Book Review: Finding Cinderella

Finding Cinderella (Novella)
(Hopeless #2.5)

By:  Colleen Hoover

Published By: Atria Books

Publication Date:  October 14th, 2013

Page Count:  105 pages

Buy it at:  Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

Source:  FREE Novella Offered by the Publisher

Audience:  Mature Young Adult Contemporary Fiction

Oh! Easily 5 stars! What a pleasant surprise this was.  I have to admit that I wasn’t really chomping at the bit to read this novella about Daniel and Six. In Hopeless and Losing Hope, I found Daniel to be likeable as the not-to-be-taken-too-seriously best friend of Holder’s…and admittedly, I only had eyes for Holder, but first impressions are not always accurate because did he ever win me over in Finding Cinderella!  Daniel just may have usurped Holder’s throne with this addictive short little story.

Colleen Hoover’s novella about Daniel’s love-life, as I said, was a pleasant surprise.  Not only was it engaging…but I literally had a hard time putting it down.  It was light and fun for the most part, and awfully romantic.  (Those closet scenes had me swooning.)  And just when things were humming along perfectly for Daniel and his new love…BOOM…major shake-up I so did not see coming even though I knew there had to be some trouble in paradise!!

Of course, Ms. Hoover had to introduce something to put this new, intense relationship to the test.  And boy, did she ever.  But what was funny about that…the story almost didn’t NEED it.  I was obliviously lost and fully content just witnessing these two who just seemed so perfect for each other, fall in love…without being all sickly sweet.  They fell for each other…hard…and it was really just all kinds of awesome.  And then the big whammy had to go put a monkey wrench into their euphoric world.  And it was a shocker.

Daniel was really the perfect guy.  He was intense but in the most adorable way.  After reading about Daniel’s life, it’s easy to see why he and Holder were best friends.  In retrospect, I think I might have fallen a bit for Daniel in Losing Hope after he stuck up for Holder in the cafeteria following the death of Holder's sister.  He was just there for him whenever Holder needed him…and vice-versa in Finding Cinderella.  Getting into Daniel’s head and listening in to his thoughts was just something I didn’t expect to enjoy so much.

We also met Six in the previous books…she was Sky’s best friend with a bad reputation.  We didn’t get to know her much in the previous books and she also didn’t seem like a character I really wanted to get to know more.  But again, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked her character too in this novella.  She had a lot more depth than the ‘slutty’ persona she portrayed in the previous stories.  She and Daniel were both very similar…and seemed to fit perfectly together like two puzzle pieces.  I also wonder if the author plans on telling Six’s story next.  There were still a couple of big questions I had in my mind that didn’t get answered.  I’d be on board with that…more Daniel and Six is a good thing!

Of course, considering how close they all were…Sky, Holder and Breckin have cameos throughout as well…and I loved checking in with them.

Another thing I loved was Daniel’s family.  Easy to see where his personality came from.  They had me chuckling frequently…as did Daniel himself.

And one more thing worth mentioning, and it seems to be a trademark with Colleen Hoover’s characters that I’ve read thus far, is that all of the words that seem to come out of their respective mouths always seems to hit a bulls-eye.  They are always perfect said, honest and true.  Their words just always seem to pack a punch.

As much as I probably could have read more and more, it really was just the perfect length of story…and I enjoyed every single minute of it!  And because it can be read as a stand-alone...and it's currently FREE...I urge you to go check it out!

Summary from Goodreads:

This novella is a companion novel to the Hopeless series, but can be read as a standalone.

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.