Book Review and Giveaway for Without Merit by Colleen Hoover

WITHOUT MERIT
by COLLEEN HOOVER

Not every mistake deserves a consequence. Sometimes the only thing it deserves is forgiveness.

The Voss family is anything but normal. They live in a repurposed church, newly baptized Dollar Voss. The once cancer-stricken mother lives in the basement, the father is married to the mother’s former nurse, the little half-brother isn’t allowed to do or eat anything fun, and the eldest siblings are irritatingly perfect. Then, there’s Merit.

Merit Voss collects trophies she hasn’t earned and secrets her family forces her to keep. While browsing the local antiques shop for her next trophy, she finds Sagan. His wit and unapologetic idealism disarm and spark renewed life into her—until she discovers that he’s completely unavailable. Merit retreats deeper into herself, watching her family from the sidelines when she learns a secret that no trophy in the world can fix.

Fed up with the lies, Merit decides to shatter the happy family illusion that she’s never been a part of before leaving them behind for good. When her escape plan fails, Merit is forced to deal with the staggering consequences of telling the truth and losing the one boy she loves.

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MY THOUGHTS......

I cannot, nor will I, pretend to try to give this a starred rating. I base my ratings off the ability of the author's words to evoke emotion, and the emotions I get following the story, the feeling I get falling in love with the characters, and the eventual culmination of their relationship. I got none of that. Because this was NOT a romance, it read more like an after school special, to borrow Luck's words. This almost felt like it was a PSA that was geared towards 15 year old girls, and that I am not. So, having said that....

I hemmed and hawed about this book review and was really concerned about posting it because this wasn't a typical book I'd read had I truly known what it was about. Sad enough to say, I almost felt like I wasted my time. I know that sounds horrible, but I only pushed on because a.) it was CoHo and b.) I wanted to see it through. I tried to DNF this book three times, but the story intrigued me. I figured I just needed to know what everyone's deal was. I thought the writing was really good -- typical CoHo style that intrigues you and keeps you turning the pages, but the story itself was b o r i n g as hell to me. Why? Probably because I was hoping for a little romance and a lot more action. I am not sure why I expected that because it wasn't really marketed that way, but I sort of expected it since CoHo writes epic romances. I just assumed, and well...you know what they say about assuming. Lesson learned. So instead, we had a day in the life of a depressed and misunderstood teenaged girl that was too young/immature to really be able to try and figure life out so she lived with a life full of assumptions, all the while having a crazy family dynamic surrounding her in every way. I had some sort of problem with the dad, the mom, the step-mom, the step-uncle, the friend, the sister and the brother.....but Moby was a cutie. And Wolfgang was cool too. And they were all under the same roof!! Literally, every.single.character. had issues.

One thing I know after reading many of Colleen's posts on Facebook and in her Cohorts Group is that she has a very different sense of humor and that came out ten-fold in this book. Very much so. There were some giggle worthy moments, for sure. But there was a deeper message she was trying to convey in this one but again, it's not something I would have willingly picked up. It just wasn't for me. Am I saying this was a bad book? No. But it's not something I would recommend to anyone to read....I am not sure I enjoyed it, even though I couldn't put it down. Weird, I know.

I am not entirely sure my review on this one will be valid in any way. I am not normally a YA reader by choice, and this book was honestly the exact reason I am not. This one was on the very innocent and young side of YA, and not to say that is bad - on the contrary. This one was very well written, but very kooky. Yes, kooky. Again, between the family dynamic, the names of the kids, the living situation and a whole bunch of other little things, this one was a tad bit off for me. I don't know what was more frustrating; the fact that I wanted to put it down, or that I just couldn't put it down. Of course, this will not deter me from reading another book by Colleen, but I will be making sure it is a more mature book with some romance in it. 

"Not every mistake deserves a consequence, some just deserve forgiveness."
BEE

PURCHASE

AMAZON: http://amzn.to/2fNGOaM

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~MEET COLLEEN HOOVER~

Colleen Hoover is the New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, including the #1 bestseller, Hopeless. She lives in Texas with her husband and three children. She is the founder of The Bookworm Box, a book subscription service which donates 100% of its proceeds to charity. She also owns The Bookworm Box, a specialty bookstore located in Sulphur Springs, Tx.

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