Hopeless – Z. Elizabeth

Finding Cinderella – Colleen Hoover

Posted on November 5, 2013November 3, 2013 by Z. Elizabeth

Synopsis

This novella is a companion novel to the Hopeless series, but can be read as a standalone.

A chance encounter in the dark leads eighteen-year-old Daniel and the girl who stumbles across him to profess their love for each other. But this love comes with conditions: they agree it will only last one hour and it will only be make-believe.

When their hour is up and the girl rushes off like Cinderella, Daniel tries to convince himself that what happened between them only seemed perfect because they were pretending it was perfect. Moments like that with girls like her don’t happen outside of fairytales.

One year and one bad relationship later, his disbelief in insta-love is stripped away the day he meets Six: a girl with a strange name and an even stranger personality. Daniel soon realizes the way he pretended to feel about Cinderella and the way he really feels about Six may not be so different after all. Especially when the two loves of his life end up being one in the same.

Unfortunately for Daniel, finding Cinderella doesn’t guarantee their happily ever after…it only further threatens it.

FIVE out of FIVE STARS

———————————————————————————————

My Review

GOD! Is there anything Colleen Hoover can’t do? She is pretty damn amazing in my eyes and every single book she has written has instantly become a favourite of mine and hot damn, Finding Cinderella, despite being a novella is pretty bloody perfect in my eyes. I want to thank Colleen for writing Daniel and Six’s story (I WANT…no NEED more of them though) and for making it free. That is an amazing thing to do, to thank us fans for loving you and your books. Even if it cost a bomb, I would have paid whatever to have a bit of Daniel in my life. I fell hard for him in Losing Hope.

Finding Cinderella, albeit a novella, makes you go through all the motions that a 300+ page does. Colleen Hoover knows emotion, she knows how to write it and how to drag it out of the reader. She knows how to use humour and angst and everything in between to keep you hooked, to keep you reading and who cares if this is 100+, this book has EVERYTHING wrapped up inside. The characters are developed, just like every single book of hers, the storyline drags you in, you fall for the characters, their lives, their emotions and you want to be with them and friends with them. Dear god, I will be fangirling so hard over Colleen on the 9^th of this month when I meet her.

We previously met Daniel and Six in Hopeless and Losing Hope, as they are Holder and Sky’s best friends, who are always there for them throughout everything. It was great to finally see them get center stage and get to be loved like Holder and Sky’s love. They are both freaking fantastic characters, both outspoken, funny, sarcastic but definitely loyal and protective to their best friend’s. So when they meet for the first time when Six is back from Italy, and Holder tells Daniel not to do anything, well, of course Daniel isn’t going to listen to him.

Colleen gets suck right in from the first page and we all know that Daniel didn’t get given a lesson during a fourth period and hangs out in the closet and then BAM one day, a girl falls on top of him crying and thus begins the find for Cinderella when she leaves him a few weeks down the line. Never knowing each other’s names, nor what the other looks like, Daniel wants to find her but he never does find her…

So I don’t want to spoil what happens or anything but that cupboard changes Six’s life and dear god, when everything is out in the open, you will feel the utmost pain go through you, you will cry your eyes out for her and for Daniel. They fell for each other so fast and hard and god, you just know they are the ones for each other just like Holder and Sky. They go through so much in the short space and come out the other side.

You see their vulnerable sides, their fierce side, their loving side and their carefree sides. We all know Six’s personality, even from the short appearance in Hopeless, and although she has changed a hell of a lot during her year in Italy, you can see that she still has that spunk, that fun-ness to her, despite thinking over the time in Italy and what was left behind. She and Daniel are just perfect together and I am SO HAPPY that Colleen has decided to write a feature length book on these two because I cannot get enough of them!

‘Daniel’ even gave me a nickname and that nickname is ‘Sugar Boobs’ I will cherish this nickname (I call my friends ‘sugar tits’ so I suppose this is convenient and super bloody freaky that Colleen gave this to me HAHA). I have to say as far as Novellas go, THIS THIS THIS is the bloody best one I have ever read and I have read a lot. God, I just love Colleen so much and I cannot wait to meet her next week 😀

Waiting on Wednesday: Finding Cinderella – Colleen Hoover

Posted on October 9, 2013October 6, 2013 by Z. Elizabeth

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine. It’s a weekly event that allows all us book bloggers and lovers to talk about what upcoming book we’re most looking forward to reading.

Synopsis

Unfortunately for Daniel, finding Cinderella doesn’t guarantee their happily ever after…it only further threatens it.

Release Date: 14th October and it will be a FREE novella.

(Six and Daniel are from Losing Hope and Hopeless)

Mancandy Monday

MANCANDY MONDAY!! The place where the hot guys go.

Posted on July 22, 2013July 21, 2013 by Z. Elizabeth

Every Monday, Blame It On The Book Lovers will be discussing their favourite book boyfriend of that week in a new meme called MANCANDY MONDAY!

We all love book boyfriends, so Man Candy Monday is all about sharing the love…and the hot guys around by letting everyone know the book boyfriend you have been swooning over this last week, and why!

Once you’ve posted your mancandy on your own blog, come back and post the link. We all want to know WHO your mancandy is this week and swoon right along with you.

This week The Book Lovers is featuring Dean Holder from the AMAZING Hopeless/Losing Hope books by Colleen Hoover

My Holder is the beautiful Mr Dean Geyer.

When I first read Hopeless, it instantly moved onto my Favorites list and then I read Losing Hope and that shot up the list too.

Holder is my mancandy this monday and i could talk about him all day long, why he’s just amazing, why i love him, why hes a top book boyfriend but if i babble on then this will just become a shrine to him and although that would totally be awesome, you would get bored. So instead, I’ll TRY to keep it short, but I can;t exactly promise anything to you.

So Holder *sigh*. I loved him the instant he appeared in Hopeless and my love for him just kept growing throughout the book. His life hasnt been the greatest. He blames himself for losing Hope when they were younger and he’s been holding onto finding her since then. When he spots Sky, he’s drawn to her, thinking she is Hope and then he just cant stay away from her.

He’s intense, he blows hot and cold but he’s also perfect in a broken way. He’s not afraid to express his feelings and the instant chemistry between he and Sky, well he could never have imagined to fall for a girl so fast but he was captivated.

He seemed to know what to say in the darkest of moments and also in the lightest. He’s not like any boy I’ve ever known and it was such a relief to read about a guy who felt so many emotions and had me hanging on his every word. He just knew what to do and say to make Sky and himself try to forget everything that was going on and he would do anything for her.

“I live you Sky…I live you so much”

Holder, as I’ve mentioned has gone through so many thing in his life. He’s lost Les and Hope, he feels guilty because of it, that he cant forgive himself. But with Sky, they both learn to fall in love, Holder slowly learn to forgive himself and his sister, learn that he can breathe again and that Sky is the end game for him. She’s everything to him and he can’t and will never lose her again. It would kill him.

You really will not know Holder until you read losing Hope. There is so much more to him so PLEASE read both Hopeless and Losing Hope and find out yourself why Holder should be on you BBF list.

Because we all love a bit of shirtless Geyer.

NOW go over to my Co-Blogger Laura’s blog and check out who she has picked to as her MANCANDY MONDAY

Join in with us and post your own mancandy monday then come back and share the link below

Colleen Hoover, New Adult

Losing Hope (#2) – Colleen Hoover

Posted on July 13, 2013July 6, 2013 by Z. Elizabeth

Synopsis

In the follow-up to Colleen Hoover’s #1 New York Times bestseller Hopeless, the charming and irresistible Dean Holder tells the passionate story that has melted thousands of hearts.

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.

5 /5 Stars

My review of HOPELESS

——————————————————————

My Review

If you’ve read my Hopeless review, you will know how much I adored that book. Like seriously? It’s on my favourites list and Holder is definitely a book boyfriend. When Colleen said she was writing a book in Holders POV and his story, well that book was going on my TBR list asap. Hopeless is pure amazing and I knew Losing Hope would be too.

I was not disappointed at all. Thank to NetGalley, I downloaded my copy and in two days, Losing Hope was read. It was devoured. I was sucked in and entranced by every word, every page and every feeling and thought Holder was telling us.

The fact that Losing Hope is NOT a retell of Hopeless…well I just love it. Yes there are certain scenes that are told in Holder’s POV but this is HIS story. His story from losing his sister, to finding Sky to finding Hope along the way. HIS story of how he began to live, how he fell in love, how he learnt to forgive and breathe again.

I had seen tweets that Losing Hope was more emotional than Hopeless and they were not wrong. A few pages in and I had to hold back the tears as I was in public. I ugly cried throughout the book, I felt every single emotion from Holder; I wanted to climb into my kindle and hug the shit out of him. I wanted to be there for him, be Sky and let him fall in love with me. Help him through everything he was going through.

If you have yet to fall in love with Holder in Hopeless, by god, you will completely and madly and totally in love with him in Losing Hope. He literally has my heart now. (I say this a lot. But it’s fine. It’s not cheating if they are from different books.) Daniel, Holder’s best friend also has a piece of my heart. He is utterly brilliant!

Colleen has written an AMAZING book in Losing Hope. She has you sucked in from the first page, she has you laughing, crying – ugly crying that is -, wanting to know everything about Holder. You feel. You feel everything in the book. There is no getting out of it and you won’t want to either because you will cherish all these feels.

We knew Holder was intense in Hopeless, but hes really intense in Losing Hope. But you can kind of understand why. I loved that you could see the story through Holder’s eyes. Experience his story and his feelings when that certain event happened. If you thought you knew Holder in Hopeless, you are mistaken. You won’t truly know him until you read Losing Hope.

Holder will completely surprise you. He did with me and there are certain scenes where I felt for him. My heart ached for him and although I understood why he did it, I wanted him to forgive himself, let himself love and this is why he and Sky were so perfect together. They were right together because they balanced each other out. They knew what they other needed without exchanging words. They knew each other well enough to know what the other was feelings.

“I live you Sky…I live you so much”

Just the littlest things they did meant so much to one another and I love this kind of love. It’s the purest form and they both definitely love one another so much that they can’t live without each other.

Holder is angry, hes confused, hes scared and he can’t forgive himself for losing both his girls but you watch him slowly fall in love, slowly learn to forgive himself and his sister, learn that he can breathe again and that Sky is the end game for him. She’s everything to him and he can’t and will never lose her again. It would kill him.

We see him relationship with his sister, Les, with his mum and of course Sky. We see different sides to him, sides you will fall in love with, sides you will want to smack his head but you will understand why, why he acted that way, why he did that certain thing. And in the end you will sob your heart out, be madly in love with Holder and love the journey he has been through in the last 13 months, see how far hes come, especially with Sky.

NOW to Daniel, Holder’s best friend. I cannot tell you how hilarious this dude is. The first time he is mentioned, I wanted to kiss him because the things he says are just so freaking funny. He is an awesome best friend to Holder, protecting him and sticking up for him, even wanting to get into fights for him. You know he will always have your back. The banter between him and Holder had me in stitches and you can really see the bromance between the two. It was lush to see that Holder had someone who cared for him and would do anything for him.

The ending was perfect. You see the closure that Sky and of course Holder needed. The closure to breathe again, to learn to love and forgive and let go of the grief that was held up inside of him. You see he and Sky come along way, a life where they are both in love with each other, a life where they are the end game and are happy together – happy to have finally found each other again.

Although it would be totally lush to have a book beyond Hopeless and losing Hope, I love the fact that it ended like that. Where Holder learnt to forgive and he and Sky are off to start the rest of their lives together. The way it should be.

If you have get to read Hopeless, please do get it. It is easily one of my favourites and I cannot recommend it enough. You will love Sky and Holder. Then go and buy Losing Hope and fall even more in love with Holder and his story this time. There are a lot of surprises and twists in losing Hope that aren’t in Hopeless and you will feel every emotion, and cry your eyes out. Remember what I said….if a book makes you cry, it’s a bloody, damn great one!

Colleen Hoover, New Adult, Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting On Wednesday: Losing Hope – Colleen Hoover

Posted on May 15, 2013May 12, 2013 by Z. Elizabeth

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine. It’s a weekly event that allows all us book bloggers and lovers to talk about what upcoming book we’re most looking forward to reading.

I have been so excited for this book every since Colleen mentioned she was writing Holder’s POV. I am such a HUGE fan of Hopeless and it is definitely one of my fav books so to get Holder’s POV, well i am ecstatic!!

NOW we FINALLY have a cover and I can do a WOW for Losing Hope. God that cover, it’s definitely swoon-worthy and I love that it is in tune with the Hopeless cover!

Synopsis

In the follow-up to Colleen Hoover’s #1 New York Times bestseller Hopeless, the charming and irresistible Dean Holder tells the passionate story that has melted thousands of hearts.

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

Release Date: 9th July 2013

30 Day Book Challenge, Colleen Hoover, Jade C. Jamison

Day 11 – Favorite pairing

Posted on March 21, 2013March 19, 2013 by Z. Elizabeth

Okay, so I can’t pick JUST one pairing. I love waaay too many to narrow it down, so just bare with me while i begin to tell you who i love.

1. Blake and Livia from Poughkeepsie by Debra Anatasia.

Throughout everything that happened in this beautiful book, Blake and Livia fought through it. Whether it was the stigma attached to homeless people and talking to them/falling in love. From ex-boyfriends who wanted revenge for being dumped for a homeless guy, to murders and attempted murder. Throughout it all, these two knew they were meant to be and do anything to protect each other. And despite it all, they did get their happily ever after.

Poughkeepsie is about finding love and protecting those you love and Blake and Livia definitely deserved one another.

2. Holder and Sky from Hopeless by Colleen Hoover.

I cant say too much about their storyline in fear of spilling what happens in the book. Their relationship started off rocky but eventually it blossomed into love. You will see the journey they take and understand why i cant say anything about it, because it will ruin the book but their love is pure for one another, it always will be because they have found the person they have been searching for, for so many years. Although there are things that test them, they never falter in their love for one another, knowing that together, they can get past anything that is thrown their way, as long as they have each other by their sides.

3. Andrew and Camryn from The Edge of Never by J.A Redmerski

During this challenge, I have badgered on about TEoN and how utterly amazing it is. Well I LOVE Andrew and Camryn. They are easily one of my favourite couples. They were both lost, not knowing which way to take, taking a journey alone across the country but then they met one another and Andrew took Camryn on a road trip – a discovery into making every moment count. He helped her discover her sexuality, helped her discover who she truly was and in turn, they fall in love with one another slowly, afraid to admit it due to their pasts. For those who have read this book, you will know they were two souls who were meant to meet, meant to be together. As Andrew said:

“For the first time in my life, I’ve felt whole, alive, free. You were the missing piece of my soul, the breath in my lungs, the blood in my veins. I think that if past lives are real then we have been lovers in every single one of them. I’ve known you for a short time, but I feel like I’ve known you forever.”

4. Anna and T.J from On The Island by Tracey Garvis-Graves

Anna and T.J’s relationship was kind of inevitable. If you are stranded on a desert island for years, with just the two of you, then of course, you’re going to fall in love. But its not just the fact they are on a desert island, Anna is 30 and TJ is 17. Anna, although she is starting to see TJ in a different light as they spend year after year together, she knows she cant do anything about it. She’s worried about the age gap but its TJ who pursues her, who woos her and doesn’t care about the gap. I just loved how their friendship changed into love and into a relationship as it was only the two of them, trying to make a ‘home’ on this island. They truly love each other and as a reader, you’re sat wishing someone would come along and find them as both of them do not want to die and leave the other on their own.

5. Erin and Riley from Everything But by Jade C. JamisonT

I love this book. Seriously!! and i love this couple too. Erin and Riley are both afraid of love due to their pasts but they both cant seem to stay away from one another during the week that Rockstar Riley is in town. Spending the short time together, they both begin to feel something for the other, completely new and scary territory for the both of them as they don’t want it to end up like their previous relationships. They tackle some major issues during the days they spend together and get to know one another, which makes them fall that little bit more for each other. They push past everything that had happened throughout the week, to finally finding that they can’t be without each other, no matter what is put in their path to stop them.

Colleen Hoover, New Adult, Romance, Suspense

Hopeless – Colleen Hoover

Posted on January 25, 2013February 8, 2013 by Z. Elizabeth

Synopsis

Sometimes discovering the truth can leave you more hopeless than believing the lies…

That’s what seventeen-year-old Sky realizes after she meets Dean Holder. A guy with a reputation that rivals her own and an uncanny ability to invoke feelings in her she’s never had before. He terrifies her and captivates her all in the span of just one encounter, and something about the way he makes her feel sparks buried memories from a past that she wishes could just stay buried.

Sky struggles to keep him at a distance knowing he’s nothing but trouble, but Holder insists on learning everything about her. After finally caving to his unwavering pursuit, Sky soon finds that Holder isn’t at all who he’s been claiming to be. When the secrets he’s been keeping are finally revealed, every single facet of Sky’s life will change forever.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

My Review

Seventeen year old Sky has been homeschooled all of her life. She doesn’t have a TV, internet or a phone but it doesn’t seem to faze her, until she begs to go to public school for her senior year.

Everything changes for her after school when she goes to get her secret hit of sugar from the supermarket. That is when she meets Dean Holder who has a reputation bigger than her but also stuns her into silence as with just one look he causes her body to feel things she’s never felt before.

Although he scares her, she’s captivated by him and the more time they spend together, the more he seems to bring out so many emotions but then he also brings out memories that she seems to have forgotten to the service. Ones that she has seemed to forgotten for a reason.

Holder is harbouring a secret and although he wants to stay away from Sky, he can’t. He needs to know everything about her but this secret he has will break Sky but when it’s finally revealed, it changes everything in Sky’s life forever. Thankfully Holder is there to catch Sky throughout it all.

Sky never knew why she didn’t feel attracted to any guy she made out with. She just went along with live thinking she’d never feel attracted or feel lust with anyone, but one look at Holder in the supermarket she was stunned. He was the first guy EVER to make her feel these things and he literally made her heart skip a beat which confused the hell out of her as she has NEVER felt anything for any guy before! Although she had been home schooled, she seemingly has a reputation around the town they live in. She and her best friend Six know the truth but Sky plays along with everyone’s opinions on her when she goes to school.

You can see she’s strong, sarcastic and bluntly honest girl who can definitely hold her own against Holder when they argue. But she’s also a girl who has started to feel new emotions that are foreign to her but she acts questions and Holder answers her as honestly as he can. They are the perfect match for each other and although they got together fairly quickly, it seemed to right for them to do that and I love that they didn’t hold back.

The first time Dean Holder is introduced, he’s smoking hot and a little intense. He blows hot and cold the first few times he is around Sky, which only makes her assumption about him being intense all that more truthful. With her attraction to him, she gets pissed off numerous times over his ‘tantrums’ he seems to pull every so often until there is a period where he stays away from her. But Holder is harbouring a secret that he cannot and will not tell Sky as it will break her but staying away from her is something he cannot do. He needs to be with her and needs to know everything about her. There’s just something about her he can’t pinpoint…

I loved Holder from the beginning. You get to understand why he acted the way he did further along in the book and why he just couldn’t stay away from Sky. He’s been on a mission for the past few years and he was beginning to give up until he found Sky. He’s also very attracted to her and even though they hadn’t known each other long, their chemistry and their charge just kept pulling them together. In the short time, they seem to become everything to each other and to me, it didn’t seem all that strange that they were falling in love quickly, especially when they secret comes out.

Everything that came out of Holder’s mouth was just perfect. He seemed to know what to say in the darkest of moments and also in the lightest. He’s not like any boy I’ve ever known and it was such a relief to read about a guy who felt so many emotions and had me hanging on his every word. He just knew what to do and say to make Sky and himself try to forget everything that was going on and he would do anything for her. Just you read and find out yourself!

There is one scene, okay quite a few, but this one, I KNOW everyone has probably written about it in their review and I’m just another person who will too. The scene where it was the best first kiss, that wasn’t a first kiss. HA you will have to read the book to see what I mean. I was getting so flustered over that scene and it makes it much more intense and sexually charged that my heart was pounding so fast in my chest, it felt like I was experiencing this too – that sounds pretty weird I know, but holy moly, that scene!!

Also the scene where I felt all panicky like Sky was a scene near the end where she’s in the shower. I felt all her emotions and my heart was beating with how much I would be like her if that had happened to me. I kept running a hand through my hair while reading that scene.

I really liked reading all the flashbacks. They are an important part in the story and you see how they integrate into Sky’s life and how they mould her into the person she is today. Since her adoption at 6 years old, she has seemingly forgotten everything about her childhood but slowly she starts to remember things she has pushed away from memory and the dreams are just the click into remembering everything before the adoption. She has never emotionally or physically been attracted to any guy until Holder enters her life and down the line you will see why that is…The flashbacks are essential to the plot.

I had many different theories about the secret, some which I were hoping were not true – I have to say, some of them were – but when the BIG secret was revealed , HOLY SHIT, that secret hadn’t even crossed my mind. That was a complete shocker to me and I’m glad I didn’t figure it out because I sat up in bed, mouth open, rereading that sentence. I don’t think anyone saw that coming!

The ending was a flashback and it kind of pulls the whole story together and makes you think back over the whole book, putting the final finishing thoughts to it as a whole. It took me a while to sleep after I read it as tears were continually falling down my face and I couldn’t stop them. Hopeless is now one of my favourite books and I don’t know why it took so long for me to read it.

Colleen Hoover has made me fall in love with her! Her writing style was refreshing, the book had me hooked from the very beginning and I was captivated until the very end, needing to know what was going to happen next to Sky and Holder. From the Sky and the stars to the pinky holding, it all made complete sense to me as to why they felt so familiar and this book is definitely real. It will drag your emotions out and make you feel things for the characters involved; you will feel connected to them.

A book with so much depth, so many emotions, so much love, and one big secret is definitely a book that needs to be read. Seriously, if you haven’t read the amazing Hopeless, download your copy now and understand why this book is now one of my favourites.