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A review by bookedinsideout
The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang
3.0
This sat frozen on my holds list for quite awhile because I wasn’t sure if it was for me after it changed from being “Quan’s book” to something much more serious. Thinking of it as general fiction rather than a romance made a big difference in my reading experience, and I ended up ultimately happy I gave it a chance.
The relationship was just one part of it, but I appreciate seeing people struggling with things we don’t always see in romance. The hero was beginning a sexual relationship for the first time after having a testicle removed, and the heroine was given the time and space to discover her pleasure on her own terms and with the recognition that there might be times when sex is not so regular.
Same with the other things that came up in the book — feelings of family responsibility, the guilt that can come with caregiving burnout, learning to assert yourself when people don’t treat you well or respect your boundaries, ableism and not respecting a neurodivergent diagnosis — even though I think it’s valuable to see and talk about, there was a lot of heavy in this book. I can believe that these things could all come together resulting in an emotional hurricane of emotions, but it’s hard to read all in one book.
So, in conclusion: 1) happy I read it; 2) I wish maybe it was split up into three different books.
The relationship was just one part of it, but I appreciate seeing people struggling with things we don’t always see in romance. The hero was beginning a sexual relationship for the first time after having a testicle removed, and the heroine was given the time and space to discover her pleasure on her own terms and with the recognition that there might be times when sex is not so regular.
Same with the other things that came up in the book — feelings of family responsibility, the guilt that can come with caregiving burnout, learning to assert yourself when people don’t treat you well or respect your boundaries, ableism and not respecting a neurodivergent diagnosis — even though I think it’s valuable to see and talk about, there was a lot of heavy in this book. I can believe that these things could all come together resulting in an emotional hurricane of emotions, but it’s hard to read all in one book.
So, in conclusion: 1) happy I read it; 2) I wish maybe it was split up into three different books.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Death of parent