Without MeritAuthor: Colleen Hoover
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: October 3, 2017
Format: eARC
Pages: 384
Source: Publisher
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.
Poignant and powerful, Without Merit explores the layers of lies that tie a family together and the power of love and truth.
What an awful book! Not really. I actually loved it. I haven’t encountered a CoHo book that I don’t like, and let’s hope I never do. There’s something about her writing that completely sucks me in and makes me feel what the characters do. That was that case with Without Merit. I was so absorbed in the story that I completely lost track of time and didn’t pay attention to the sun. So I blame Colleen for the sunburn I suffered while reading this. Thanks for the melanoma, Colleen!
Anyway, when I finished reading Without Merit, I immediately wrote down a bunch of words that related to the story so I’d remember those parts/aspects. So I’ve decided that I’m going to list those words and write a little something about each one.
♥ Characters – There are many!
• Merit – 17-year-olds are quite the species, aren’t they? 
I love & feel for this girl, and can totally relate to her in some ways at that age.
• Sagan – Love the name and the character! I really like what Colleen did with him and his story that slowly unraveled.
• Luck – #TeamLuck! I had the biggest smile because of him. An odd duck, but completely lovable. There were a couple times it started to get a little weird, but … haha … I don’t even know. It’s just funny and weird and hard to explain. He’s ultimately a great guy.
• Family – This family is definitely unconventional, with plenty of dysfunction and secrets to go around. And, oh, are they ever entertaining!
♥ Perspective – That’s what it’s all about, baby! It’s very important.
♥ Mental illness – It’s tackled in a couple ways here. It doesn’t go into serious depth about the issues, but still handled well.
♥ Trophies – Merit and her trophy collection cracked me up. How the hell does Colleen come up with this stuff?
♥ Books/Bookstore – Haha! What the heck? That was a strange, but funny scene. *wink* And I love Merit’s favorite book!
♥ Feels – It has it all. I laughed, cried, got angry, and everything in between. There are some truly touching moments.
♥ Humor – I think this falls in the dramady (drama + comedy) category. There’s serious issues and situations going on, but it’s done with lots of humor in the mix.
Honestly, Without Merit is absolutely another CoHo hit. It’s a little different than her previous work, but still an awesome read!