Book Review: Finding Cinderella (Hopeless 2.5) by Colleen Hoover
Category: Young Adult, Contemporary
Publication: October 14, 2013
Book Pages: 105
Synopsis: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon
[book rating=5.0/5.0]
A chance encounter in the dark leads eighteen-year-old Daniel and the girl who stumbles across him to profess their love for each other. But this love comes with conditions: they agree it will only last one hour and it will only be make-believe.
When their hour is up and the girl rushes off like Cinderella, Daniel tries to convince himself that what happened between them only seemed perfect because they were pretending it was perfect. Moments like that with girls like her don’t happen outside of fairytales.
One year and one bad relationship later, his disbelief in insta-love is stripped away the day he meets Six: a girl with a strange name and an even stranger personality. Daniel soon realizes the way he pretended to feel about Cinderella and the way he really feels about Six may not be so different after all. Especially when the two loves of his life end up being one in the same.
Unfortunately for Daniel, finding Cinderella doesn’t guarantee their happily ever after…it only further threatens it.
Review
I was first introduced to the character of Seven “Six” Jacobs in Colleen Hoover’s absolutely stellar novel Hopeless. That’s why I was ecstatic that the sassy, numerically named, firecracker got her own novella. When we last left Six in Hopeless she was on her way to ravaging half the male population of Italy on her foreign exchange visit. Flash forward to her return and you have her meeting Daniel, the best friend of her best friend’s boyfriend (got all that). One could say it was love at first spoon lick for Daniel. The story is interesting in that it’s told from Daniel’s perspective, which was a nice change of pace. Daniel is the type of hero that renews my faith in the YA genre. He’s charming, funny as hell, caring, and adorable. The chemistry between Six and Daniel is instantaneous and electric. I’m always amazed at an author’s ability to get across a true connection in such a short amount of time but that’s exactly what happens with these two characters. Their banter alone is worth the price of admission, (which is FREE by the way):
“Hey, don’t blame me. I’ve gone eighteen years swearing off boyfriends and then you show up out of the blue with your vulgar mouth and terribly awkward first kisses and now look at me. I’m a hypocrite.”
“I don’t even know your phone number,” I say.
“I don’t even know your birthday,” she says.
“You’re the worst girlfriend I’ve ever had.”
Daniel and Six have a whirlwind romance and from the minute these two meet you are just rooting for them to make it. Of course it wouldn’t be a true fairytale without some strife along the way and I found myself holding my breath at a few crucial moments but just like Cinderella, Six is destined for a happily ever after. You don’t need to have read Hopeless to read, Finding Cinderella as it operates as a stand alone but I highly recommend reading both. I found myself grinning like a fool through almost the entirety of this short sweet story and I guarantee you will too.
