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A review by leonalikesliterature
The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A good story, but not a good romance.
On the writing: Personally, I don’t like 1st person perspective so I didn’t like that change, but I also found that the writing in this book was more generic. The descriptions and the imagery in this book was lackluster compared to the earlier books.
My biggest frustration with THP was that readers know Quan as a sexually experienced and sex-positive person, but his romantic interest, Anna, is still a sexually repressed and clueless female partner. After reading book one and two, where both of the autistic leads were virgins, I was so bored by Anna’s shyness and sexual repression. The cover art made me imagine Anna as cool and adventurous, but she was just an anxious introvert. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I am tired of reading about cliche innocent women who need to be taught sex by experienced men and Helen Hoang has written 3 of them (Esme wasn’t a virgin, but Esme was still inexperienced in a lot of ways so she kind of counts). I wanted Quan to be with a woman who was an equal in his experience, not someone he had to guide and teach.
In general, I found Quan and Anna’s romance lacking. I liked but tolerated Anna and I loved Quan, and although I liked them together, I wish Anna had done more for Quan. Their relationship always seemed based on Quan helping Anna with her struggles and it was cemented that way for the rest of the book. Where was the love for Quan???
Overall, I did enjoy this book and I thought it was good. 3 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The ending was really sweet and I was so happy Anna reconciled with her mom at the end. I appreciated a lot of the topics discussed within this book, like the toxic family relationships and the hardship that caregivers experience. This book is not a standard romance and it’s tone is definitely different than the first two books. Although I enjoyed Helen Hoang’s books, I think her third book’s romance was repetitive and I’m okay with the series being over.
On the writing: Personally, I don’t like 1st person perspective so I didn’t like that change, but I also found that the writing in this book was more generic. The descriptions and the imagery in this book was lackluster compared to the earlier books.
My biggest frustration with THP was that readers know Quan as a sexually experienced and sex-positive person, but his romantic interest, Anna, is still a sexually repressed and clueless female partner. After reading book one and two, where both of the autistic leads were virgins, I was so bored by Anna’s shyness and sexual repression. The cover art made me imagine Anna as cool and adventurous, but she was just an anxious introvert. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I am tired of reading about cliche innocent women who need to be taught sex by experienced men and Helen Hoang has written 3 of them (Esme wasn’t a virgin, but Esme was still inexperienced in a lot of ways so she kind of counts). I wanted Quan to be with a woman who was an equal in his experience, not someone he had to guide and teach.
In general, I found Quan and Anna’s romance lacking. I liked but tolerated Anna and I loved Quan, and although I liked them together, I wish Anna had done more for Quan. Their relationship always seemed based on Quan helping Anna with her struggles and it was cemented that way for the rest of the book. Where was the love for Quan???
Overall, I did enjoy this book and I thought it was good. 3 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️ The ending was really sweet and I was so happy Anna reconciled with her mom at the end. I appreciated a lot of the topics discussed within this book, like the toxic family relationships and the hardship that caregivers experience. This book is not a standard romance and it’s tone is definitely different than the first two books. Although I enjoyed Helen Hoang’s books, I think her third book’s romance was repetitive and I’m okay with the series being over.