A story of tragedy, growth, forgiveness, love, guilt, and of course hope, this is the retelling of CoHo’s HOPELESS from Holder’s perspective. I loved the first book, and before reading this, I actually thought it was a sequel of the storyline, rather than a retelling. 

𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐈'𝐦 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐞 𝐛𝐲 𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞. 𝐈'𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥. 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐞𝐫.

We do learn a lot about Holder, in particular his loss of Les, and it was definitely interesting to see the relationship between him and Sky from his point of view, but in all honesty it wasn’t until probably the last third of the book that I felt this book/perspective was worth it. A huge portion of the book was a literal retelling, sometimes almost word for word, of HOPELESS and I found myself skim reading a lot of the first half. 

𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐰𝐚𝐲, 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐝. 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐞, 𝐭𝐨𝐨.

A big focus in this book is Les’ death, and we get a deeper understanding of what happened, and Holder’s journey of grief. This aspect was well-written, moving, and desperately sad. The letters from Holder to Les were a unique and creative way of really relating to the emotion, Les’ letter absolutely destroyed me🥺 and of course the discovery of Sky’s background is as hard hitting as in the first book. 

𝐈𝐧 𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡.

Although this was an enjoyable and sweet read, I do feel HOPELESS could have been written from a dual POV between Sky + Holder, and would have been just as impactful!