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koopie 's review for:
*REVIEW INCLUDES SPOILERS (literally the last line of the book)*
The book was too simple, too straightforward and extremely predictable. Yet, the simplicity and to the point writing style can be forgiven to an extent because of the kind of topic being discussed. The book discusses the cycle of domestic abuse that the protagonist, Lily Blooms witnesses between her parents and then experiences firsthand with her husband. In such a case, the accessible language and cliche plot makes it easier for readers to grasp the concepts being discussed in the book. There were some core ideas that were expressed in the text such as the inner turmoil one experiences when being in an abusive relationship and why it isn't as easy as it seems to simply extricate oneself from it. The quote from the book that best sums up that intent is:
“Cycles exist because they are excruciating to break. It takes an astronomical amount of pain and courage to disrupt a familiar pattern. Sometimes it seems easier to just keep running in the same familiar circles, rather than facing the fear of jumping and possibly not landing on your feet.My mother went through it.I went through it. I'll be damned if I allow my daughter to go through it.I kiss her on the forehead and make her a promise. "It stops here. With me and you. It ends with us.”
There are several other ideas expressed in the book that I'm not interested in divulging details of. Regardless of the objective influence of the book, its still a one star for me because nothing makes up for the lack of novelty and shallow writing of the characters. The male lead, "the extremely rich and brilliant neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid!" has a soft spot for the female lead because!!! *drumroll*.......... he's horny!! and the female lead Lily Blooms (yes she owns a flower shop) totally digs that becauseeeeeeee, she's kinky!! It's not even like Colleen was objectively incapable of making them like one another on a deeper level because the second male lead, Atlas had more depth and was better written than the down bad neurosurgeon. Furthermore, as someone who doesn't usually read this genre of books, I assumed I spent my money for all 376 pages of the book but had to skip about every few chapters because of the off putting nature and randomness of the smut. It's not an entirely objective complaint but just a reminder that if ur not into that kind of stuff then u might also end up wondering why u spent so much money on smutty fan fiction (this gives fanfic a bad name tbf. I'm gonna make my money's worth by annotating the book with Ryle hate and putting an index tab on every page he behaved like a red flag). My other complaint is about how misleading the first paragraph of the book is. The first few lines were almost entirely disconnected from the main purpose of the book. I even ended up questioning when those few lines would eventually make sense.
In conclusion, based on just this book alone, I understand why people would show discontent towards Colleen Hoover's writing. Personally, I'm not a fan of her work but I can also see why people would enjoy her writing. There is no reason to hate on the book or the readers but rather reason to discuss the book and why the audience reacts a certain way to it. Her writing can be problematic but if people are going to complain about CoHo books then they might as well be original about it and read it before they form an opinion.