Without Merit by Colleen Hoover
Genre: women’s fiction
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication Date: October 3, 2017
Rating: ★★★★★

Have you ever read a book at exactly the right time in your life? Almost as if the universe knew you needed a certain book to help you through a certain situation? Well, that is exactly what happened with Without Merit.

I guess I should preface this and say that CoHo is one of my favorite authors and I have loved almost all of her books, so much so that it had been hard for me to choose a favorite. That isn’t the case anymore. Without Merit has skyrocketed to the top of my favorite books list.

This book has all of the classic CoHo-isms; like realistic, flawed characters in dark places, handling situations with slight humor, lots of love and eccentric personalities. What sets this apart for me is that Coho has included a lot more diversity than past books. I also appreciate that she did this in a way that doesn’t make it feel like we have the ‘token gay guy’ but each character is developed fully and carefully. It is refreshing to see this in a genre that is typically so heavily white washed.

I cannot say enough about how perfect this book was for me. I am almost afraid to go into too much detail in case i accidentally spoil anything! If you’ve never read a Colleen Hoover book, I think this is the perfect one to start with!

5 Stars!

~Summer

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Website: http://www.withoutmeritbook.com/
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Synopsis:
Not every mistake deserves a consequence. Sometimes the only thing it deserves is forgiveness.

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.