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balletbookworm's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Zipped through this on audio for our romance book club at the store. I had a DRC of this but since I really didn't like The Bride Bet much, I'd backburnered it for a while.
And it's a really great story about a woman learning to be her authentic self and finding the people who will support you and believe in you throughout your journey. I loved how Anna's journey to learn about ASD and unlearning the masking behaviors that were exhausting her was so complicated, finding that label wasn't a light switch that made everything better but rather the open door she could step through. CW that if you've had to go through losing a parent to an illness that required 24/7 care, end of life discussions, quality of life discussions, etc., almost the entire back half of the book will be a tough read. I thought the author handled that remarkably well. (Julian and Priscilla can get into the bin and stay there.)
My one criticism is that I feel like we didn't get enough Quan and Quan+Anna together. The balance of the book falls very much toward Anna's side of the story. And while we get a chunk of Quan's backstory as a cancer survivor and how that impacts his current view of relationships, it didn't feel equal. Which made the development of the romance between them feel a bit undercooked and rushed at the end. We get the start of the HFN, and it's confirmed in the Epilogue, but it just didn't feel good to leave it right at the start.
The audiobook production was excellent.
And it's a really great story about a woman learning to be her authentic self and finding the people who will support you and believe in you throughout your journey. I loved how Anna's journey to learn about ASD and unlearning the masking behaviors that were exhausting her was so complicated, finding that label wasn't a light switch that made everything better but rather the open door she could step through. CW that if you've had to go through losing a parent to an illness that required 24/7 care, end of life discussions, quality of life discussions, etc., almost the entire back half of the book will be a tough read. I thought the author handled that remarkably well. (Julian and Priscilla can get into the bin and stay there.)
My one criticism is that I feel like we didn't get enough Quan and Quan+Anna together. The balance of the book falls very much toward Anna's side of the story. And while we get a chunk of Quan's backstory as a cancer survivor and how that impacts his current view of relationships, it didn't feel equal. Which made the development of the romance between them feel a bit undercooked and rushed at the end. We get the start of the HFN, and it's confirmed in the Epilogue, but it just didn't feel good to leave it right at the start.
The audiobook production was excellent.
abbiegalipeau's review against another edition
5.0
anna and quan are favorite characters in the series, and this book is definitely my favorite. everything about it was so raw and heartfelt, leaving a great book. i will also now read anything helen hoang writes.
belland's review against another edition
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Wish the book maintained focus on Quan, his struggles, and his resolution. I personally found Quan relatable and I haven't seen a character like that in a romance before. Personally, I would rather read about sexual dysfunction then communication issues
jayra's review against another edition
2.0
whoever claimed this book as a rom-com, I'll seriously give you a side-eye because this is SO NOT.
no lovey-dovey stuff, there is some smut, less quirky or silly-ness to each other.
the rest of it was painful to read. she's burnout, her boyfriend wants an open relationship (which brings her to Quan), she is not really in talking terms to her parents, her sister mocks her illness, then she became of the caretaker to her father (and burnout even more) and her bestfriend only can be there for her in messaging apps (more of them in the beginning then less to nothing of them in the end)
I really wish this book was a 100 % memoir to HH since she has mentioned that this book is more to her because I am also was taken aback that this book is labelled as a rom-com.
I'm sorry, this is my first ever book from HH and I will still try to read her other stuff in the future too.
no lovey-dovey stuff, there is some smut, less quirky or silly-ness to each other.
the rest of it was painful to read. she's burnout, her boyfriend wants an open relationship (which brings her to Quan), she is not really in talking terms to her parents, her sister mocks her illness, then she became of the caretaker to her father (and burnout even more) and her bestfriend only can be there for her in messaging apps (more of them in the beginning then less to nothing of them in the end)
I really wish this book was a 100 % memoir to HH since she has mentioned that this book is more to her because I am also was taken aback that this book is labelled as a rom-com.
I'm sorry, this is my first ever book from HH and I will still try to read her other stuff in the future too.
jazmin's review against another edition
5.0
“I do wonder if she’s acting just like I am. How much of what people say is genuine and how much is politeness? Is anyone really living their life or are we all reading lines from a giant script written by other people?”
⇢The Plot
To start off, this book felt different than the previous two in the series. In fact, I feel like as you progress through the series the books become more focused on the lives of the main characters outside of the romance, and I definitely felt that here because the relationship didn’t take the centre stage a large portion of the time. That didn’t make me like or dislike the plot more, just something to note.
I did really like the focus on family, though. (So maybe I did like the focus on other things haha) The familial aspects weren’t necessarily happy like they had been in the other books, but they were complex and real and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Anna learn to do things for herself rather than for her family.
“They’d tell me to quit indulging myself and snap out of it. Tough love is our way. Being tough on myself isn’t working now, though. I can’t try harder than I already am.”
There were also other conflicts like Anna’s relationship with her music and Quan’s business plans, and while I was surprised by how much content there was that had nothing to do with their romance, I think that worked so well for this book.
⇢The Romance
Of course, this still was a book with lots of romance, and as usual, Helen Hoang did not disappoint. She writes romance in a way that no other author does and it just works so well. If any other author wrote a relationship that was as insta-lovey as this one I don’t think I would like it. But when she does it, IT’S SO GOOD??!
⇢The Side Characters
Okay so we got a lot of Michael content, which I loved because The Kiss Quotient is still one of my favourite books ever. And that scene with Michael, Quan and Khai WAS SO GOOD. I have no idea if Helen Hoang plans to continue to write in this world but if she doesn’t I will be very sad lol
⇢The Epilogue
The only thing is… I wanted more from the epilogue considering how little felt resolved at the end. I get that most of the unanswered problems did get addressed but I was expecting the epilogue to have a bit more detail!
*4.25
. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ❦ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .
MY LINKTREE ❦
vrsmith0429's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I think out of the trilogy, this one might be my least favorite. I did enjoy it, but the open relationship and “cheating” didn’t feel right to me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
laurapoulosky's review against another edition
4.0
This is my favorite Helen Hong book so far. I liked the protagonists a lot and they felt real to me. I appreciated how the author defied stereotypes of people with autism, and also of tough-looking guys with lots of tattoos!
halfbloodapril's review against another edition
5.0
Witty, heartbreaking, honest, heartwarming, and personal. This book exceeded my expectations a thousand times. Anna was such a relatable character in her mental struggles and her evolution was portrayed in a wholly real and nonlinear way. Helen Hoang is brilliant.
lotusross's review against another edition
2.0
“Just because something isn’t perfect doesn’t mean we need to throw it away.”
This was SO boring and disappointing! I couldn't for the life of me feel anything for the romance (when it was there!). The first part of the book felt like a retelling of The Kiss Quotient where the escorting was substituted with dating app. The chemistry was lacking and the development was so nonexistent that it felt forced when they went from point A to point B. And towards the 50% mark onward, it wasn't even a romance book; the romance very much took a back-burner and there was barely anything going on between them, which felt very awkward and ridiculous when Quan dropped the L word out of the blue, I was convinced maybe there were some chapters my copy was missing? Because surely the lackluster scenes they had could not be it and did not lead to love? But alas, it wasn't that.
Also; the plot for the second part just bored me to death even more, not to mention how enraged Anna's sister made me...
ANYWAY. All in all, this was not at all what I expected and now I'm starting that maybe The Kiss Quotient was the exception, not the rule.
franrd3's review against another edition
3.0
This one was a tough one for me. On one hand, I could tell reading this that it was a very personal book for Helen Hoang. On the other, I don’t think this could be classified as a romance? Quan was very underdeveloped and I couldn’t tell what he got out of the relationship. The romance aspect was very thin and it was Anna’s dramatic story all the way through. It wasn’t for me.