Reviews

Hopeless by Elsie Silver

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lilywhite0789's review against another edition

2.0

I’ve been looking forward to Beau’s story since we met him in Reckless and he was fucking with Rhett by sending him every milk based drink at the bar. Coincidentally, that is also where we meet Bailey for the first time too, and oh how different both characters end up being by Hopeless.

The goofy, happy-go-Lucky, shit stirrer that was Beau was apparently all a façade. Yes, I recognize that he has been through a trauma being in the military and has PTSD and that would change any person, but he straight up says at one point that he’s been lying to his family for years, masking his true self. I’m not sure if this is what Elsie originally planned for his character or if it just kind of developed this way over the course of 4 other books, but it just didn’t work for me. It now has me looking back at least the first two books at Beau’s character before the trauma, and now all I feel is deceived. It’s tainted, now knowing he was faking his personality even then. I feel like this book would’ve worked just fine contributing his change to PTSD, working through how to manage that trauma and now just wanting something different for himself. It didn’t need this added layer of “I’ve always been faking it.” Because now we come into his book and we don’t know him at all. This character that we’ve known for four books, that we’ve cared about and thought we knew doesn’t exist and has never existed.

Then there’s Bailey. She’s portrayed as the town outcast because of her family are a bunch of drug addicted low level criminals that cause trouble looking for their next fix. But she's never done anything wrong personally and the way the town's people shun her is fucked up honestly. She was obviously nothing like her family, but she was judged and seen as guilty by association. Based on the timeline, Bailey is probably 18 years old in Reckless, when she first started working at the bar. This was when she was still very quiet and nervous and shy. I think she was sprinkled throughout the other books every now and then whenever the characters went to the Railspur, but I don’t really remember her.

So now it’s 4 years since Reckless. I liked Bailey at first. She was sassy, kind of funny, bold and had a backbone. She wasn’t going to let a drunken Beau intimidate her because she’s had to depend on and stand up for herself with her family her entire life. And it started off funny when she would blurt out embarrassing random questions - was bold, funny, like she was trying to break the tension by saying the most outlandish thing she could. But then it was just cringey. She keeps asking Beau all kinds of weird 'curious' sexual questions like she's some type of fucking toddler. I guess Elsie was trying to remind us that Bailey was a virgin and inexperienced? But why? It was unnecessary.

But the cringe continued into the second half of the book. Bailey goes from “take no one’s shit” to being scared and intimidated by everyone - the girl at the shoe store who she went to high school with, the people making comments at the fair, her brothers. I don't think the author did a good job at developing her character. If anything, Elsie undeveloped Bailey, taking her character growth from strong and independent to pathetic and extremely naive.

Now these two as our couple was… rough. I couldn't connect with either of them most of the time, and honestly didn’t really care to either looking back. It started out well enough but I never felt any chemistry between Bailey and Beau, just sexual tension (mostly from Bailey’s toddler-like sexual questions). They were pretending to be engaged for the majority of the book, but the reasons why they decided to fake an engagement in the first place were lame and made no sense. It was a thin excuse and felt forced. They both liked each other at that point anyways and so it almost felt like “why aren’t you guys just dating?” At one point, I forgot what the point of the book was, like where did the plot go? Was it even there to begin with?

The romance was... um... something. Not something good, though. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it was definitely not this. Their dynamic is just… weird. They have this bizarre slow-burn with tiny hook ups that were cringey and awkward. There was this constant back and forth of ‘this is fake,’ and ’we can’t be together,’ to ‘I should stop,’ and ‘I shouldn’t have crossed that line,’ but they do over and over again. First saying they wouldn’t be having sex, then tempting each other, basically playing the childhood game of ‘Nervous’ to see who could outlast the other. There were little hook ups here and there - her first ‘2:11am’ night with him, the bathtub scene (IYKYK), walking around naked in front of each other, and skinny dipping in the river together. But then act like nothing happened because ‘it’s a fake engagement.’ It was cringey whiplash. Then all of sudden they were in love and I was like "when did that happen? did i miss something?"

The whole thing just didn’t work. Beau’s much anticipated story was overall disappointing. The story had so much potential and even the fake engagement concept could have worked, but it just was not written well. And rather than a long epilogue set much later with a lot of details about all the couples, we get a short glimpse probably mere months later at Cade and Willa’s wedding, which feels like more about that than Beau and Bailey. It felt rushed and unsatisfying, like something was missing and overall was an abrupt ending that finished off the Chestnut Springs series that left me thinking “Really?! That’s how we’re ending this.” My guess is because it continues with a spinoff series, picking up with Willa’s brother Ford - probably why the epilogue focused on his speech at Willa’s wedding. And coincidentally, that spinoff book, which I had no idea was connected, is on my TBR.

Technically, the Chestnut Spring series is a spin off, which I didn’t know at first. I suspected right from the start with Reckless, whenever Violet was brought up, but didn’t look into it until Powerless. Once Sloane and Jasper arrive at Violet’s (wherever the fuck that was), there were too many other characters in Violets friend group being brought up and discussed to not think there was more backstory there, all of which were connected to the Gold Rush Ranch series that I didn’t read. Honestly, I don’t even know if I will go back and read it. I don’t even know if I’m going to read the spin-off that’s already on my TBR. I think I need a minute away from Elsie.

aaronwarnerswife227's review against another edition

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4.0

4⭐️

And with that, I finish the chestnut springs series! I’m going to be honest, I’m not that sad because I didn’t love this series as much as other people do, but that’s okay, I still enjoyed these books

I enjoyed this, but not as much as I thought I would. It was a good read, but seeing Beau in the previous books and seeing the tropes, I definitely thought this was going to become my favorite, but I didn’t like it any more than flawless

When I saw the tropes, I was really excited but it ended up being a little different then I thought I’d be. They didn’t really get together because of the tension being built up from the fake arrangement, which was kind of what I hoped would happen. Other than that I really liked it. I loved that they both sort of “saved” each other and I really liked to see that they both found their person.

I liked the characters as well. I loved how nice and sweet beau always was, but how he could also be possessive and said what was on his mind. Bailey was equally as nice and she really didn’t deserve the treatment she got.

It was really nice to see they both got the ending they deserved after everything they went through. Really liked this as an end to the chestnut springs series.