A review by jazmin
The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

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

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