Review: Losing Hope by Collee Hoover

Losing Hope by Colleen Hoover

New Adult Contemporary Romance

Received an ARC from Atria Books through NetGalley

Published July 8, 2013

 

 

I was so excited to get my hands on Losing Hope since it was one of my most anticipated sequels this year. Colleen Hoover is such an amazing writer that invokes such strong feelings in her books. And I was not disappointed with this one.

 

Dean Holder is the voice of Losing Hope. His story is a little rougher on the language and behavior since he is a guy, but I loved his story. We get to hear his side and Colleen did an amazing job at getting us into his head and feeling his emotions. We learn what he has been going through since losing Hope so many years before and then how he battled with losing his sister, Les. One of my favorite parts was reading the journal entries he was writing to his sister in the empty notebook. That probably gave the most insight into what he was going through.

 

A lot of the stuff that happens after he meets Sky was a little repetitive, but since we get to know what is in his head and a little of how he feels about her it makes it seem not so much. It was hard to read about what he was feeling about hoping Sky and Hope were not the same person, because I could just feel how hard this was going to be on him to let her know.

 

Wonderful book written in a male perspective, and I would recommend Colleen's books to 18+ readers. Contains moderate language and bedroom scenes.

 

My Rating: 5 stars



Blog Tour: Love Exactly by Cassandra Giovanni

Today I am excited to be participating in the blog tour for Cassandra Giovanni's new book Love Exactly. There's a great giveaway as a part of the tour! Don't forget to hit each blog each day for extra entries by searching for the bold term and entering it in the rafflecopter!

Book Description:

Emma Walker was a writer who'd lost herself to someone else's anger--who had given up on ever feeling like herself again.

Evan Levesque was a rock-god--the one all the woman wanted, but he'd never gotten used to the loneliness between the stage and real life.
With just one cup of coffee they'll begin a journey of self-discovery at each others sides, but can Emma handle Evan's fame while dealing with her own demons? Emma's checkered personal past, a bad relationship that haunts the edges of her memories, threatens to make everything implode on them when Evan takes matters into his own hands.
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but your words...they'll destroy my soul--Can Emma handle being put back together and facing who she's become because of it?

GENRE: New Adult and Contemporary Romance

Mild to moderate sexual content



Excerpt from Chapter 1:

Evan shrugged as he grabbed our drinks and headed in the direction of the lounge area. He sat down in a love seat and nodded for me to join him before handing me my coffee.

"Welcome to Heaven on Earth," he toasted before taking a sip.
I took a sip before pulling my knees up to my chest and turning so I was facing him.There was a crooked grin as he looked over the top of his coffee at me. “So what’s it like being Lois Lane?”I looked down at my own cup as a smile I couldn’t prevent spread across my lips. I glanced back up at him as I answered, “I don’t get to work with Superman, but I get to cover stuff like Mister Whiskers being stuck in a tree, the newest cookie flavor at Betty’s Baker, and of course, the basketball games.”
"What did you really want to be?" he asked as he leaned back in the chair with his eyes searching mine. It felt like he really cared even though every part of me cried out for me to believe otherwise because of who he was.
"I wanted to write young adult novels—I wanted to be the next Stephanie Meyer...a best seller over night and rich as all hell—to just do what I loved."
"Meyer is a lot older than you. You still have a shot at that."
"Yeah..."
"Besides being rich as hell isn't all it's cracked up to be...it's hard to make real friends that way."
"I could understand that."
"So who stomped on your hopes and dreams? Some big shot agent?"
I shrugged. "Let's put it this way, I spent forty grand on a school loan that amounted to nothing...I used to be afraid to say that my degree was useless...because then I would be saying it didn't teach me how to write—""It didn't though; it’s just like no one could teach me how to really write music."
"So you had no formal training?”
“I had a little—just like you, but it never seemed to matter… either I was a musician or I
wasn’t—simple.”
“I wish it was that easy with writing,” I said with a sigh, my fingers tapping the top of my coffee.
“Why isn’t it?”
“The publishers didn’t give a crap about my degree, but they wouldn’t listen to me without it.” I shook my head. “I read an article once that said to be a best seller you need to sleep with a publisher. That didn’t really appeal to me, though.”"I can’t even tell you how many people have asked me who I slept with to get where I am. I was freaking  sixteen—I’d never even touched a bra before!”
As I started to laugh my cell phone began to ring out one of his songs. I gritted my teeth together as the blush rushed up my chest and to my face. "Oh, this is embarrassing," I muttered as I fumbled to shut it off.
When I looked up our eyes met; his were narrowed over the top of his coffee, paused in halfway
to his mouth.
"You know who I am then?" he asked, lowering the cup.
I nodded in response, trying to gauge his reaction—did he really believe I didn't know who he was? Maybe that was why the shock and awe he instilled in the barista agitated him."Why did you act normal and not squeal and stop breathing?"
I let out the breath I had been holding and laughed. "Seriously? I don’t do that. You're still a human
being—God of poprock or not."
"I wouldn’t refer to myself as a god," he retorted, rolling his eyes.
I took a sip of my coffee and nodded towards the girl still trembling behind the counter. She was holding her permanent marker as if she wanted to ask but knew she shouldn't.
"I think she’d disagree," I teased.
"Ugghh..." was his deflated answer.

Novel Playlist:

1. Never Gonna Leave This Bed-Maroon 5

2.  One More Night-Maroon 5

3.  Payphone-Maroon 5

4.  Use Somebody-Kings of Leon

5.  Sweetest Goodbye-Maroon 5

6.  Mirrors-Justin Timberlake

7.  Make This Go On Forever-Snow Patrol

8.  Daylight-Maroon 5

9.  Secret-Maroon 5

10. If You Could Only See-Tonic

11. Inside Out-Eve 6

12. Smoke and Mirrors-The Audition

13. The Way You Move-The Audition

14.Southern Girl-Incubus

15.Eyes-Kascade (Ice Mix)

16. Love Somebody-Maroon 5

17. Just a Feeling-Maroon 5

18. Sunday Morning-Maroon 5

Spotify:

Love Exactly Playlist

	Anyone with the link
	Anyone who has the link can access. No sign-in required.

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Author Biography:  Cassandra doesn't remember a time when she wasn't writing. In fact, the first time she was published was when she was seven years old and won a contest to be published in an American Girl Doll novel. Since then Cassandra has written more novels than she can count and put just as many in the circular bin. Her personal goal with her writing is to show the reader the character's stories through their dialogue and actions instead of just telling the reader what is happening. In 2012 she became a published Young Adult author, releasing In Between Seasons (The Fall, #1) and Walking in the Shadows. In 2013 she branched out by using her artistic illustrating talents to publish her first Children's novel, The Adventures of Skippy Von Flippy: Tales of Friendship (Skippy Tales, #1). Cassandra will also release her first New Adult novel, Just One Cup, in the Spring of 2013.

Cassandra is a freelance professional photographer known for her automotive, nature and architectural shots. She is the owner of Gio Design Studios, a photography and publication marketing company that designs covers and marketing materials for authors utilizing the company's photography. She is currently studying to receive a degree in Marketing. Cassandra is happily married to the man of her dreams and they live in the rolling hills of New England with the other loves of her life their dogs, Bubski and Kanga.

Author Links

www.cgiovanni.com  Blog  FaceBook
Goodreads

Rafflecopter Giveaway:

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