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.
Kindle Edition, 384 pages
Published
October 3rd 2017
by Atria Books
Genre: Contemporary
Kristine's Thoughts:
I an a huge fan of Colleen Hoover and I've adored all of her books until now. Unfortunately this one was not quite as good as any of her other books, it wasn't even close. You have no idea how much it pains me to say that but I have to be honest.
One of the things that I like best about Hoover's writing is her ability to make the reader really feel the emotions of the characters that she writes. Her books have literally gutted me in the past. That is what was really missing in Without Merit. I couldn't really feel anything good or bad. None of the characters were likeable and although some might argue that there was a reason for that, it didn't make reading about them any easier. I have read plenty of books with unlikeable characters and could still appreciate the value of the story but I found it lacking in this one.
Part of the problem was that there were many deep and somewhat dark issues in this book. Too many if truth be told. It was so busy that it actually distracted from the story and painted an unrealistic picture. I wasn't able to connect with any of the characters nor was there a desire (on my part) for anything to come of the romantic aspect. Sagan was too robotic, too squeaky clean and there were too many unexplained and unsolved parts of his story. Perhaps I missed it but why exactly was he living in the Dollar Voss? Other parts of the story were glazed over, swept under the rug and not fully dealt with.
I truly believe that Colleen Hoover has the ability to take on deeper, darker issues as we have seen it with It Ends With Us however this one wasn't it.
About the Author
Colleen Hoover is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Slammed,
Point of Retreat, This Girl, Hopeless, Losing Hope, Finding Cinderella,
Maybe Someday, Ugly Love, Maybe Not, Confess, November 9 and It Ends With US. She lives in Texas with her husband and their three boys.
Connect with Colleen
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