3.75 as a stand alone, but as a sequel paired with hopeless its 4 stars

I love Colleen Hoover (as pretty much every reader does) and the "Hope" book series is incredibly well written. However, I liked the first volume from Hope/Sky's perspective a little better. In this second volume, the same story is told from Dean's point of view and apart from the opening and ending scenes and one or two chapters in between where he meets up with friends, you don't learn much new. I found dean's diary/letters great, as they clarified dean's feelings and were even written in a really funny way (my notes in this book are actually mostly in places where I laughed out loud). Daniel is a guy I would like to have as a friend, just like Breckin in volume 1. It was also interesting to finally get to know Dean's perspective and fill in the gaps from volume 1 where he disappeared, for example. You also get a better sense of what and whether he means something seriously and what his feelings are. Moreover, at no point did I have the impression that scenes from volume 1 were missing. The great thing is that the dialogues were taken over 1:1, only instead of Sky's monologues, they are Dean's here. Nevertheless, the ending didn't quite convince me, so I can't give it 5 stars. It was too perfect and too abrupt for me (although we know a lot from volume 1).

The appeasing letter from Les, Dean's mom who is happy again and likes Hope, Karen who just lives on.... the trauma and suicide of the father is no longer an issue, although there is certainly still a lot to work through...i don't know

All in all, a great book that is worth reading!

I gave this 4.5 stars because it’s a very compelling story, but it is not at all an easy story. Hoover deals with several really tough issues along the way, and the reader is taken along on this journey. 

If you loved “it ends with us”, you’ll love this book so much too. 100% reccomended to anyone who can get their hands on it