BOOK REVIEW: Finding Hope by Colleen Nelson

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. The scheduled publication date for this book is March 19, 2016.

Hope lives in a small town with nothing to do and nowhere to go. With a drug addict for a brother, she focuses on the only thing that keeps her sane, writing poetry. To escape, she jumps at the chance to attend Ravenhurst Academy as a boarding student. She’ll even put up with the clique-ish Ravens if it means making a fresh start.

In some ways, this was a very good book. There were two POV's: Hope and her brother, Eric, who was addicted to meth. I simply adored Eric's POV, but not because I loved the subject matter. I didn't. His world was so chaotic and full of just one thought: how to get his next fix. Their parents (mostly their dad) had kicked him out of the house after he stole hundreds of dollars from their mom, but Hope and her mom just can't let go. Eric lives on the streets and Hope leaves him gifts of food and clothes and money. Hope and her mom let him come in the house when their dad isn't home. I was so ready for Hope and her mom to just stop enabling him. I wanted him to realize how much of a mess his life was and to get help. Hope took so much crap from her brother, but she just wanted him back. Colleen Nelson did an incredible job with describing what it was like to be a drug addict from Eric's POV. Eric would talk about his hopes and his needs and what his life was like before he became hooked on drugs.

Hope was kind of bland and kind of naive. I kind of wish that the book had been made of entirely Eric's POV. Those chapters were the most engrossing to me. I love Hope's poetry, but the book went downhill a little when she started at the private school. There was a lot of peer pressure, which ended badly and she became a pariah. Then she meets this random guy online who just sends her an email and SHE DOESN'T QUESTION IT. Then she "falls in love" with him and STILL HASN'T MET HIM. Ugh. That was the bad part of the story. And yeah, there is a spoiler about the mysterious online boyfriend that I saw coming a mile away. I'm pretty sure everyone did. 

So the only real issues I had was with Hope's POV, which unfortunately was a good chunk of the book. This was still a very emotional and powerful story about drug addiction. I do recommend it.

Buy/Borrow/Skip: Borrow this one.