A review by theespressoedition
The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

challenging emotional inspiring medium-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

5.0

When I found out that Helen Hoang was adding another novel to The Kiss Quotient series, I was so excited. I honestly didn't think anything could compete with my love for The Bride Test, but this book completely blew me away.

One of the things that I find incredibly impressive is when an author can flawlessly mesh really heavy, challenging topics with humor and romance. That is a skill that I don't see very often if I'm perfectly honest, which is why so many of the romantic comedies I read are rated with only three stars. They're fine, they're cute, but they're not great.

Helen's writing is great.

Let's start with the main character. She's struggling with her music after going viral, which is something that feels very relatable. Living up to the standard that has been set for you can seem so daunting, so my heart immediately went out to Anna before even knowing much else about her.

Like most of the other books by Helen, there is autism representation and it is incredibly written. While her other books focus on individuals who already know about their diagnosis or happen to meet someone who is on the spectrum, Anna discovers that she is autistic mid-book. It's a different approach and it wrecked me. The way her family treats her, the way she wants to treat herself but doesn't really know how, and of course the way Quan treats her - it crashed down on me like a true wave of emotions.

In the midst of all of this, something truly traumatic happens in Anna's life. In order to touch on this, I'm going to add a spoiler warning because I feel like it's important for me to mention it but I don't want to ruin anything for anyone else.
Anna's dad has a stroke. It's fatal. This was the most challenging aspect of the book for me because my own dad had a stroke several years ago and was in the ICU for a prolonged period of time. I related to the up-and-down feelings of coming to terms with saying goodbye only to be told that he's stable the next day since that's exactly what happened with my own dad. However, the death of Anna's dad is beyond heartbreaking because there was so much pain surrounding the way he wanted to be treated and couldn't communicate it with anyone in addition to Anna knowing and not being able to fulfill his wishes. My own dad survived, for which I will never be able to express my full gratitude, but reliving the emotions of that period of time while reading this book was incredibly challenging for me.
I'll admit that I nearly DNF'd because of the triggering content, but I knew that it would be better for me in the long run if I continued. And I'm glad I did.

There were so many moments where I wanted to scream at Anna to make a different choice. But I know that my screams mimicked the ones in her own mind. It was a really intense book to read, considering how light so much of it was.

Of course, I need to talk about the lightness and the romance aspect as well! Quan is a dream. Truly, he's an absolutely perfect book boyfriend and I loved him from the minute I "met" him on the page. His desire to meet Anna where she is because of his own "shortcomings" made him all the more wonderful. His insecurities made him feel realistic and he has his own challenges throughout the story too. I really enjoyed reading from his perspective (I love a dual POV in romance) because it gave me a better understanding of just why he was so lovable!

Gosh, I really feel like I could go on forever about this book. It was everything I hoped it would be and so much more. This is a book I'll want to pick up again and again.
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