Reviews with content warning for Addiction - Hopeless: Special Edition

I have blitzed through this series in 4 days so you know I enjoyed it!

Speaking on Hopeless itself, I enjoyed Beau and Bailey’s story and the camaraderie that they share, coming from traumatic pasts and both living with insecurities around the unknown parts of their lives. It makes sense that they would be drawn together, though, like Beau, I do find the age difference slightly awkward. That being said, Bailey is clearly a 22-year-old who has had to be wise before her years, and Beau’s years in the military probably mean that his 20s and early 30s were not as progressive socially as they could have been. Maybe they meet in the middle.

Hopeless did not grab me as much as the other books in the series did, which is why my rating is slightly lower. I felt myself gravitating more towards the snippets of the other characters’ lives and wished we’d had more of that.

That being said, I still found Beau-Bailey endearing, hilarious and, frankly, emotional. I giggled and blushed and cheered for them. I hope they’re happy together forever, and I hope those Jansen boys get far away from Chestnut Springs.

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ms_brie3's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Great banter and relatable characters with a beautiful HEA. Als always, I appreciate the representation Elsie gives us of mental health struggles in relationships and the open-arm acceptance of partners and family.

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adub345's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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dianaschmidty's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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annica_fourie's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I read this in one sitting. I'm not even joking, I started it about 4 hours ago and I'm already done.

Beau was everything I could've hoped for and more. I was giggling and kicking my feet at the antics between him and Bailey.

I don't really have much else to say, because this entire series is perfection and I'm already planning a reread. I cannot wait to see what Elsie Silver releases next.

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torilovesheas's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

It kills me that this one was a bit of a miss for me. I sort of feared this one wouldn’t work for me and while I did really like some parts, it’s definitely my least favorite in the series.

The best part of this was Beau and Bailey as people and how they navigate a relationship when they don’t *really* know what they want to do with their lives. The time they spend with each other is sweet and I felt like that fit as a couple. Truly the best parts of the story are the intimate moments between Beau and Bailey where they’re just talking or making memories together. The age gap + virgin FMC worked for me in this one because Bailey’s reasons for remaining a virgin make sense and it never feels like her virginity is fetishized. (And she really doesn’t give a shit about it, tbh). Bailey is tougher than she seemed in earlier appearances and Beau is a bit softer than I was imagining which I loved! I love that we get to see the areas they compliment each other because it made their relationship believable in a set-up that was a bit non-sensical.

Which leads me to what didn’t work for me. There really was no reason why a fake relationship needed to be here and the reasons behind the fake engagement were very thin. In the grand scheme of things, this would have worked just fine as an age gap between a bartending town pariah and the big shot town hero without a buzzword trope thrown in. I need a trope like that to make sense and it didn’t here. There weren’t stakes high enough to warrant an entire engagement.

And as a final little grievance, if you’re going to have a character that very clearly needs therapy (in this case, due to PTSD from war), having them be totally anti-therapy isn’t going to work for me. And it’s probably largely personal because…living with and loving someone that suffers from PTSD isn’t going to be fixed by a happy relationship.

I am sad the series is at an end and I’m glad to know we’ll be Chestnut Springs adjacent in the next series! (Which I’m really excited for).

Thank you to Elsie for an ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own!

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