Reviews with content warning for Car accident - All Your Perfects

This is not the first book from Colleen Hoover that I’ve read. I will admit, at first when I started reading the book, I had little sympathy for what she was going through (assuming all the options for what she wanted were available to her). But as soon as I saw how challenging it was, despite all of their efforts - my perspective completely changed. This book brought tears to my eyes so many times. I got so angry when I found out what happens through the window. That’s how you know the book is good - when you feel it in your bones. I didn’t have high expectations of this book, but it is easily one of my favorites now because of how faithfully it conveys marriage and it’s challenges - including all category 5 hurricanes.

Some of my favorite quote from the book include:

“It’s funny how you can be so happy with someone and love them so much, it created an underlying sense of fear in you that you never knew before them. The fear of losing them. The fear of them getting hurt”. (p. 192)

“The capacity of that love is meaningless if it outweighs your capacity to forgive”. (p. 197)

“Our marriage hasn’t been perfect. No marriage is perfect. There were times when she gave up on us. There were even more times I gave up on us. The secret to our longevity is that we never gave up at the same time”. (p. 200)

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meeklovestoread's review

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I'm not going to lie the first half of this book I didn't really gravitate towards. It wasn't bad or anything. It was an easy read. It's just in the first half it felt like there was more sex than substance. It wasn't until I got to the second half (page 153ish maybe). It was the chapter where

Graham cheats on Quinn is when I got invested. And for me it just got better from there.

That's when I started to see more substance in their relationship that was contained from both the "then" and "now" perspectives. Their was relationship was finally showing some depth to me and I could see why they feel in love with one another. But what really sold me was

the letters that Graham had written to Quinn. All this time I wanted to here Graham's perspective in all this and I'm so happy I got to have it.

The ending was very satisfying to me and I feel like it tied the story up nicely. Now I still really can't get passed the stuff in the first half. Graham was a little iffy for me and I felt like he was coming on too strong. And I didn't think Quinn was all there either. I didn't really feel her love for Graham. Personally I'm not one for smut/spice and that was basically what the first half of the book consists of. Even though I couldn't be passed some of the weird stuff that happened in the beginning

they had sex with an expired condom. Like come on, how horny can you be?!

I did think this book was a nice read. If this whole book was like the second half it might've been a 5 star read for me.

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pippamillerxoxo_'s review

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dark emotional funny hopeful sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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ae_young's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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sydneybre's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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ginnygrde's review

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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ecravens's review

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challenging emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

abitofapoet's review against another edition

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sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was incredibly emotional. Please read trigger warnings before reading this because it does touch on some really hard topics, but it does so REALLY well in my opinion.

Something that I loved about this book, as much as it broke my heart, is how unique it is. So often a romance novel ends at “I Do.” but that’s not reality. That should be the beginning. Seeing these characters navigate their broken marriage is heart wrenching and hopeful at the same time. You’ll find yourself crying for Quinn and for Graham on one page, and wanting to scream at them on the next. Even the most perfect matches have their category 5 moments.

I found I related to Quinn a lot. More than i’ve ever related to the struggles of a book character before, which is surprising because where Quinn so desperately wants to be a mother, that is my absolute nightmare. But the strain that Quinn’s infertility puts on herself and on her relationship is akin to the strain i’ve felt in my own marriage because of a medical condition. The feelings of not being woman enough for her husband, of constantly letting him down, of their marriage being the thing that ruined his future, and of feeling the need to pull away from him and place this distance between them because of those thoughts. I found myself staring at the pages in disbelief that someone had actually put into words the thoughts that i’ve had in some of my darkest moments. And watching Graham desperately love the ghost of her, wishing he knew how to get her back broke me into pieces.

One emotional quote that really stuck with me: “My Husband’s heart is my saving grace, but his physical touch has become my enemy.”

If you’re looking for a sappy romance, i wouldn’t recommend this to you. If you’re looking for something real and beautiful and heartbreaking, absolutely pick this up.

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