The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang
Genre: NA Realistic Fiction/Romance
Blurb (on back of book): A woman struggling with burnout learns to embrace the unexpected—and the man she enlists to help her—in this new New York Times bestselling romance by Helen Hoang.
When violinist Anna Sun accidentally achieves career success with a viral YouTube video, she finds herself incapacitated and burned out from her attempts to replicate that moment. And when her longtime boyfriend announces he wants an open relationship before making a final commitment, a hurt and angry Anna decides that if he wants an open relationship, then she does, too. Translation: She’s going to embark on a string of one-night stands. The more unacceptable the men, the better.
That’s where tattooed, motorcycle-riding Quan Diep comes in. Their first attempt at a one-night stand fails, as does their second, and their third, because being with Quan is more than sex—he accepts Anna on an unconditional level that she herself has just started to understand. However, when tragedy strikes Anna’s family she takes on a role that she is ill-suited for, until the burden of expectations threatens to destroy her. Anna and Quan have to fight for their chance at love, but to do that, they also have to fight for themselves.
MY OPINION: ****
I finished this book last night without meaning to. I meant to delay it until February to avoid writing 10 reviews in one day (sorry for the spam) but I accidentally got addicted and fell in love with the writing. While this one wasn't my favorite of the three, I absolutely loved it as per usual and am glad to say that this entire series was enjoyable and equally fun to read.
This book in particular, however, takes on a darker and more emotional tone than the previous books in the series do. Anna is struggling with a family who doesn't understand her, a dying father, conflicted feelings over her role as caretaker for her father who clearly no longer wants to life, and her crappy boyfriend explaining he now wants an open relationship before they settle down. Quan (my favorite!) is recovering from testicular cancer and rejoining the dating scene after the loss of what many men consider their "manhood."
The premise of this book is very different from the previous ones. We still have autistic and Asian representation, which I loved, but the plots are extremely unique which I actually really liked (as I said before, many rom-com series tend to all start to sound the same). We also get to see the inner turmoil of dealing with a person who is suffering and the horrible decision of whether or not to let them peacefully move on into the next life or almost selfishly save their lives. I think that especially in Asian cultures and other strongly religious or spiritualistic cultures, the thought of "pulling the plug" is unmentionable and it can cause a lot of strain on families, as seen in this book.
Anna was not my favorite character. I hate to say it but out of the three female protagonists we got to meet in this series, she was at the bottom of my list of favorites. Her lack of backbone and people-pleasing personality was so frustrating to me. I definitely understand where she's coming from, being the youngest and mentally different from the rest of her family but at times, I wanted to scream from her inability to say no to people. I am not judging her at all but I just found her very frustrating as a character. I do have to say, the entire concept of masking was very very interesting to me. Anna is diagnosed with high-functioning autism very late in life in comparison to other people and that added another layer to her character that made her very interesting to read about. While I did not personally like her, I could definitely empathize with everything she was going through.
Quan. I love him. I've loved him since we met him back in book one and I was so excited to get to read his very own book. While I was not at all expecting the direction of his story that the author took us in, I think it added a new layer to his character that we haven't yet been introduced to. Rather than being a bold, almost arrogant badass, he has a vulnerable side that we get to see for the first time in this book.
I think Anna and Quan were very cute. Yes, they had a lot of ups and downs and at times I was questioning if I really liked them together. However, I loved their dynamic, their flirtations, their relationship. I thought they were very humorous at times (the octopi!) and were very caring to each other despite the many issues in their lives. I also liked how this book focused on the development of their relationship when both of them believed they weren't in the right space for a commitment.
Julian. I hated this man with my whole soul. How dare he request an open relationship to "see what's out there" before ultimately "settling down" to marry Anna? I've never heard anything so despicable in my whole life. And the audacity of him to say that she would never find someone else?? I despised him with my every being. He didn't have a good bone in his body and I hated how he treated his girlfriend like she was a pushover who he could just control like a puppet.
Anna's music was an interesting way to portray her character. I'm usually not a fan of books where characters have one passion in life that seem to just be their whole character but in this book, we got to see Anna with and without music. I liked how we got to know her outside of the talented violinist she is and how the music played a role in her development instead of just being her main character trait.
I have to say the Grand Canyon scene was the most random, surprising scene I've ever read. I did not expect that at all and I was really questioning what I was legit reading because I couldn't believe it was real. Quan's experience with his company with Michael and the ignoring of his importance to the company was sad to read about and I could only imagine how he felt when being told he was not good enough.
I read the author's note at the end and learned that this is her most personal book to date. Her mother suffered a similar fate like Anna's dad and I can't even imagine how horrible that must have been. I think that because it was based on real life, it was very accurately portrayed in the book. I really got to see the differing perspectives on the issue, the guilt and selfishness, the pain, and everything in between.
I loved this book. I would recommend it to readers looking for a beautifully-written, emotional story. It's less focused on the romance aspect and more on character development, which I loved.
Main Character: Anna, Quan
Sidekick(s): Family, friends, etc
Villain(s): Misunderstandings, masking, cruel society, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book is all very real to life.
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