3 out of 4 stars
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Losing Hope by Heidi Lis is a romance about love, loss, and the road to recovery. On her birthday, Hope receives a call from her ex. The two have a turbulent past and her ex claims to have evidence of a night Hope would rather not remember. Anxious to get rid of this so called evidence, Hope heads to her ex's house. A fateful car accident later leaves Hope in shambles as she is riddled with guilt over the death of her mother. Luckily, her close-knit family and her best friend will be there with Hope as she begins the long road to recovery. As Hope's journey continues, she finds love in some unlikely places.
The narrative is told from Hope’s first person perspective. For the most part, the point of view enhanced the story by allowing the reader to get to know Hope on an intimate level. Her thoughts and feelings, amplified by the narrative perspective, were easy to relate to and sympathize with. However, halfway through the book the author introduces a male narrator, one of Hope’s love interests. Although he only narrates a few chapters, these chapters felt meaningless and failed to further the story. Additionally, the second narrator’s voice sounded very similar to Hope’s, making his chapters actually detract from the tone of Hope’s narration.
The author wonderfully creates a narrator that shows realistic growth over time. Hope’s recovery isn’t merely focused on her complicated, romantic relationships; her difficulties returning to work, maintaining familial relationships and friendships, as well as her exploration of therapy are all major parts of this story as well. Moreover, Hope’s mental pain and physical pain are two distinct entities. As her physical wounds heal, her mental scars remain and continue to transform and reappear throughout the narrative. Hope’s narration realistically represents the emotional state of a trauma victim.
While Hope is a great narrator, the secondary characters are the most enjoyable aspects of this book. Hope’s best friend, Ireland, has a fiery and unpredictable personality that made for humorous and engaging scenes. Similarly, Hunter, Hope’s spitfire brother, quickly becomes endearing because of his love for Hope and his desire to protect her. On the other hand, Hope’s main love interests, Ian and Damien, felt rather flat and stereotypical; both men failed to have any unique personality traits, making them blend in with the story rather than stand out.
Unfortunately, the novel is in need of additional editing. Prepositions and articles are consistently missing throughout the narrative. Though the errors were not major, they occur too often and interrupt the overall flow of the author’s writing. The grammatical errors, lackluster love interests and seemingly pointless change in narrator all lead me to rate Losing Hope 3 out of 4 stars. However, Hope’s engaging narration and her road to recovery make for an endearing story that fans of light romance will easily enjoy. Please note, there are some graphic sexual scenes in this book that are only suitable for a mature audience.
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Losing Hope
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I'm not typically a romance fan either, but every once in a while I like to switch it up.
