Book Review: Finding Cinderella

Finding Cinderella (Hopeless #2.5)
by Colleen Hoover
ebook, 105 pages
Published October 14th 2013 by Atria Books
Source: Amazon (freebie)
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.

Finding Cinderella is a companion novella to the Hopeless duology that focuses on the story of Holder's and Sky's bestfriends, Daniel and Six. I haven't read the books yet so I have no knowledge about these characters' backgrounds. But what encouraged me to read this, apart from it being free, is that it comes so highly recommended by peers and even has an average rating of 4.6 with over 7,000 ratings in Goodreads. It's probably one of the most highly-rated books I've seen in GR, which means that I was also all the more wary about it since me and popular, well-loved books don't always go well together.

I didn't fall head over heels in love with Finding Cinderella but I had lots of fun reading it. Daniel and Six are both funny characters. They are so much alike in their personalities and I loved that they are also bestfriends as much as they are a couple. They are like the opposite gender of the other. Both are overly flirty, smooth talkers and they're so solid together that Six doesn't get mad when Daniel calls her a slut. She calls him douchebag or asshole in return. This was enough to scandalize me at first really, but that's how their playful banters are always like.

Daniel also has a very supportive family that likes to humiliate him. I almost laughed out loud when they made masturbation jokes in front of Six when he first brought her to his house. They are also infamous for playing reverse psychology on him. Additionally, I enjoyed reading about Daniel and Holder's relationship as best friends. I love it when boys display pretty bromance so I'm glad that Colleen incorporated one in the book. I just wish there were more (platonic) "I love you's" between them in the story.

However, much as I had fun reading Finding Cinderella, there were quite a few issues about this that I found difficult to get over with - the main one being, wait for it... insta-romance! *Cue deflated groans* When Daniel was first introduced to Six, he already wanted to put her spoon in his mouth - that's literal, by the way - and he couldn't stop narrating how spectacular she is. Six's name was also a bit distracting for me, like a phantom itch I can't scratch. I have nothing against all the Six in the world and this is the first time a fictional character's name bothered me so much. I don't know why, but it does, so please spare me. Another issue of mine is that moment when Six first stumbled into Daniel in the room and she was crying. I really don't know what she was crying about and Colleen didn't explain it any further. I thought I was going to get a proper one as the story progressed because I was really intrigued, but sadly, I didn't get any.

With only a little over a hundred pages, Colleen did a fantastic job interweaving Six and Daniel's story together. The romance might have developed a little too fast for my taste but compared to other full-length novels with speedy romantic progress, I say that Colleen did it better. This is focused more on the romance, but I'm glad that Colleen didn't forget to incorporate a plot, covering almost all the aspects a normal-length book has. It is well-paced as far as novellas go with a jaw-dropping shocker near the end.

I enjoyed Colleen's Slammed and Finding Cinderella reminded me so much of it. The tone used in this novella is reminiscent of Slammed's. And while it's probably one of the reasons why I enjoyed this, I'm afraid that this also made Finding Cinderella a forgettable read for me.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

4 comments:

  1. It takes a really good writer to create something amazing in 100 pages or less, so 3.5 stars out of 5 is a very good effort in my eyes! I really like reading stories about lovers who share a friend-dynamic too, it just seems so much more realistic and I feel like I can really root for them because their relationship has more depth than the other insta-love ones. How unfortunate that there's insta-love though, but I kinda understand it when there's only around 100 pages to tell the story!

    I totally agree with you about the name Six, Chel! There's just something weird about it, like a strange tick you can't help. Wonderful review!

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    1. You have a point about the insta-love, but I recently read a short story with around the same length and it doesn't have one. Anyhow, I'm glad I'm not the only one bothered about her name, lol!

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  2. Oh I loved Hopeless I really have to put this one on my list. I knew it was a companion but I hadn't checked who it was about before now. I find it's often like that in short books/novellas, everything is either too fast or too short, but still it sounds like a pretty decent read! :) I'll def be getting to it I was actually thinking of reading Losing Hope next!

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    1. I finished Hopeless last night but I didn't like it that much. Often, yes, but there're still some novellas I've read that are neither slow or fast and I crave for that. Glad to know you liked it though and I hope you like Finding Cinderella too!

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