Review on: A Hopeless Romantic by Harriet Evans
Rating: 3.5/5
The story of A Hopeless Romantic begins with the introduction of the main character of this story, Laura, a hopeless romantic. Laura is shown as the epitome of a hopeless romantic, always finding herself very much in love with whomever she is currently in a relationship in, or whomever she has her sights on. She is a firm believer of there being someone out there for her, to the extent that she over-exerts herself in her relationships, sometimes to a point where she is taken advantage of and forgets reality. Her streak of “the one” men takes a turn for the worse when she finds herself in a secret relationship with her best friend’s husband’s best man, who also happens to be the boyfriend of a classmate of hers from high school. Not only does she throw herself into the secret relationship, but she unwittingly begins to abandon her work, her friends and her family in exchange for time with her pseudo-boyfriend.
And then, it ends. Badly. Laura finds herself lost and confused and sees no hope for the future until she one day decides to throw away her hopeless romantic self (including all her romance novels and movies) to start anew. She goes on a trip with her family and unwittingly finds herself entranced by a man she meets on a huge regency-type estate. When she finds herself falling for him and falling back into her old habit, Laura runs back home and into her new turn-over-a-new-life only to find that this time, love finds her.
The thing I personally found interesting in the book is how much, up to a certain extent, I found myself relating to Laura. Her story, her situations, her experiences, her feelings, these are things that any hopeless romantic would feel at some point in their life. The title does justice to the book. It is a story about a hopeless romantic who finds herself hopelessly in love with the wrong men, and when she stops to face reality, she finds that the right man has found her – like a Prince Charming that finds his princess.
Blunt. That’s what most of the story addresses. The blunt truth. This is not a novel for some teenager to read in the hopes of finding some glimmer of hope for love. The story is a realization that not all stories have happy endings, and not all men (who we think are “the one”) are really meant for us. Before the story gives way to a happy ending, it first shows the hard truth about love. Laura’s failed relationships, her interactions with her friends and family are anything but just nice. They are honest, simple and real.
If anything, this book showcases more of the bad things one can encounter in a relationship, owing to the fact that most of the story concentrates on Laura’s bad relationship with her pseudo-boyfriend and shows us the bad decisions she had made in her relationship.
Definitely not a read for those who are below 16 or 17, I think. Even the language used in the story can be a little rough. The situations are real, a bit exaggerated, but they reveal a side to life that some love stories don’t portray in their books. An interesting read though you have to get through the somewhat tedious and long-winded first couple of chapters before you actually get to the lighter and much more optimistic parts of the story.
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