plot line brings together two characters who are far from perfect for each other. Miles is a broken-hearted pilot, with a past he doesn’t want to share and a future he doesn’t want to plan. Tate is a nurse without any time on her hands. Physical attraction and sex are the only things that keep Miles and Tate going back for more, despite all the complications. Hoover develops the characters’ storylines brilliantly. It’s a dual narrative; the chapters alternate between each characters’ perspective, and move from past to present and back again. This makes the characters perfectly three dimensional. Ugly Love is an emotional rollercoaster that will make you laugh and cry as you fall in love with the characters. It’s a gut-wrenching book in a good way, and every page is filled with emotion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe Someday Series

By Mia Anhoury and Eleni Probonas

In Maybe Someday, Sydney’s picture-perfect world shatters when she discovers her boyfriend is cheating on her with her best friend, who is also her roommate. She ends up homeless, until her mysterious neighbour, Ridge, whom she only knows because he plays guitar on his balcony every night, takes her in. They begin writing songs together, and she becomes his muse. The writing takes Sydney’s mind off her breakup. Falling for each other isn’t an option, because Ridge has a girlfriend, Maggie, whom he has sworn he will never leave. With twist after twist and Hoover’s compelling writing, the plot steers away from what the reader expects.

If the story wasn’t captivating enough already, singer Griffin Peterson recorded the emotional songs written by Ridge and Sydney so readers can listen to them as they read. This immerses readers deeper in the plot, as they can audibly experience what the protagonists have created together.

Following the release of her 2014 novel, Hoover wrote a novella, Maybe Not, with a plot set at the same time as Maybe Someday. It tells the story of Ridge and Sydney’s roommates, Warren and Bridgette. Bridgette is a 20-something girl who is angry at the world. Warren theorizes that, if she’s capable of hating with so much passion, then loving with the same amount of passion isn’t impossible.

Hoover then wrote Maybe Now, the sequel to Maybe Someday, which includes the perspectives of not only Ridge and Sydney, but Maggie, Warren and Bridgette as well. This story is also accompanied by Peterson’s soundtrack.

Related Posts