Title: The Boy Who Has No Hope
Author:  Victoria Quinn
Publisher/Year:  Victoria Quinn 10/6/20
Length:  197 Pages
Series: Soulless #6

Overview

I have a secret that I’ve never told Derek, simply because it’s something I never share with anyone. He has his secrets, I have mine.

But when a late night takes an unexpected turn, I realize the truth will have to come out.

Until he figures it out on his own…and that makes it a million times worse.

My Thoughts

Oh how I love this series – seeing what we had in the first several books and now getting to know Derek even more. There’s so much depth to him since we know that he’s got the brains of his father and the compassion of his mother. He’s now also got Emerson who’s able to show him the lighter side of things, and hopefully break through his walls.

Trust. that’s what this story takes a big focus on, and in gaining that trust, Emerson’s able to gain access to the heart and soul of Derek. At the same time, Derek’s able to truly begin to enjoy things that he’s accomplished and become the man that he was destined to be. Throughout this sixth installment, we watch the evolution from boss/employee to friends and perhaps to something more.

We have always known that there was an attraction between these two even if they didn’t truly even admit it to themselves. We watched how their friendship becomes integral to who they are and necessary in order to survive. They bring out the best in each other, and at times when Derek takes that for granted, or when Emerson pushes too hard, we see what that means and how it shapes their relationship.

Derek has this fear and refusal of all media/press/interviews because he’s too traumatized by the failure of the rocket explosion all those years ago and he carries the guilt. Even though it wasn’t his fault and even though he tried everything in his power to keep the launch from happening, he still carries that on his soul, and it’s Emerson who forces Derek to address it, to see a therapist and to even do a TED talk, and we see that it has such a positive impact on Derek that we can only hope for better things.

If you’ll remember, the one thing that brought these two together initially was the book that Derek was due to write. Well, we have seen so much progress up until now, watching Emerson redirect his mind so that he could focus on the story that it’s no surprise that he was able to finish the story in just a matter of months. What comes of their relationship from here is anyone’s guess knowing that there was a foundation with this necessary goal in mind.

There’s also the underlying story from Emerson’s side that we start to see play out which is teased in the summary above. We know that she takes care of her parents – and we know that part of the reason that she took the job in the first place working for Derek was the money that she could make – knowing that it would help afford surgery for her father, and a separate apartment for her parents to live in so she could have space. What we didn’t know is that part of the need for space was because Emerson has a daughter. YUP – a daughter.

You can imagine the shock that comes to readers on this since we didn’t have any hint of that at all, but knowing that there’s something growing between her and Derek, and knowing that he’s opposed to children, there’s nothing good that will come of this. When we see them make progress as somethign more, and then he learns of her daughter – well, the story drops out from under us.

We can only hope for the best and hope that Derek and Emerson can have what Cleo and Deacon have, but we also know that there’s so much against them. Not only is there the notion of the daughter, we also can’t forget that Derek is still not over what happened with his ex-fiance and that continues to come up again and again. We even see it in the last chapter when Derek’s best friend tells him that he’s getting married, and that his ex and the man she cheated on him with will be at the wedding. There’s bound to be confrontation, heart break, soul wrenching experiences and hopefully a bit of passion to take us through to the next installment. I can’t wait. Enjoy!