4 October 2014

Book Review: Hope for Her (Hope Series Book #1) by Sydney Aaliyah Michelle

(Click image to take you to Goodreads)

Format: earc
Publishers: Mark My Words Book Publicity
Published: 1st October 2014
Pages: 250
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary Romance
Main Characters: Carrington, Joshua, 
Date Read: 27th September - 1st October 2014
Rating Given:
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Synopsis:
No one ever expected much from him. 
Joshua Elijah Griffin, IV is on his last chance. A stint in rehab and a transfer to a new school has scared him into putting his life on track. He’s determined to live up to his family’s expectations, but on the first day of class, Josh meets a girl, and he knows his father won’t approve, but in Carrington, he sees a kindred spirit. He's willing to give up everything to be with her. 
No one ever thought she was special. 
Carrington Olivia Butler is ready to shine. Always in the shadows of her siblings, she goes away to college to break out of her shell. All Carrington wants is to feel special. Josh's attention is exactly what she craves, but their intense and sometimes volatile relationship is more than what she bargained for. 
Josh’s demons return, and Carrington’s feelings fade, but both aren’t ready to give up hope. They give their love one last shot to survive, but hope, may not be enough. 
**This book contains adult subject matter. Not intended for young readers.**

When I saw this on Netgalley I thought it sounded like something that I would enjoy but boy was I wrong...

I kind of like the cover for this book as they do remind me of the two main characters and I love the way that its been cropped into them so that they are the only focus in the cover.

This was one of the hardest reviews that I have had to write to date because apart from a few moments that where interesting in a good way the rest of the book I just didn't get on with. It started off quite good and I found myself wanting to find out more especially the 'love story' but it just didn't happen. I love my contemporary romance books with actual romance in it but I just didn't like Carrington and Joshua together as there was no real spark and definitely no love between them. As well as no romance that I was wanting it was also a dark and depressing story which is all I can say as I don't want to give anything away. What also annoyed me about this book was that there was so many punctuation mistakes and missing letters at the end of a word made it all the more confusing and I know that this is a earc but I still wasn't expecting so many mistakes and the biggest mistake of all was she called another character by a completely different name! I didn't like the ending as I felt Carrington was far too forgiving and no real happy ending apart from one bit which I was so happy about.

With the characters I had a love hate relationship with them all apart from one. Carrington started of being a strong character that I liked but then by halfway through she started to annoy me with the way she acted. It wasn't until closer to the end that I found her remotely likable. Joshua I wasn't sure I was going to like from the get go as he was a druggie which I just can't wrap my head around why anyone would think its a good idea to get off their face with drugs and alchol, but I thought maybe he would grow throughout the book. There was times when I kind of liked him and I did feel sorry for him with the way in which he had to grow up but in the end I couldn't help but hate him. The one character that I loved was Jackson as he was so sweet and always there for Joshua but he just wasn't in it enough for me. There was another character right at the end that you can't help but love but that's all I will say about that.

Overall I gave it a higher rating than I would have thought but I have given it the benefit of doubt and hope that the final version has cleared up all those mistakes. I would read the next one just to see what would happen next.