Finding Cinderella

First things first, I have not read Colleen Hoover's Hopeless or Losing Hope, so I feel like I started off at a bit of a disadvantage, not really knowing anything about these characters. But that's okay, because this book, while it does technically come after Losing Hope, can also be read as a standalone.

I've been in a bit of a reading funk lately. The last few books I've read haven't wowed me, and the book I'm reading right now only occasionally holds my attention. I wasn't overtly looking for something new, but when Finding Cinderella popped up as a recommended book, and it was free, and it was only 90 pages, it sounded like a perfect remedy. I thought I was getting something cute and kind of fluffy, but of course I was show more mistaken.

Daniel and Six, on their own, are perfectly likable characters. Together, they're very cute. They're perfect for each other. I could even handle the whole instalove situation. I was with them up until the big revelation, the bombshell, the plot twist, that the whole "Italian boy" thing was actually HER HAVING DANIEL'S KID?! Like, what? I'm sorry, but that came out of NOWHERE and it was just brushed off like it was no big deal.

All in all, Finding Cinderella is a quick, easy read that Hoover's fans will probably enjoy more than I did. show less

'Every time I kiss her, the feeling I get is like nothing I've ever experienced. The closest I've ever come to feeling this way is the day I was pretending to be in love with the girl in the closet. But even that day, the day I thought would surpass every day after it, doesn't come close to this.'

Plot

A chance encounter in a dark closet leads Daniel and the girl who stumbles across him to declare their love for each other. This love comes with it's conditions however; it will only last for one hour and it will only be make-believe.

After the hour is up and the girl vanishes like Cinderella, Daniel tries to convince himself that the hour between them only seemed perfect because they were pretending, and tries to forget about the girl in show more the closet.

A year later, and coming out of a bad relationship, Daniel meets Six, and his doubts about insta-love are instantly forgotten. Six is a girl with a strange name, and an even stranger personality. Daniel soon finds himself falling for everything about her, and realises that the feelings he pretended to feel for his Cinderella in the closest, are no different from the feelings he has for Six.

Daniel soon discovers that his two loves of his life are the same person, but finding Cinderalla doesn't guarantee his happiness.

My thoughts

This novella is a companion to the Hopeless series, but can also be read as a standalone. We're first introduced to Daniel in Losing Hope, as he is the best friend of the protagonist, Dean Holder. In Losing Hope, Daniel mentions his encounter with the girl in the closet, but it's not elaborated on until this novella, so it was set up nicely ready for this book.

I loved how everything just fit together in this book. It all lined up perfectly with the events in Hopeless and Losing Hope, and it was easy to connect everything together. We first meet Six in Hopeless, as she's Sky's best friend, but it's not long before Six goes away to Italy, and we have no idea of what happens to her while she's there. All becomes clear in this book, as Daniel and Six open up to each other and discover that they've been through more than they knew.

The relationship between Daniel and Six is lovely. I already knew that Daniel's Cinderella in the closet and Six were the same person, so I enjoyed waiting for the characters to discover it for themselves. Six is everything that Daniel is looking for, especially after his disastrous on-off relationship with Val. Six is the opposite of Val, and this draws Daniel to her even more.

When Daniel and Six discovered the truth about the encounter in the closet, I wasn't expecting the reaction at all, and this made this book really interesting for me, as it wasn't all spelled out from the start. This shock really gave this novella something special, and I highly recommend it for fans of Hopeless and Losing Hope, or fans of Romance that haven't read the Hopeless series yet. show less

Stop whatever you are reading or doing right now, and go get this book. I implore you! You want to read it, no, you NEED to read it. I am having a hard time forming my many thoughts into words to convey just how FANTASTIC this book was! The emotions that she conveys in so little pages are nothing short of brilliant. I know I shouldn’t expect anything less from Colleen, but every time I read her newest book and I think it can’t get better than this……it does. I actually feel bad for the books I read next, because the bar has been raised HIGH!

Her laugh is intoxicating and I try to think of how I can get her to do it again.

So a few months ago after I devoured Losing Hope, I immediately went to my Facebook book group and raved that show more she should do a book for Daniel and Six. Even though they had little interaction (that we knew of) in Hopeless and Losing Hope, I could envision that she had a story to tell for them. They literally jumped off the page, and to love someone more than Sky and Holder is a tall feat to accomplish. I read this book, and left thinking, Sky and Holder who??

“I’m sorry about your broken heart,” she whispers loudly. She ducks back into her bedroom and the window closes.
What broken heart? I’m pretty sure this is the first time my heart has actually felt any form of relief since the moment I started dating Val.

We begin the story in a maintenance closet, with two people looking for love in all the wrong places. Two people lost in the world, trying to find themselves, yet not knowing which way to turn. Flash forward one year and they meet again. I won’t give away any more story line details, because trust me when I say that this tale needs to be experienced firsthand. Each page was PACKED with snarky quips, heartbreaking angst, devastating honesty, friendship, trust, and that was just the prologue!

Our mouths meld together like they used to be in love and they’re just now seeing each other for the first time in years.

I actually tried to read this book slower than normal, which for me was still pretty fast, because I DID NOT want it to end! I could have easily, and happily, read another thousand pages of Daniel and Six. The banter between him and his parents cracked me up, and I loved that they were that honest and real with their kids. Towards the end, I FELT those emotions to my core! The rocked me on my tail, taking me to depths I didn’t know a book could deliver, and it is going to take a while to dig back out. Even though their story was short, I feel like it packed in everything little thing it could, all over a short time span. There aren’t enough positive adjectives to describe how much I love this book. 1000 star rating from me!!! show less

I've been waiting on Finding Cinderella for a while now. I loved Hopeless and really enjoyed Losing Hope so I couldn't wait to delve back into this world and see my old friends again. First of all I just want to say how amazing this novella is. Smaller stories are always so much harder to write well. Sometimes there's just not enough pages or enough going on for readers to connect with the characters like they can in a full length novel. Obviously that is not the case here, not only was I able to connect with Six and Daniel I was also very surprised that I was so invested in their story that I no longer cared that the story wasn't about Sky and Holder. Six and Daniel were just so engaging but of course Sky and Holder both make show more appearances which was just icing on the cake which already had really good icing.

During Hopeless I never really gave it much thought when Daniel was talking to Holder about the girl he met in the close at school. It just never really registered with me until this story. Daniel was seeing that crazy mean girl (Was it Vicky? I'm not sure) and I never even suspected that the girl that he was with could have been Six but it makes so much sense. Daniel had so much more depth to him in Finding Cinderella than he did in Hopeless. With him being one of the two main characters you really get a good idea of who he truly is on the inside and he was so perfect for Six. Six is literally looking for the exact same thing that Daniel has always been looking for and when they met in a dark closet and pretended to be in love it was so very sweet and even more so when they met each other again and fell in love for real. Of course there's a bit of sadness too but just like with Hopeless Colleen Hoover handles it so well that it makes you care for both characters even more. There's nothing cliché about Six or Daniel, they're not your stereotypical teenagers and this isn't your stereotypical romance, they're not perfect which is why they're so very perfect for each other. I loved both of their sense of humor, I enjoyed Daniels parents quite a bit and also really liked how much Six hand changed. There's just so much going on in such a small book. It never really felt like a Novella to me, more like a quick novel : ) By the end of the novella I cared for them both just as much as I did Sky and Holder and it was so nice seeing where Sky and Holder are at now and how they are doing.

I think I have to agree with Colleen Hoover about her publishers telling her she was nuts for giving this one away for free because I definitely would have paid for this book although I'm glad she did release it for free. It was a very fun and nice present to all of her fans and I for one really appreciate it. I haven't read all of her books yet which is something I plan to remedy soon. She's just such a great writer and she knows how to pull your emotions in twenty different directions. Her romance scenes are SUPER romantic: remember Holder and Sky's first non-kiss kiss? Her sad scenes require a bucket for all the tears: the revelation at the end of Hopeless and her fun scenes will have you smiling and laughing out loud like when Daniel and Six make their big escape from Six's house that first time. All in all pretty much a perfect Novella that stands on it's own just fine. I originally wanted to read it because I was hoping for more Sky and Holder but came away appreciating it for what it was: Daniel and Six's story. Do yourself a favor and grab this awesome gift from Colleen Hoover, you'll be glad that you did! show less

In the same vein as "Hopeless", Colleen Hoover takes us once again along the road to redemption and offers us hope. "Finding Cinderella" is a novella in the same world as the aforementioned novel, and while it is shorter, it possesses the same quality and natural, gritty beauty you can expect from this phenomenal author. Hoover has a true gift for young and new adult romances, and each of her stories are markedly different in the best of ways. "Finding Cinderella" is told from the refreshing, crass and irreverent point of view of Daniel, a teen with a penchant for nicknames. His quest is to find his long lost Cinderella and, of course, he has to give up before he can truly find her. While I had a clear picture of where this novella was show more headed, I was pleasantly and shockingly surprised by the turn of events. Furthermore, it solidified my opinion of Colleen Hoover having the freshest voice of her genre. show less

This short novella of Six and Daniel provides us with an adorable, funny story. Colleen Hoover definitely doesn't leave out the drama though! I was not expecting the plot twist! But I really liked it because it was so unexpected.

I think I enjoyed Daniel and Six's story more than Holder and Sky's, and that is saying a lot!

Colleen Hoover has a way with words, that is for sure. I adored Daniel. He made me laugh and swoon all at the same time.

This novella left me wanting more! I want to learn more about both of the main characters. Who knew that you could pretend to be in love with someone just for 50 minutes and end up really losing a piece of your heart to them without ever knowing who that person is, without knowing what they look like.

I love that in that moment it didn't matter what the other person may have looked like. It was about feeling. A connection not based on physical attraction, but the attraction of the mind and personality.

I like how we saw a show more softer side to Six. I love her humor just as much as I loved Daniel's.

I am so glad Colleen Hoover wrote this novella. BTW it is FREE guys, but I would of paid for it. It would of been worth it. Now I just want more, even though everything ended great I still want more of these two! show less