Series: N/A
Genre: YA - Contemporary
Publication: October 3, 2017 by Atria Books
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Rating: ★★★★★
Synopsis: 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.
Thoughts: I read this in one day. Well technically, I started it the night before, read a bit before going to be bed and woke up the next day and read the rest. I literally spent an entire day reading Without Merit and it was so worth it. Colleen Hoover is easily one of my favorite authors and I was truly surprised with this book because it was unlike her others that I have read. Without Merit is YA and I wasn't sure what to expect, but I didn't know that the focus of this one would be so much on family, I absolutely loved that. Sure, it has some romance, but we get to experience the dynamics between Merit and her family.
The characters are the best part of this book, really, because each one is so realistic and dealing with their own issues that you find you can connect with all of them as well learn to love them. It was hard to understand why everyone was the way they were, but once the secrets start to come out, it's kind of shocking (which is something CoHo always does so well) and we can't help but love these characters more.
Like so many others, I find it best to go into her books blindly because you don't really know what to expect from the synopsis. CoHo always throws a curve ball in there and when you think you know everything, BAM! You're hit with something else. This is definitely the most unique of her works that I've read, and I loved every page of it. Without Merit is odd and memorable to say the least, a little different than anything I've ever read and I definitely recommend it to everyone.
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