DNF - Did not finish. I did not connect with the writing style or plot and will not be finishing this title. Thank you, NetGalley and Publisher for the early copy!

Good concept but I couldn't get swept away in the story. I didn't care for the characters. Events felt disjointed. I'm not sure if it was the story or the writing style, this one just wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and BQB Publishing for providing a free eARC in exchange for an honest review *This in no way changed my opinion of the book*

A character overcoming a nation crumbling under deadly disease and coming to realize how important human connection is. That seems incredibly topical for the times we find ourselves currently in. Throw in escape from a detective and a mysterious pendant, and you have the makings of what could have been a great YA title. Unfortunately, this felt very disjointed to me, making it a mediocre YA title at best.

Lareina is given a mysterious necklace from a dying woman and is told to protect it with her life from a detective or something bad will happen. Along the way, she meets Nick and Aaron, who become her travel buddies. They get themselves in and out of situations on their long journey to Nebraska.

First off, let's start with the pendant. I kept waiting for an explanation. What is the pendant? Why do the detective and the people he's working for want it? What happens if it falls into the wrong hands? What happens if they both fall into the wrong hands? (Yup, there's two!) None of this is ever explained other than "it will be bad". I don't even know what they are other than a triangle shaped necklace. That's not a great place for the reader to be after finishing your book. The stakes could have felt higher, but they didn't, because for all you know, they're fighting over worthless plastic.

Lareina is an okay protagonist. She's a rough and tumble orphan, used to living on the streets and not trusting others, but longing for a family of her own. She meets Nick and Aaron and she starts to care about them. This isn't a new idea, but the friendship aspects were well done and build as they encounter multiple obstacles together, like gathering food, finding shelter, and escaping Detective Galloway. Aaron wants to be a doctor and is my favorite of the characters. He's very pleasant and happy-go-lucky. Nick, on the other hand, is a different story.

Nick Ziel is the worst, most selfish, self-righteous, hypocritical character I've had the displeasure of reading about in a long time. Lareina meets him when he falls into a hole, hurts himself and is trapped. She helps him and he proceeds to spend the rest of the book being a holier-than-thou jerk, constantly judging her for breaking into ABANDONED houses instead of freezing outside and for stealing ABANDONED food from said houses to survive. But he has no problem eating it when it's offered to him or "forcing" himself to live in these houses, as well. So he's doing the same thing, but judging Lareina and Aaron for it. He gets all bent out of shape about honesty, even when honesty at the moment will get him or his friends killed. And he does NOTHING! His main motivation is trying to find his friend, Ava, and he can't get the information to find her without Lareina's help. He can't get food on his own. He falls into traps on his own. Where he gets off with this attitude is beyond me, but he would have been dumped a long time ago, were I her.

My last big issue with this book is that the pacing starts off great and then grinds to a complete halt when the characters come across Oak Creek, a militarized development where people aren't given the choice to leave once they're there. Prior to this, any situation they get themselves into is done within a few chapters, which lends to the idea that they're running constantly. They reach Oak Creek in Chapter 16 and don't leave until Chapter 30. That's almost 1/3 of the book spent in this ONE place that ultimately adds very little to the story. Oak Creek itself seems kind of like an above ground ripoff of District 13. It's there to be a temptation for the characters in that it offers stability, but without freedoms. It was a challenge to get through this part of the book. I kept waiting for it to get back to the plot with the pendant.

Overall, this read like the Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken. It's essentially the same story: girl with mysterious power she doesn't understand finds friends and goes on a road trip to nowhere. If you really enjoyed the Darkest Minds, then you'd probably really like this. I wasn't in that camp, and so it was just okay for me. I didn't hate every part. Like I said, I enjoyed Lareina and Aaron. I can't get too much into the rest of the book without delving very deep into spoiler territory and I don't want to spoil anyone more than I already have. If you like that kind of sci-fi book, then I would recommend you try it. But if you don't, I would maybe skip it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

This was a good read. The premise was good and it moved along at a great pace. I liked that the overall theme was in learning about how important it is to feel connected to others.

Hope for the Best was actually better than I expected it to be. I don’t connect well with third person, but this was written well enough that the sentences flowed and I didn’t get confused with who was talking. Lareina was a likeable and tough character; she hasn’t had the easiest life and knows what she has to do to remain alive. Aaron was amazing from start to finish; he was calm, intelligent, and compassionate with everything they endured. I didn’t like Nick because of his mindset and also because the hot and cold games between him and Lareina were tiresome. Nick didn’t agree with Lareina stealing and lying in order to keep them alive and regularly picked fights with her about it. They would make up just for the cycle to quickly repeat. I was hoping he would change by the end of the book, but his character never grew.

I’m not sure if this is a standalone or a series/duology because it somewhat ends on a cliffhanger. Not to spoil anything, but the reader never gets the answers to important questions which inclines me to believe there will be another.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC.

Three stars

The description of this book spoke to me: young adult woman identifying character used to going rogue and surviving on her own outwits a nefarious character and makes friends after a period of lengthy isolation. Sounds promising! And some of these elements - particularly Lareina's free spirit and distrust of others - work.

From this read, I wanted some element of surprise, a faster pace, and a clear resolution to the central mystery surrounding the pendant. To touch on each of these points briefly, this is too predictable for a YA novel; readers can guess almost all elements of the plot very early on. What makes this variation different and/or memorable? Next, the characters' lives move so slowly and change very little in the context of this genre. There's a lot of walking, sitting, thinking about the weather...I'd have loved to see more character development and excitement in the plot, less description, and maybe 100 fewer pages. Finally, I found the ending incredibly unsatisfying. One element of the pendant issue gets resolved in a way that I found WAY too easy and potentially lazy. Another element of the pendant issue goes fully unresolved, and this drove me crazy. Please don't let me read hundreds of pages only to be left with important questions about a central concern. These points, and the extremely convenient coincidences, weakened my enthusiasm overall.

Lafleur uses a reader-friendly style and includes some intriguing ideas here, but I found this too expected in most ways and lacking in the ending.